Africa has always mattered to global mining. What is changing is the strategic importance of many of the minerals found across the continent.
As investment in electrification, energy infrastructure and new technologies grows, attention is turning again to copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, manganese and other minerals in which African countries have an important role to play.
Copper is needed for expanding electricity networks and electrification. Cobalt, lithium, graphite and manganese have important roles in batteries and energy technologies. Platinum-group metals remain important across industrial applications, while gold, iron ore and other commodities continue to underpin major mining economies across the continent.
As governments and businesses focus more closely on security of supply, that is putting Africa’s mineral base firmly back in focus.
The more important question, however, is what happens next.
Will Africa simply supply more of the minerals the world needs, or can the continent capture more of the investment, infrastructure, skills and economic value created around them?
The answer could shape the next phase of African mining.
The opportunity is bigger than critical minerals
Critical minerals dominate much of the current conversation around African mining, and understandably so.
The International Energy Agency has highlighted Africa’s important position in the supply of minerals including cobalt, copper and manganese, while demand from energy infrastructure and clean technologies is creating new strategic interest in mineral supply chains.
But Africa’s mining opportunity is broader than the energy transition alone.
Gold remains a major industry across countries including Ghana, South Africa, Mali and Tanzania. Southern Africa has substantial platinum-group metal, manganese, diamond and coal industries. Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are major copper-producing markets, while mining investment is developing across numerous other jurisdictions.
Even the definition of a “critical mineral” varies depending on the priorities of individual countries.
The bigger story, then, is not one commodity. It is the growing focus on mineral security, investment and how much value can be created within African mining economies.
Africa wants to capture more of the value
One of the biggest shifts is the growing focus on what happens after a mineral leaves the ground.
For many years, African governments have questioned an economic model in which raw or relatively unprocessed resources leave the continent before much of their value is added. That conversation is becoming increasingly important.
The African Green Minerals Strategy places mineral development alongside human capital development and the creation of regional value chains, with the ambition of using Africa’s resources to support wider industrialisation. Individual countries are also placing greater emphasis on exploration, local beneficiation, research, development and skills.
That matters because local processing changes the scale and nature of the investment required.
A mine requires people to find, design, develop and operate the resource. A wider mineral value chain also requires processing facilities, reliable power, water, logistics, engineering capability and increasingly sophisticated technical skills.
The further Africa moves along the value chain, the greater the skills requirement becomes.
A mine is only as strong as the infrastructure around it
Geology can determine where a mine is located. It does not guarantee that a project will be commercially successful.
Major mining developments depend on the infrastructure around them: reliable electricity, water, roads, railways and ports.
That makes the future of African mining closely connected to the future of African infrastructure. It is particularly significant for countries looking to process more minerals domestically, where processing can add another layer of requirements around power, industrial facilities, logistics and technical capability.
It also brings mining much closer to the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Mining projects need energy expertise. They need infrastructure professionals. They need major project capability. And they increasingly need people who can bring experience from other technically demanding industries into mining.
For employers and candidates, that opens up a wider talent market.
Technology is changing the skills mix
Technology is also changing the way mines and processing facilities are run.
Automation, instrumentation, remote operations, data analysis and predictive maintenance are changing how some mines and processing facilities operate.
That does not make traditional mining expertise any less important.
Experienced geologists, mining engineers, metallurgists, maintenance professionals and project leaders remain fundamental. What changes is the combination of capabilities required around them.
OECD research into Southern African mining identifies digitalisation as both an opportunity and a skills challenge, with new technologies changing the technical capabilities required by mining businesses.
Mining knowledge remains critical. But increasingly, mining knowledge combined with adjacent technical expertise is where some of the most valuable talent will sit.
The skills challenge changes as a mine develops
There is also no single African ‘mining talent shortage’. The skills needed on a project change considerably as the asset moves from exploration to development, construction and operations.
During exploration, geologists and resource specialists are critical.
As discoveries move towards feasibility and development, the requirement expands into mine planning, engineering, environmental disciplines, project management and project controls.
Construction brings demand for civil, structural, mechanical and electrical expertise alongside construction management. Commissioning creates another specialist requirement.
Once the mine enters production, the focus moves towards operations, processing, metallurgy, maintenance, reliability, HSE and asset management. Move further downstream into beneficiation and the talent requirement expands again.
OECD research in Central Africa illustrates how broad that workforce can become, spanning specialist mining roles, cross-functional technical capabilities and the commercial and support functions required to operate the business.
The challenge is not simply: “Where can we find mining people?” It is: “What capability does this project need at this particular stage, and where else could that experience exist?”
Africa’s talent pool can extend beyond mining
Not every person required to deliver the next generation of African mining projects necessarily needs to have spent their entire career in mining.
A number of those skills can come from adjacent industries.
Large energy and infrastructure projects require project managers, planners, cost engineers, electrical engineers, construction specialists and commissioning professionals. Heavy industrial operations require reliability, maintenance, automation and controls expertise. Renewable energy projects can provide experience relevant to mines looking at their future power requirements.
That creates the potential for talent to move between mining, energy, infrastructure and heavy industry.
For candidates, that can open new career paths. For employers, it can provide access to talent pools that may be overlooked when recruitment is restricted to people already working for another mining company.
The key is understanding which experience is genuinely transferable and which roles require deep mining-specific knowledge.
Building the talent behind Africa’s resources
This is where a detailed understanding of the market matters.
Africa has a substantial engineering and technical talent base, but it is spread across a vast continent. Mining markets differ from country to country, and the specialist experience a project needs is not always located where that project is being developed.
At Smart4 Energy, our work across African energy, engineering and infrastructure markets gives us visibility across many of the skills that increasingly intersect with mining.
That means looking beyond job titles. It means understanding the asset, the project stage, the technical challenge and the experience required to solve it.
Sometimes the right person will already be working in mining. Sometimes they may be working in power, infrastructure or another major industrial environment. The important thing is knowing the difference.
The next mining race is also a talent race
Africa’s geology gives the continent a strong starting point, but geology alone does not build mines or create lasting value.
Someone has to discover the resource. Someone has to prove its viability. Someone has to design the mine, secure the power, build the infrastructure, construct the processing plant and commission the operation.
Once it is running, another team has to operate and maintain it safely and efficiently for years to come.
If African countries succeed in processing more of their resources locally, the requirement becomes greater still.
That is why the next chapter of African mining should not only be measured in tonnes of production, commodity prices or investment announcements. It should also be measured in infrastructure built, capability developed and skills created.
Africa has the resources. Turning them into long-term value will depend on having the people capable of delivering them.
Article written for Smart4 Energy by Warren Beder.