Africa holds some of the world's most significant deposits of rare earth minerals, the same materials sitting inside your electric car battery, the wind turbine on the horizon, and the guidance systems of modern missiles. This is not a future conversation. The scramble is already underway, and the continent is right at the center of it.
Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi are sitting on reserves that global powers, tech giants, and defense contractors are watching very closely. The DRC alone supplies roughly 70 percent of the world's cobalt, a metal that is essential to rechargeable batteries. That single fact has made the country one of the most strategically important places on earth, whether its own citizens feel the benefit of that or not.
The tension here is familiar. Africa has watched its natural wealth extracted for centuries while the profits and the processing happened elsewhere. The rare earth moment carries the same risk. Without deliberate policy, strong regional coordination, and investment in local refining capacity, the continent could once again find itself supplying the raw ingredients for other people's green revolutions and defense industries.
There are governments and economists pushing back on that script. Initiatives aimed at adding value on the continent before export, building processing plants, negotiating better licensing terms, and training local geologists and engineers are gaining traction in several countries. The question is whether that momentum is fast enough to match the speed at which outside interests are moving in.
The minerals race is accelerating, and Africa has leverage it has rarely had before. What happens next depends almost entirely on who gets to write the terms.
Originally published by BusinessDay.