The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released a new report stressing that South Africa’s critical minerals are vital for clean energy technologies, yet the region still falls short in attracting investment.
Prepared in collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and with input from McKinsey & Company, the study covers Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It emphasizes that these countries hold vast global mineral reserves.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for around 30% of known world reserves of copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, manganese, chromium, vanadium, and platinum group metals. Despite this, the continent receives less than 10% of global exploration investment. WEF’s Jörgen Sandström stated, “South Africa has the minerals the world needs, but financing is lagging.”
DBSA CEO Boitumelo Mosako warned against repeating past mistakes, saying, “If minerals are extracted the same way as before, the continent will once again miss the opportunity for development.” The report lists the main challenges to investment as policy uncertainty, high risk, limited access to energy, transport bottlenecks, weak innovation, slow industrialization, shortage of skilled labor, and demand fluctuations.
Comments
No comment yet.