Despite Africa having significant reserves of metals that are key to the clean energy transition, such as cobalt, lithium and copper, the continent remains “rife with challenges of social and economic development as many people’s basic needs still remain unmet”, says mining industry organisation International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) CEO Rohitesh Dhawan.

He notes that the energy transition affords mining companies an opportunity to leverage Africa’s competitive advantages, such as its mineral wealth, a growing youth population and renewable-energy resources, which can simultaneously enable economic transformation.

The transition also presents governments with an opportunity to create conducive environments for investment and to meet their social upliftment commitments to communities.

“The first step towards building the trust to make the transformation a reality is honesty about particular instances where, historically, our industry has not upheld the highest standards of responsible mining. Governments must, in turn, do the same in terms of governance.

“We can then start to imagine and act upon our collective common goal to make Africa a global leader in mining,” says Dhawan.

He warns, however, that the energy transition could create two key challenges for Africa.

Firstly, the potential rush for critical minerals could lead to “mining at all costs”, which Dhawan says would be a “tragedy”, as people and nature can suffer irreparable harm because of irresponsible mining.

Hence, he advises that strong measures should be adopted to eliminate illegal mining, where the risk of harm is high, and to deal with the underlying factors that spur people on to get involved in illegal mining.

Secondly, he urges African governments to ensure that their citizens benefit from the exploitation of critical minerals.

“Africans are rightly demanding that if the continent’s minerals are going to power the world’s energy transition, then host citizens must see greater benefits than they have in the past.

“Frankly, there can be no just and equitable transition if exploiting these resources does not lead to meaningful change for communities and society at large,” he adds.

To create more awareness of these issues, Dhawan will deliver a keynote address at this year’s London Indaba – to be held at the Intercontinental London Park Lane hotel, in London, in the UK, from June 26 to 27 – alongside London Indaba organiser Resources 4 Africa chairperson Bernard Swanepoel.

The keynote will focus on what miners, governments and societies can do to ensure that the critical minerals opportunity leads to a resource dividend and not a “resource curse”.

As an organisation that represents about a third of the global industry, the ICMM aims to support platforms that help push the boundaries of responsible mining.

“The Joburg Indaba has always been a leader in teasing out the most pertinent and unflinching conversations in African mining, and bringing African mining to London is timely and important. The UK is a major centre for mining finance and is also the headquarters of the ICMM, so I am delighted to support this collaboration,” Dhawan concludes.