By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider 

The African Critical Minerals Summit is a gathering of industry leaders, investors and policymakers that aim to shape the future of Africa’s critical minerals sector. The Summit will take place over the span of two days from 25-26 August 2025 at the Indaba Hotel. 

Africa is known for being the source of critical minerals which include copper, cobalt, lithium, and nickel as they are seen as essential for the global shift towards green technologies which include renewable energy systems and lithium-ion batteries. 

The African Critical Minerals Summit has become the cornerstone for various countries within the continent or even the world to collaborate by finding ways to redefine how these resources are managed and utilised. At the 2023 summit which was addressed by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe set the platform for Africa to engage in leveraging its mineral wealth more effectively, aiming to foster economic growth, innovation and job creation.

This summit is a platform for critical dialogue to be discussed in terms of both local and global needs. The discussions that are had at this summit does not intend on finding ways to solely just extract minerals from the Earth but to also add continued value and retain significant benefits within the continent. 

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) have initiated significant projects such as the R300 million exploration fund alongside the Industrial Development Corporation. The aim of the fund is to finance junior miners and to promote equitable economic growth by fostering economic inclusion and to increase access to mining resources.

 The future of Africa’s mineral sector depends on its ability to foster concrete partnerships which transcend and sectoral boundaries. The world is pivoting towards a low-carbon future, Africa has the opportunity to alter its position in the global minerals value chain and the African Critical Minerals Summit aims to provide a platform for this shift. 

Tapiwa Samanga, CEO of Production Technologies Association of South Africa, has noted that without true collaboration there will be no concrete way for these strategies to be implemented and will require the effort of African nations to find sustainable solutions; “You rarely find a company in Zambia, for example, doing business or collaborating with a company in South Africa. There are not enough cross-border projects where collaboration exists. That sort of thing actually limits our capacity to maximise our mineral potential…There’s no collective coming together. We do not collaborate in research and development. We do not collaborate in product development. We do not collaborate in building those value chains across our countries. So, with the limited resources we have, we end up with nothing that we can actually put out to the market.” Said Samanga.  

Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe in 2023 expressed the intention of the African Critical Minerals Summit and explained the goals of its mandate.

“It is within this context that in 2023 we resolve at the African Mineral Summit, that Africa should develop a clear road map on how to maximize the exploitation and monetization of these resources for value addition to our economies. That means we are developing a unique definition for the African continent which is not borrowed from any other major country.” 

The National Press Club hosted a networking session at the Court Classique Suite Hotel on the 17th of July 2025 in order to facilitate dialogue surrounding the subject of Africa critical minerals and the role these minerals play in geopolitics. Antoinette Slabbert, who serves as a freelance journalist for publications such as Business Day and Moneyweb as well serving as the interim Chairperson for the National Press Club opened up to proceedings.

 “This is what makes the world go round is relationships and that is what we build on in an evening like this…So, tonight our subject is critical minerals, we have a lot of it in South Africa. But it also plays a very important role in geopolitics. Negotiations, bullying and even wars have to do with critical minerals.” 

The director of the African Critical Minerals Summit, Tshegofatso Motsoenyane, had expressed the key differences between Critical Minerals and Strategic minerals.

 “The key differences between strategic and critical minerals is their risk, examples of them and the beneficiation. With critical minerals the purposes are for technological advancement and the green energy transition. The risk of these is that they carry a high global supply risk; examples are cobalt and lithium. And the beneficiation of this is high-tech manufacturing.” said Motsoenyane at the Networking session.

 “With strategic minerals these are for national economic security. There’s far less risk such as coal and platinum group metals and for beneficiation purposes that carry industrial inputs” she further added.