Kenya seeks regional coordination to build African mineral value chains

Kenyan President William Ruto announced at the inaugural Kenya Mining Investment Conference & Expo in Nairobi that Kenya will end the export of raw mineral ore, joining a growing number of African nations seeking to add value to their mineral resources domestically. Kenya, which has significant deposits of gold, iron ore, copper, and rare earth elements valued at $62 billion, aims to process, refine, and manufacture minerals within the continent to capture greater economic benefits. This move is part of a broader regional push to shift away from exporting unprocessed minerals and to develop integrated value chains across Africa. Africa holds about 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves essential for the global energy transition, including lithium, cobalt, copper, bauxite, and graphite. Despite this wealth, the continent currently captures less than 1% of the value generated from clean energy technologies, largely due to exporting raw materials without local processing. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Mozambique, and Tanzania are key suppliers of these minerals but have struggled to attract sufficient investment to build refining and manufacturing capacity. Kenya’s decision reflects a wider trend, with nations like Burundi, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe imposing export bans or curbs on unrefined minerals to encourage local value addition. The regional coordination that Kenya advocates is seen as critical to overcoming challenges such as outdated geological data, insufficient infrastructure, and fragmented policies that hinder the continent’s ability to develop competitive mineral value chains. Zimbabwe recently exported its first shipments of lithium sulphate, an intermediate processed form of lithium, after freezing exports of lithium concentrate to promote local processing. Such measures highlight the continent’s growing determination to leverage its mineral wealth for industrialization, job creation, and economic diversification, aligning with global clean energy demands and positioning Africa as a key player in the green economy.