Africa’s critical minerals story is entering a more confident phase. What makes this moment exciting is not only the size of the continent’s resource base, but the fact that African countries are increasingly linking minerals to industrialisation, regional trade, value addition, skills, and long-term development. The African Union’s Africa Green Minerals Strategy, adopted in 2025, captures that shift clearly: it calls for value addition at source, regional industrialisation, job creation, and stronger integrated value chains so that mineral wealth supports African prosperity more directly.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo remains central to that momentum. Congo mined about 220,000 tonnes of cobalt in 2024, making it by far the world’s leading producer, and it has also begun taking a more active role in shaping how cobalt moves through the market by setting annual export quotas of 96,600 tonnes for 2026 and 2027. In another encouraging sign, Congo produced its first 1,000 tonnes of traceable artisanal cobalt in late 2025, a step toward a more formal, transparent, and standards-based sector. Next door in Zambia, the copper story is just as significant. The country produced 890,346 tonnes of copper in 2025 and is aiming for 3 million tonnes by 2031. Together, Congo and Zambia are strengthening the Central African Copperbelt as one of the world’s most important mineral corridors for the energy-transition era.
Tanzania is also moving into a stronger strategic position. At Kabanga, one of Africa’s most closely watched nickel projects, the feasibility study points to an 18-year mine life and intermediate production containing an estimated 902,000 tonnes of nickel, 134,000 tonnes of copper, and 69,000 tonnes of cobalt over the life of mine. At the same time, Tanzania is investing in the systems that make mineral wealth more valuable: in January 2026, it announced a partnership with South Korea’s KIGAM to establish a critical minerals technology centre valued at about TZS 40 billion, with the goal of expanding detailed mineral research coverage to 50% by 2030. This positions Tanzania not only as a resource holder, but also as a research, logistics, and value-chain hub.
Burundi’s profile is rising alongside Tanzania’s. In March 2026, Lifezone signed a 14-month exclusivity agreement over the Musongati nickel project, which it describes as Burundi’s most important nickel deposit and part of the same East African Nickel Belt that includes Kabanga. Earlier studies cited by the company define a resource of more than 140 million tonnes, underlining Musongati’s scale. Just as importantly, regional infrastructure is starting to follow the minerals. In 2025, Tanzania and Burundi signed a $2.15 billion railway agreement designed to move metals, including nickel, to the port of Dar es Salaam. That is the kind of corridor thinking that can turn isolated deposits into regional economic ecosystems.
Uganda’s position is strengthening through both policy and processing. In 2024, the country established a state-owned mining company to manage government equity in mining projects under a law that allows a 15% free-carry stake. The same year, Uganda launched its first domestic tin refining company, with Reuters reporting refining purity of 99.9%. Uganda is also becoming more important in rare earths: the Makuutu project covers about 300 square kilometres east of Kampala, and its developer says it has the potential to become a long-life mine lasting 50 years and beyond. Taken together, those developments show Uganda moving with purpose on ownership, value addition, and future-facing minerals.
Rwanda continues to stand out for value addition and traceability. The Rwanda Development Board says the country produced more than 22% of the world’s tantalum used in electronics manufacturing as of 2024, and it is already home to three mineral value-addition facilities: a gold refinery, a tantalum refinery, and a tin smelter. Rwanda also highlights 100% traceability and conflict-free certification for its minerals, alongside advanced implementation of the regional certification mechanism. That combination of production, refining, and systems credibility gives Rwanda an especially strong position in the region’s evolving critical minerals landscape.
Kenya’s role is increasingly defined by policy clarity and geological positioning. Its official 2025 Critical Mineral Catalogue identifies copper, coltan, rare earth elements, niobium, graphite, lithium, chromium, nickel, and uranium as part of the country’s critical mineral landscape. The Kenya Mining Handbook 2025 similarly emphasizes the country’s extensive mineral endowment. Kenya may still be earlier in the curve than some of its neighbours, but it is building an important platform through mapping, cataloguing, and policy framing, which matters enormously in a sector where long-term growth often begins with strong institutional groundwork.
The wider region is moving too. In Mozambique, President Daniel Chapo inaugurated a graphite processing plant in January 2026 with capacity of 200,000 metric tons per year; the facility currently employs 890 people and plans to expand to 2,000. Madagascar lifted a 16-year moratorium on most new mining permits in January 2026, reopening space for new investment across key minerals. Zimbabwe, Africa’s top lithium producer, exported 1.128 million metric tons of spodumene concentrate in 2025 and is pressing ahead with local processing, including a $400 million lithium sulphate plant and another planned $500 million sulphate facility. Namibia has already taken a clear beneficiation stance by banning exports of unprocessed lithium and other critical minerals in order to encourage more domestic processing.
What ties all of this together is direction. Africa’s mineral story is becoming less about isolated extraction and more about integrated ambition. Graphite exploration alone is increasingly concentrated in Mozambique, Madagascar, and Tanzania, which together host 35 projects, according to the African Development Bank. Across the continent, the emphasis is shifting toward corridors, processing, certification, industrial planning, and regional coordination. That is a meaningful evolution. It suggests that Africa’s critical minerals can do more than feed global industries. They can help build African industries too.
That is why this moment matters. Congo is reinforcing its influence in cobalt. Zambia is scaling copper with long-range ambition. Tanzania is linking deposits to research and logistics. Burundi is stepping into the regional nickel story. Uganda is pairing state participation with processing. Rwanda is showing the value of refining and traceability. Kenya is laying stronger policy foundations. Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Namibia are each adding their own momentum. The result is not a single-country story, but the early architecture of a broader African industrial future — one in which critical minerals are not only extracted from the continent, but increasingly used to strengthen it.
