Africa holds roughly 30% of the world's known mineral reserves but earns only about 10% of global mineral revenue, because most of the value in copper, cobalt…
The 1884-85 Berlin Conference formalised European colonial claims across Africa. It marks when export-oriented extraction infrastructure - railways and ports built to mo…
Union Minière du Haut-Katanga and Rhodesian mining groups built large-scale industrial copper mining straddling today's DR Congo-Zambia border, with rail extended specif…
DR Congo nationalised Union Minière in 1967, creating state miner Gécamines. Zambia's 1968-70 Mulungushi Reforms took majority stakes in the country's copper groups, for…
Rapid Chinese industrialisation drove surging demand for copper and cobalt. Chinese mining firms, refiners and infrastructure companies expanded across Africa through eq…
Chinese companies built the majority of the world's cobalt-refining and battery-manufacturing capacity through the 2010s, much of it fed by African-mined concentrate. By…
Zimbabwe, Africa's largest lithium producer, banned exports of unprocessed lithium ore in 2022 - the first step in a multi-year push toward local processing that culmina…
The DRC and Spain's Xcalibur Smart Mapping began a three-year, $180 million airborne geophysical survey covering over 700,000 km². SGNC estimates systematic exploration…
Zimbabwe announced a January 2027 ban on lithium concentrate exports. Guinea, the world's largest bauxite exporter, began finalising export controls to push more alumina…
DRC signed a 30-year concession for the 1,004 km Dilolo-Sakania railway, completing the DRC leg of the Lobito Corridor to the Atlantic. Congo simultaneously pushed forwa…
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