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Africa holds an estimated US$29.5 trillion in mine-site mineral value, or about a fifth of global mineral wealth, but captures only a small share of it due to limited exploration and weak geological data, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) said on Monday.
In a study released at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, AFC said US$8.6 trillion of Africa’s mineral endowment remained undeveloped as fragmented surveys, uneven data coverage and poor transparency continue to elevate risk and deter investors.
The report said mine-site valuations significantly understated Africa’s potential because they exclude the much larger value created when raw materials are processed into products such as steel, aluminium, fertilisers, batteries and alloys. Measured at industrial use, Africa’s mineral value increases “by an order of magnitude,” it added.
AFC President and Chief Executive Officer, Samaila Zubairu, said the new Compendium of Africa’s Strategic Minerals aimed to link mineral reserves to processing capacity, transport corridors and power infrastructure to attract investment and build regional value chains.
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“Today, AFC is proud to launch the Compendium… an initiative to reframe the sector through an African lens and convert endowment into execution pathways for our collective prosperity,” Zubairu said.
The study said Africa’s mineral production, infrastructure and demand rarely aligned, leaving supply chains tied to Asian industrial cycles rather than African development needs.
It stated that the slowdown in Asian steel demand had triggered production cuts and price pressures across the continent, including cobalt quotas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, steel plant shutdowns in South Africa and manganese suspensions in Gabon.
AFC said the constraint was not a lack of African demand but a lack of coordination linking minerals, processing and infrastructure investment to long-term regional needs.
The report places infrastructure at the centre of Africa’s mineral strategy, calling for targeted investment in rail corridors, ports and cross-border power lines to support beneficiation and reduce delivered costs.
It said clean power and efficient logistics would also strengthen Africa’s competitiveness as global markets shift to low-carbon, traceable supply chains.
The study also situates Africa’s minerals in a fragmenting global economy marked by trade tensions and efforts to diversify supply chains away from concentrated processing hubs.
It said the continent could play a bigger role in manganese, rare earths, graphite, uranium and other strategically exposed minerals—if it could offer reliable value-added production.
Projects gaining momentum include a major rare earth development in Angola, growing graphite and anode-material supply capacity in Mozambique, battery-grade manganese sulphate initiatives in Southern Africa, and renewed uranium output in Namibia and Malawi.
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