Critical Minerals: has Africa learned from its past experience?

Africa Climate Conversations.

African nations are blessed with 30% of the world’s critical minerals. Mineral that the world needs to develop solar panels, wind turbines, renewable energy storage, electric vehicles, defence infrastructures, communication infrastructure, digital economy and many more.

However, past mining activities since colonial era has taught Africa taught lessons. Minerals, particularly diamonds, are widely believed to have been the main factor at the root of Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war in the 1990s. In addition to the Sierra Leone conflict diamond drive civil war in Angola, and the Democratic republic of Congo led to the UN definition of blood diamonds in the 1990’s.

In 2020, the World Bank estimated the production of minerals such as graphite, lithium, nickel and cobalt, could increase by nearly 500% by 2050 to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies.

Therefore, a world rush to acquiring critical minerals required for these green energy technologies is inevitable.

But, has Africa learned from its past experiences? Should Africa move at the same pace as the rest of the world, or should it pace itself?