Africa sits at the heart of the global clean energy transition, holding roughly 30% of the world's critical minerals that power renewable energy technologies. As demand for these resources continues to grow, Africa's mineral wealth is rapidly reshaping its relationship with the United States. While this presents a significant opportunity for African countries to strengthen their economies, improve energy security, and accelerate industrial development, current mineral partnerships remain heavily tilted toward securing supply chains for the Global North rather than delivering shared economic benefits.
Recent events illustrate this growing imbalance. In early 2026, Zambian officials publicly rejected reported U.S. proposals that would have tied multi-billion-dollar health financing to preferential access to Zambia's copper reserves. The incident reflected a broader shift across the continent: African governments are becoming more assertive in demanding partnerships that recognize their mineral resources as strategic national assets rather than commodities available on unequal terms.
Recognizing this, the African Union formally adopted the African Green Mineral Strategy (AGMS) in February 2025, establishing a continent-wide framework designed to ensure Africa captures greater value from its natural resources. The strategy rests on four interconnected priorities:
- Advancing mineral development by strengthening geological knowledge, exploration capacity, and investment so African countries maintain greater control over their own mineral resources.
- Building technological capacity and human capital through investment in research, technical expertise, and workforce development to maximize the continent's mineral potential.
- Developing regional value chains by promoting local beneficiation, green manufacturing, and mineral-based industrialization instead of exporting raw materials.
- Promoting responsible mineral stewardship through environmentally sustainable mining practices, stronger governance, and circular economy principles.
At its core, the AGMS recognizes Africa's minerals as sovereign assets that should drive long-term economic transformation rather than fuel industrial growth elsewhere. It also encourages African governments to negotiate collectively, giving the continent greater leverage in shaping fairer and more profitable international partnerships.
As African countries increasingly push for a new model of mineral cooperation, the United States has an opportunity to rethink its approach. Moving away from purely extractive relationships toward transparent industrial partnerships would not only respond to African priorities but also serve U.S. strategic interests. Agreements built on shared value, accountability, and long-term investment are more resilient than one-sided extraction deals, reducing supply chain disruptions and strengthening access to the critical minerals needed for America's clean energy, technology, and defense sectors.
Four Ways the Current Minerals Model Is Broken
1. Extraction Without Industrialization Perpetuates Dependency
Africa continues to supply much of the world's critical minerals while capturing only a small share of the value they generate. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the continent loses an estimated $40 billion annually through illicit financial flows linked to the extractive sector.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) illustrates this imbalance. Although it produces more than 70% of the world's cobalt, less than 10% is processed within Africa. The high-value activities associated with refining, battery manufacturing, skilled employment, and industrial growth largely occur in China, Europe, and North America instead of in the countries where these minerals are extracted. Without greater investment in local processing and manufacturing, African economies remain locked into exporting raw materials while importing higher-value finished products.
2. Human Rights Gaps Undermine Communities and U.S. Credibility
The rapid expansion of critical mineral extraction has brought significant human rights concerns across parts of Africa. Amnesty International and Save the Children have documented hazardous working conditions, child labor in artisanal cobalt mines in the DRC, forced displacement of communities, and violence against environmental defenders and local residents affected by mining projects.
These challenges have intensified calls from African governments and civil society for stronger oversight and accountability within the mining sector. Reflecting these concerns, the AGMS identifies transparency, public participation, and the protection of human rights as essential pillars of mineral governance. Partnerships that overlook community welfare or fail to hold companies accountable risk weakening both Africa's development objectives and the United States' long-term credibility across the continent.
3. Environmental Accountability Remains Inadequate
Large-scale mining has also imposed considerable environmental costs on many African communities. Across several mineral-producing regions, extraction has contributed to contaminated waterways, degraded soils, deforestation, and long-term ecological damage. The United Nations Environment Program has repeatedly highlighted weaknesses in environmental governance across many African mining sectors, warning that existing regulatory capacity is often insufficient to manage current extraction levels, let alone the increased demand expected as the global clean energy transition accelerates.
African policymakers increasingly argue that the transition to renewable energy should also advance Africa's own development priorities. Rather than serving solely as suppliers of raw materials for foreign industries, African countries seek partnerships that promote renewable energy investment, infrastructure development, regional manufacturing, and improved access to electricity. Consistent with this vision, the AGMS links responsible mineral extraction with broader goals of sustainable industrialization and long-term economic development across the continent.
4. Mineral Governance Continues to Favor Consumer Nations
The imbalance in U.S.–Africa mineral partnerships is not only economic but also institutional. Existing governance frameworks for critical minerals largely reflect the priorities of consuming nations, leaving producer countries with limited influence over how global value chains are structured.
African countries are advancing an alternative vision. Both the African Union's Africa Mining Vision and the G20 Critical Minerals Framework, adopted during the 2025 Johannesburg Summit, call for greater investment in mineral processing, manufacturing, and regional value chains under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Together, these initiatives seek to position Africa not simply as a supplier of strategic minerals but as an equal economic and geopolitical partner in the global energy transition.
A more sustainable minerals model must also place transparency and public participation at its center. Strong governance is essential to reducing corruption, preventing conflict, and ensuring that mineral wealth is distributed more equitably. Across the continent, African institutions and civil society organizations are already working to strengthen accountability within the extractive sector.
International initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) have established standards for revenue disclosure and contract transparency in countries including the DRC, Zambia, and Nigeria. Civil society organizations, including Publish What You Pay, continue to advocate for open contracting, beneficial ownership transparency, and stronger community benefit agreements. These organizations bring local knowledge, public trust, and oversight that external partners cannot easily replicate.
For this reason, meaningful civil society participation should be embedded in U.S.–Africa mineral partnerships from the outset. Including local communities in decision-making not only strengthens governance but also helps ensure that the benefits of mineral development are shared more fairly among those most directly affected by extraction.
Policy Recommendations
The United States' long-term access to critical minerals depends not only on securing supply but also on supporting the long-term stability and prosperity of African producer nations. Mineral agreements that overlook local priorities or community concerns are unlikely to endure. Zambia's 2026 pushback against reported U.S. proposals demonstrated that partnerships perceived as unequal are vulnerable to renegotiation, delays, or even cancellation, creating uncertainty for the very supply chains they are intended to strengthen.
A more sustainable approach aligns U.S. strategic interests with Africa's development agenda. Partnerships that promote industrialization, protect human rights, and secure community consent are more resilient because they are built on mutual investment rather than short-term resource extraction. Such cooperation would also create new opportunities for U.S. companies in mineral processing technologies, workforce development, and infrastructure as African value chains expand.
To achieve this, the United States should adopt several key policy reforms:
- Require binding human rights and environmental impact assessments for all mineral partnership agreements to ensure responsible and accountable investment.
- Make compliance with the EITI a minimum requirement for countries receiving U.S. mineral financing, strengthening transparency and reducing corruption.
- Expand the role of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation by requiring investments that support mineral processing facilities, technology transfer, and workforce training within African producer countries rather than focusing solely on extraction.
- Support the inclusion of African producer nations as full members of the Minerals Security Partnership, ensuring they participate as equal partners in shaping global critical minerals governance rather than remaining suppliers at the margins.
These measures would strengthen supply chain resilience while supporting Africa's broader goals of industrial growth, responsible resource management, and economic transformation.
Conclusion
The African Union's adoption of the AGMS in February 2025 marked an important shift in how the continent intends to manage its mineral wealth. Rather than continuing a model centered on exporting raw materials, the strategy prioritizes value addition, industrialization, environmental stewardship, human rights, and stronger regional cooperation.
The African Minerals Development Centre has been tasked with helping translate these commitments into practice by promoting accountability among both African governments and international partners. Through collective action under the AGMS and the AfCFTA, African countries are better positioned to negotiate partnerships that support domestic industries, strengthen regional value chains, and contribute to the continent's own green energy transition.
For the United States, this presents a strategic opportunity. A partnership based on transparency, shared economic benefits, and respect for African priorities is not simply a more equitable approach—it is also the most reliable path toward long-term mineral security. As global competition for critical minerals intensifies, durable partnerships will depend less on securing preferential access and more on building trust, supporting local development, and recognizing African countries as equal stakeholders in the global energy transition.
