Critical minerals: Africa wants to process, China builds

For decades, the script was written in advance: ore left Africa in raw form, and value was created elsewhere. That script is starting to crack. The latest update of Critical Minerals: The Pivotal Outlook, the EY and Africa Business+ study tracking eight critical minerals across the continent, makes it clear: local processing has become one of the mining sector's most dynamic frontiers.

Plants are rising from the ground. In one year, between 2Q25 and 2Q26, the number of processing facilities identified in our database (smelters, refineries, plants, and tailings reprocessing sites) rose from 79 to 101, an increase of 28%. Copper and cobalt are leading the way: 39 facilities now process copper, up from 28 a year earlier, and 25 process cobalt, up from 17. The DRC posts the most spectacular growth, from 14 to 29 facilities. Together with South Africa and Zambia, it forms the triangle of African processing.

China, the master builder. One player stands out behind these plants. Chinese groups are now involved in 15 facilities, up from 10 a year earlier. At Chambishi, in Zambia, CNMC operates both the mine and the refinery. Guinea offers the most striking illustration: since 2025, construction has begun on three alumina refineries led by SPIC, the Winning consortium and Chalco, all backed by Chinese capital. The latest, at Boffa, represents US$1.68 billion for 1.2 million tpy of alumina. The same logic applies in Zimbabwe, where Huayou has built a US$400 million lithium sulphate plant, while Sinomine is preparing a US$500 million one at Bikita.

The paradox is striking. Europe keeps signing strategic partnerships and promising to help Africa move up the value chain. Yet its flagship project, the Lobito Corridor, remains centred on transport infrastructure connecting Africa's mineral belt to global markets. Setting up as close to the mine as possible, processing on site when governments demand it, partnering with local players: China's strategy is working.

Sovereignty runs through the plant. African capitals are no longer content to wait: in order to get plants built, they are setting conditions. The first lever is prohibition. Since 2023, Namibia has banned exports of unprocessed lithium, cobalt, and graphite; in February 2026, Zimbabwe suspended all exports of raw minerals. The second lever is taxation and quotas. Harare has planned a 5% levy on exported lithium concentrates to fund local refining. Kinshasa, for its part, regulates cobalt exports through quotas and reserves unused volumes for processing projects. Guinea is aiming for five alumina refineries by 2030. Access to resources now comes at the price of plants, jobs, and value added on African soil.

Nor is Beijing alone at the controls. Some African states are building and running plants themselves. In Lubumbashi, STL, a wholly owned subsidiary of DRC state miner Gécamines, has been running since 2023 a hydrometallurgical plant that extracts copper, cobalt, and germanium from the slag of a century-old tailings heap. South Africa, for its part, relies on home-grown champions such as Sibanye-Stillwater and Valterra.

A revolution still incomplete. We should nonetheless be wary of concluding too quickly that the continent is industrialising. Three countries, South Africa, the DRC, and Zambia, account for 76 of the 101 facilities; elsewhere, no country has more than three. Lithium and graphite, the metals of the new wave, still count only a handful of operating plants: Sinomine's refinery at Bikita, for instance, is not expected before 2027. And processing itself covers very different levels of value creation.

Turning ore into concentrate or an intermediate chemical product is not the same as producing refined metals, battery materials, or finished components. Above all, most production still leaves the continent as concentrates or intermediate products, for lack of reliable energy and industrial outlets. Zimbabwe, Africa's leading lithium producer, exported 1.1 million t of concentrate in 2025, most of it bound for Chinese refineries. A plant does not yet make an industry. But the work has begun.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/05102026/critical-minerals-africa-wants-to-process-china-builds/