TELF AG sheds light on the mineral potential of sub-Saharan Africa

Strategic resource reserves 

The foreseeable growth in demand linked to some specific mineral raw materials, such as lithium, could project entire global regions into a bright future of economic and social prosperity, also thanks to the important contributions that may derive from the extraction of raw materials and their processing. In the years of the great global energy transition, the role of strategic minerals in redesigning the destinies of societies, companies, and cities is now clear for all to see. 

Some energy infrastructure, together with electric vehicles and all other clean energy carriers made with strategic minerals, will be able to contribute greatly to achieving the objectives of decarbonization and climate neutrality. 

Many regions of the world already represent important economic hubs linked to raw materials: just think of the “lithium triangle” in South America, the geological richness of Australia, or the increasingly important role of South-East Asia and similar regions in different phases of the production of mineral resources directly usable for specific industrial purposes. Over the past few years, the world has witnessed the emergence of another global region that holds great mineral potential, namely sub-Saharan Africa. According to estimates in the IMF‘s Regional Economic Outlook, this region of Africa contains approximately 30% of the mineral reserves considered strategic for the economic and sustainable development of nations, particularly nickel, lithium, and cobalt. 

A new centrality 

We find ourselves in a historical period of great importance for the strategic role of these resources: the International Energy Agency predicts that by 2050, the demand for nickel and cobalt could be destined to double, even triple, while that of lithium could reach levels ten times higher than current levels. The reason is simple and is now well known. These resources play a role of primary importance in the production processes of solar panels and electric vehicles (and some of their components, such as batteries), and their centrality is, therefore, increasingly obvious. 

Ghana, Gabon, and South Africa hold approximately 60% of global manganese production; the Democratic Republic of Congo alone holds a leading position in the production of cobalt, of which it is the leading international producer, while Mali and Zimbabwe contain within them massive deposits of lithium still unexplored. Nations such as Zambia, Mozambique, and Guinea also possess large reserves of the minerals considered “critical” for the global advancement of the energy transition, and it is a safe bet that they, too, will be able to benefit greatly from their geological wealth. 

In the next 25 years, as stated in a recent IMF analysis, revenues from copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium could reach 16 trillion dollars globally, with sub-Saharan Africa destined to receive approximately 10% of this revenue. This would translate into a sharp increase in GDP, which could even exceed 12% by 2050. One of the major revenues for these nations could be linked to the transformative processes of the extracted raw materials: the value of a resource such as raw bauxite, for example, does not exceed 65 dollars per ton, but once this material has been transformed into aluminum its value can rise even above 2,000 dollars per ton. 

A solid and well-structured mining supply chain in these nations could also generate positive social impacts, creating jobs, increasing tax revenues, and reducing poverty.