Energy Transition Africa

African women sitting near a railway, observing a mineral freight train passing through their village.

Beyond the Tracks: What Africa’s Mining Corridors Really Mean for the Communities They Bypass

"The trains pass, but we are still in the dark." That was the quiet but piercing remark of Mariam, a farmer in northern Zambia, whose family was relocated to make…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk July 4, 2025Africa infrastructure, community voices, critical minerals, displacement, energy transition, just transition, land rights, mining corridors

A high-resolution photograph of an African open-pit mine with industrial machinery and processing facilities under a wide sky.

Critical Minerals

Why Africa Must Stop Exporting Wealth: The Case for Processing Our Own Minerals

“If we keep selling the raw and buying the refined, we’ll always be poorer than we are rich.” That line, from a young Ghanaian engineer at a mining expo last…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk July 2, 2025Africa mining, beneficiation, critical minerals, energy transition, green economy, industrialisation, jobs, value addition

An expansive industrial mining site in Africa with heavy machinery extracting minerals under a dusty sky.

Community Impact Critical Minerals Energy Transition

Green Minerals, Grey Realities: Can Africa Avoid Another Resource Curse?

Across the plains of Namibia, the copper belt of the DRC, and the lithium fields of Zimbabwe, a quiet race is underway. It’s not a new one, though the names…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk June 20, 2025Africa Mining Vision, AU, beneficiation, cobalt, critical minerals, DRC, green minerals, just transition, lithium, RECs, resource curse, Zimbabwe

An industrial smokestack emits haze beside stacks of mineral ore under cloudy skies in Africa.

Critical Minerals Uncategorized

Clean or Compromised? The Dirty Dilemma of Refining Africa’s Critical Minerals

Africa is home to more than 30% of the world’s critical minerals; cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite, all essential for the global energy transition. But while the world’s richest economies are…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk June 12, 2025critical minerals, CriticalMineralsAfrica, energy transition, ESG Africa, fossil fuels, Green industrialisation, just transition, refining, ValueAddition

Railway workers in safety gear laying tracks through a rural African corridor under a cloudy sky.

Critical Minerals Governance & Transparency

The Corridor of Promise: Can Lobito Deliver a New Path for Africa’s Minerals?

From Angola’s Atlantic coastline to the copper belts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, a rail corridor is being carved through the heart of Africa’s mineral wealth. The…

Energy Transition Africa Editorial Desk June 9, 2025Angola, critical minerals, DRC, energy transition, EnergyTransitionAfrica, infrastructure, just transition, Lobito Corridor, mineral strategy, ValueAddition, Zambia

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.

Critical Minerals

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