Africa holds over half the world's cobalt. Processing it at home is the prize
Wits geoscientists say refining Africa's critical minerals locally could create 2.3 million jobs and lift continental GDP by about 12%.
Johannesburg — The world's clean-energy future runs on minerals, and Africa has a great many of them. Glen Nwaila and Grant Bybee of the University of the Witwatersrand set out in The Conversation what it would take for Africa to profit from them fully.
Africa's share of global reserves
- Cobalt: 55%
- Manganese: about 48%
- Natural graphite: about 22%
- Copper: about 6%; nickel: about 6%
- Platinum group metals: 80–90%, in South Africa
- Chromium and manganese: more than 70% of reserves in South Africa
Demand is set to soar: the International Energy Agency expects lithium demand to rise fivefold between 2025 and 2040, graphite and nickel demand to double, and copper demand to grow by 30%.
The prize
Today most of these minerals leave Africa raw or semi-processed, and the finished batteries and green technology come back as imports. Processing them where they are mined could create about 2.3 million jobs and raise continental GDP by about 12%, the authors say, a powerful answer to youth unemployment.
How to get there
- Beneficiation at source, as promoted by the Critical Minerals Framework set up under South Africa's G20 presidency.
- Spread the supply chain across African countries so no single country or company dominates.
- Strong, fair mining rules that protect communities and the environment.
- A continent-wide map of mineral deposits, especially in under-explored areas.
- Skills: fund training in geodata science, geometallurgy and modelling, and give mining companies incentives to share knowledge with African professionals.
Source: The Conversation, 25 January 2026.
