• INSIGHT
• Sovereignty and historical context A locally relevant framework must preserve policy space to safeguard long-term national interests and address historical patterns of extraction that have limited domestic value capture.
• Dynamic classification Criticality should be treated as a dynamic concept, subject to periodic review and updating in response to evolving market conditions, technological change, substitutability, recycling potential and geopolitical developments.
Policy implications The unmodified adoption of global north critical mineral frameworks may encourage African countries to prioritise minerals primarily for export, design incentive structures that favour foreign investment without strengthening domestic productive capacity, or adopt regulatory standards that are difficult to implement in emergingeconomy contexts. A development-oriented criticality framework can mitigate these risks by ensuring that mineral policy actively supports national industrialisation and development objectives.
Despite being leading global producers of several strategically important minerals, many African countries remain concentrated in upstream extraction with limited downstream processing. A development-centred criticality framework can inform differentiated fiscal and royalty regimes, guide the selective use of export controls on unprocessed ores and support targeted infrastructure investment for priority mineral value chains.
While regulatory predictability is essential for attracting and retaining investment, governments must retain sufficient policy flexibility to respond to evolving national priorities and structural constraints. Overly rigid policy instruments, particularly premature export restrictions, risk undermining fiscal revenues, employment and economic stability where domestic processing capacity is not yet established.
Investment implications A locally grounded framework can attract investment aligned with development goals by signalling priorities for local processing, encouraging partnerships incorporating technology transfer and skills development, and supporting integration into regional value chains. Without such strategic intervention, Africa risks remaining a supplier of raw materials, missing opportunities to capture highervalue segments of the market.
Beneficiation implications Beneficiation is capital and energy-intensive, and not all minerals warrant immediate downstream processing. A critical minerals framework can differentiate between minerals suitable for nearterm beneficiation, phased development or strategic export.
Regional co-ordination can enhance efficiency, enabling African countries to collectively scale processing capabilities and leverage comparative advantage, infrastructure availability, and logistical considerations.
Critical for industrialisation Iron ore is classified as a mineral of high criticality within South Africa ' s framework, yet it is largely absent from Global North critical mineral lists, reflecting its global abundance and limited supply risk for advanced economies. This illustrates how Africa-centric definitions can identify minerals that are essential for structural transformation.
Developmental dependence – transitioning world Coal ' s inclusion in South Africa ' s high-criticality category highlights the tension between global climate objectives and domestic development realities. An Africa-centred framework acknowledges the need for differentiated transition pathways tailored to national contexts.
Resource dominance without value capture Southern Africa accounts for the majority of global platinum group metal production, with South Africa and Zimbabwe together supplying a substantial share of world output. Despite this, the region captures limited value from downstream applications, highlighting the importance of aligning critical mineral strategies with industrial policy.
The concept of " critical minerals " is meaningful for Africa only if it is framed around the continent ' s development priorities rather than imported definitions of strategic scarcity. Historically, Africa has supplied raw materials that supported industrial development elsewhere, often with limited domestic value addition. The renewed global focus on critical minerals offers an opportunity to reassess this trajectory.
Southern Africa ' s experience demonstrates both the scale of the opportunity and the risks of policy fragmentation. Without a coordinated approach to beneficiation, infrastructure development and industrial policy, African countries risk remaining peripheral players in global value chains.
An African critical minerals framework must therefore be development-oriented, regionally integrated and forward-looking, anticipating technological change and positioning economies to capture value from emerging industries. By defining critical minerals through an African-centred lens, the continent can turn its resource wealth into a catalyst for sustainable industrial growth, employment and regional economic resilience. •
• BUYER ' S GUIDE
AUTOMATION AND SENSORS
ASSET MANAGEMENT
DISTRIBUTOR OF PUMPS
DISTRIBUTOR OF PUMPS
ACOUSTIC & THERMAL INSULATION
38 • African Mining • April 2026 www. africanmining. co. za