Energy Transition Africa

A high-resolution digital image of a South African open-pit mine, showing layers of excavation and industrial equipment, representing the country’s Critical Minerals Strategy.

From Raw Deals to Real Power: Can South Africa’s Critical Minerals Strategy Deliver?

South Africa has just made a bold move. Its newly unveiled Critical Minerals Strategy signals a shift from being a raw material supplier to a regional powerhouse in mineral beneficiation…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk May 28, 2025AfricaEnergyTransition, CriticalMinerals, CriticalMineralsAfrica, GreenIndustrialisation, SADC, SouthAfrica, ValueAddition

African miners excavating lithium and cobalt in an open-pit mine, highlighting the scramble for critical minerals in the energy transition.

Community Impact Critical Minerals

Africa’s New Scramble: The High Cost of Critical Minerals Without Justice

I once stood at a dusty roadside in Kolwezi, in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s copper and cobalt belt, watching young boys haul sacks of ore barely…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk May 23, 2025AfricaMining, CriticalMinerals, EnergyTransitionAfrica, EthicalMining, GreenEnergyJustice, ResourceJustice, ValueAddition

An African miner working in a dusty open-pit mine, extracting lithium ore destined for global energy markets, highlighting the lack of local mineral processing.

Critical Minerals

We Dig, They Win: How Africa’s Raw Mineral Exports and Currency Chaos Are Undermining a Just Transition

Every day, truckloads of lithium, cobalt, and manganese leave African soil headed for China, Europe, and North America. These are the building blocks of the energy transition—used in solar panels,…

Vincent Egoro April 21, 2025AfricaTransition, CriticalMineralsAfrica, CurrencyVolatility, EnergyJustice, JustTransition, NigeriaMining, ValueAddition

Critical Minerals

Africa Can’t Afford Another Raw Deal: Why Value Addition Must Power the Green Transition

The African Development Bank (AfDB) recently sent a clear message: Africa must stop exporting raw critical minerals and start building local value chains. As someone deeply involved in the continent’s…

Vincent Egoro April 17, 2025AfDB, AfricaTransition, CriticalMineralsAfrica, GreenEconomy, JustTransition, LocalProcessing, ValueAddition

Community Impact Critical Minerals

Batteries for the West, Burdens for Africa: The Cost of Green Minerals

As the world accelerates toward a net-zero future, Africa is rapidly becoming the ground zero for green energy’s raw materials. Cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lithium from…

Vincent Egoro April 1, 2025Africa energy transition, African mining governance, civil society and extractives, clean energy injustice, cobalt DRC, community rights mining, environmental justice, green minerals Africa, just energy transition, lithium mining Africa