Information from Africa Energy Chamber

Africa’s mineral wealth has the potential to benefit not only the continent, but to provide a foundation for the global energy transition. Already, African exploration and production has begun to ramp up as international stakeholders turn their attention to high potential energy markets across the continent. 

Accounting for more than 85% of most solar photovoltaic components, aluminium – for which bauxite accounts for roughly 98% of its primary production – is used in most low-carbon technologies. And Africa is home to approximately one-third of global bauxite reserves, with Guinea alone having accounted for over half of global aluminium ore exports in 2020.

Africa accounted for over 80% of global chromium ore exports in 2020. Chromium accounts for over a third of the mineral demand for both geothermal and hydropower technologies and serves as a required material for the development of concentrated solar power (CSP). The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts chromium demand to triple by 2030. The IEA also predicts that global demand for cobalt will rise six-fold by 2040, the vast majority of which is located in the DRC and Zambia. Cobalt is essential for producing lithium-ion batteries used in EVs and energy storage technologies, and Zambia and the DRC are world-leading producers of copper, which is used in electrical systems.

Twenty percent of the world’s reserves of graphite is to be found in Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Graphite is used in the development of lithium-ion batteries for EVs and battery storage technologies.

Over 60% of manganese production occurs in Africa, with Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, and South Africa all producing the mineral, a key element for many green energy technologies. Demand is expected to increase threefold by 2030, according to the IEA.

The development of green hydrogen and the decarbonisation of heavy transport, heating, and industry is impossible without developing PGM minerals such as iridium, palladium, and platinum, for catalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel-cell technologies. South Africa accounted for over 70% of global platinum production between 2016 and 2020, and over 80% of global iridium production. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe serves as the world’s third-largest producer of platinum and the second-largest producer of iridium.