Mining in contemporary African underdevelopment

Bibliographic Data

ID24214366
AuthorsBettina Engels (0000-0003-2897-407X, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Editorial Working Group, Review of African Political Economy), Elisa Greco (0000-0002-7580-3444, Editorial Working Group, Review of African Political Economy)
Year2026
Volume53
Issue189
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of African Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-6244 • E-ISSN: 1740-1720
PublisherReview of African Political Economy (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.62191/roape-2026-0024
OpenAlexW7220392523
LanguageEN
References cited31

Mining in contemporary African underdevelopmentOne of the defining characteristics of capitalism is its remarkable ability to emerge from every crisis even stronger.[1] History has shown time and again that war and militarisation serve capitalism's interests.And even in the case of the climate crisis -for which capitalism bears the greatest responsibility -we are presented with an alleged 'win-win' solution.While multinational companies at least partly withdraw from coal mining (see Tsuji et al. 2026, in this issue), the massive rise in demand for metals and minerals that are needed for 'clean energy', digitalisation, consumer electronics, aerospace and militarisation has led to a renewed mining boom, notably of so-called critical raw materials (UNCTAD 2026).In a business-as-usual scenario, demand for these materials between 2024 and 2040 is projected to increase by 353% in the case of lithium, 131% for graphite, 69% for nickel and 49% for cobalt (UNCTAD 2026, 3).Many of the deposits of these raw materials are located in the global South, with the African continent accounting for about 30% of the world's critical minerals and metals: for example, 85% of global deposits of manganese (in South Africa and Gabon) and 21% of graphite reserves (in Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania).Guinea alone holds one-quarter of global bauxite reserves.South Africa is one of the world's leading producers of chromium and platinum, while the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the second-largest producer of copper, with a 13% share of global supply in 2024 (after Chile with 24%).Around 70% of the global supply of cobalt is extracted in the DRC (Boafo et al. 2024; IEA 2025; Cobalt Institute 2026; US Geological Survey 2026).Lithium has become the epitome of the metal needed for energy transition: it 'embodies the fantasy of a "technological fix", capable of turning the climate crisis into a political and economic opportunity for those in power' (Voskoboynik and Andreucci 2022, 803).Critical research, political debate and activism has focused on the catastrophic impacts of the expansion of mining in the 'Lithium Triangle' (Chile, Argentina and Bolivia) that holds the largest part of global lithium reserves (Ahmad 2020; Ciftci and Lemaire 2023; Mejia-Muñoz and Babidge 2023).Yet, less attention has been paid to Zimbabwe, for instance, which holds the world's fifth-or

Africa · Economic development · Mining · resource extraction · Underdevelopment · Extractivism and Socioeconomic Issues · Mining and Resource Management · Natural Resources and Economic Development

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