Beyond raw and refined: Mineral value addition in Africa’s industrialisation

Europe has explicitly committed to supporting more mineral processing and value addition taking place in African mineral-rich countries, including as part of the mineral strategic partnerships that the EU has signed with Namibia, Zambia, the DRC, and Rwanda. African governments aim to leverage growing interest in critical minerals to unlock more domestic value addition, which they believe could boost job creation, industrialization, foreign currency earnings, and government revenues. For Europe’s part, mineral processing and the manufacture of some intermediary products could likely be done more cheaply in African countries than in Europe, where higher costs of labour, energy, and land would make European processing less competitive. This should motivate European investment in value addition in African countries. Yet realising tangible mineral value addition projects under an Africa-Europe partnership has been slow.

This webinar marks the launch of the new ECFR Africa policy brief “From ore to more: Mineral partnerships for African industrialisation”, authored by Sarah Logan and Theophilus Acheampong, which looks at the ambitions and prospects of increased mineral value addition in Namibia and Zambia, how Europe’s offer compares to those of other powers seeking access to African critical minerals, and how African countries and the EU could better position themselves for effective partnerships.

The event is made possible with the support of the Africa-Europe Foundation.