The African Climate Foundation published on 23 September 2022 a report titled "Geopolitics of Critical Minerals in Renewable Energy Supply Chains" by Antonio Andreoni, SOAS University of London, and Simon Roberts, University of Johannesburg.
In 2019, China was the top producing country of graphite and rare earth elements and third highest producer of copper and lithium. It had the highest share of any country of processing volume for copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements.
China's corporate control over total African mine production in 2018 was a modest 6.7 percent. The British international mining company, Anglo American, exercised the most control at 14.9 percent. Nevertheless, in 2021, China Molybdenum controlled more than one-tenth of the world's cobalt and Chinese companies strengthened their grip over rare earth elements.
