Mineral Beneficiation: A Pipedream of Prosperity in an Unequal Financial Architecture
Since 2023, 14 African countries have introduced export restrictions on unprocessed critical minerals, requiring local beneficiation. Western governments and development banks are promoting this model, but it pushes African countries into debt, allows wealth to flow out through tax avoidance, and imposes policy changes that undermine environmental and human rights. The promises of prosperity are based on faulty assumptions, including infinite demand for critical minerals and the ability to fund social services through mining income.
Why it matters: This relates to the theme of global financial architecture and its impact on development, highlighting how debt and tax systems undermine public financing for development in Africa.