Central Africa: The Battle for Critical Minerals Begins Now
Central Africa holds significant reserves of critical minerals such as cobalt, copper, manganese, lithium, coltan and graphite, but most production is still exported without local processing. The DRC has adopted a national strategy favouring local transformation and tightened export restrictions on copper and cobalt concentrates, while Gabon aims to process all its manganese locally by 2029. The article argues that regional integration is needed to build industrial capacity and avoid new dependencies.
Why it matters: This bears on the briefing's theme of critical minerals, showing that the contest over processing and value chains, not extraction, will determine Central Africa's economic sovereignty.