Africa’s mining potential: Current landscape, opportunities, and challenges

Mining activity sparks both fantasies and, at times, criticism, particularly among funders and traditional international cooperation actors. By its very nature, any extractive activity is unsustainable, as it involves selling a product—whether processed or not—whose stock is inevitably destined to be depleted.

However, our planet is currently experiencing a period in which achieving climate sustainability—meaning halting global warming—requires a significant increase in the extraction of so-called critical minerals essential for the transition to renewable energy. In other words, sustainability will necessarily rely on unsustainability, and renewable energy on mineral resources that are, by definition, non-renewable.

The publication of this report is intended as an exercise in clarity: first, by refusing to ignore the challenges associated with securing critical minerals for the energy transition; and second, by rejecting any naïve or idealized perspective, given that the extractive sector carries greater risks than many other economic activities. We hope this work successfully avoids these pitfalls.