How China and the US Pursue African Critical Minerals

 China-Africa Security Radar published on 3 August 2026 an article titled "Fragmented Leverage: Why African States Call for Collective Bargaining but Prefer Bilateralism in Critical Minerals Negotiations" by Paa Kwesi Wolseley Prah.

The author explains how China and the United States seek advantage with African countries in bilateral negotiations in their quest for critical minerals.  China exploits bilateral negotiations through processing dominance and bundled infrastructure-mineral deals.  The United States pursues selective frameworks and corridor diplomacy.  

Competing Transport Corridors for Africa's Critical Minerals

 Africa at LSE published on 15 April 2026 a paper titled "Critical Mineral Transport Infrastructure Is the Latest Theater of Geopolitical Competition in Africa" by Stephen Nduvi.  

Rehabilitation of the Chinese-funded Tanzania-Zambia railway is competing with the Western-funded Lobito Corridor (Angola, DRC and Zambia) infrastructure project to transport critical minerals to ports on the Atlantic or Indian Oceans.  The big challenge for African countries is converting corridor competition into sustainable development outcomes.

Great Power Competition for DRC Critical Minerals

 Bankable posted on 7 April 2026 a commentary titled "Zijin, CMOC Back Competing Alternative to Lobito Corridor" by Pierre Mukoko.

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and four Chinese companies are financing a $1.4 billion project to rehabilitate the Tanzania-Zambia railway that will transport critical minerals from the DRC to the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam.

The Tanzania-Zambia railway will compete with the American and European Lobito Corridor project that will transport critical minerals from the DRC to an Atlantic Ocean port in Angola.  

China Dominates Investment Proposals in Angola

 Business Insider Africa published on 10 March 2026 an article titled "Africa's Second-largest Oil Producer Says China Dominated $21.88 Investment Proposals Over Five Years" by Solomon Ekanem.

Angola has received 596 investment proposals worth an estimated $21.8 billion over the past five years. with Chinese investors accounting for 80 percent of the total.  

Africa's New Approach to Critical Minerals: Implications for China and the West

 Skillings Mining Review published on 3 March 2026 an article titled "The Indaba 2026 Legacy: Inside the New African Critical Minerals Framework" by Charles Pitts.

The most recent Cape Town conference on mining (Indaba 2026) demonstrated that three major African sources of critical minerals (DRC, Zambia, and South Africa) acted in a coordinated way to ensure that its raw mineral wealth is not just exported but more of it is refined in Africa for value added benefits.  For example, the DRC produces about 70 percent of the world's cobalt but now refines less than 10 percent of it.  The DRC intends to change that ratio.

The West's Lobito Corridor project for Angola, Zambia, and the DRC fits this new African narrative reasonably well, China's focus on importing raw material not so much.  

Critical Minerals: Africa, US, and China

 Mining Focus Africa published on 23 February 2026 an article titled "Mining Indaba 2026: Event Highlights Africa's Mining Opportunity Amid Global Competition" by David Christianson.  

The United States showed up in force at the 2026 Africa Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa.  The conference followed the announcement of Project Vault, a $12 billion US initiative to build a strategic stockpile of critical minerals.  An underlying theme of the conference was US-China competition for Africa's critical minerals.  

Will Africa Win in Competition for Critical Minerals?

 Reuters published on 12 February 2026 an article titled "Can Africa Win as the West and China Scramble for Minerals?" by Clyde Russell.

Competing Western and Chinese rail projects in a mineral rich part of Africa emphasize the competition for Africa's critical minerals.  A question remains, however, if the African countries will benefit significantly from this competition.  

US-China Competition for African Minerals

 The Telegraph published on 12 February 2026 an article titled "'Mine, Baby Mine': Trump Races to Catch Up to China in New Scramble for Africa's Minerals" by Ben Farmer.

Washington is trying to overturn more than 20 years of Chinese dominance in which Beijing has taken control of mining and refining of critical minerals.  This competition is playing out this week at a major mining meeting in South Africa.

Africa's Critical Minerals: Is China or the United States the Better Partner?

 The Diplomat published on 5 February 2026 an analysis titled "China and the US Want Africa's Critical Minerals, Will African Countries Actually Benefit?" by Juliet Onyino and Weilu Jiang, both at Development Reimagined.

The authors concluded that neither the American nor the Chinese critical mineral strategies fully advance Agenda 2063's vision of African-led structural transformation.  In both cases, Africa's development objectives remain secondary unless effectively enforced through negotiation and policy coordination. 

China-US Investment Competition in Africa

 Deutsche Welle published on 12 December 2025 an article titled "Africa at the Center of US-China Resource Race" by David Ehi.  

In 2023, American companies invested more in Africa than did Chinese companies.  But figures for one year are misleading.  In recent years, Chinese companies have invested more in the continent than American companies.  

The author argues that US foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa is focused on making a profit for the investing company.  Chinese FDI, ultimately backed by the government of China, pursues long-term strategic goals, especially in the critical minerals sector.  

China and Russia Advance in Africa as US Narrows Interest to Critical Minerals

 Stimson published on 20 November 2025 a commentary titled "Trump's Critical Minerals Search in Africa Won't Tip the Scales Against China" by Mathew Burrows and Benjamin Weise.   

As the United States pulls back from Africa and narrows its interest to the extraction of critical minerals, China and Russia are expanding their engagement on the continent.

US Looks Beyond China and to Africa for Rare Earths

 Fox News posted on 26 October 2025 an article titled "Trump Administration Works to Break China's Rare Earth Stranglehold on Africa" by Paul Tilsley.

Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, and South Africa expect to open rare earth mines by 2029.  The United States now imports 70 percent of its rare earth elements from China but hopes to secure new sources in Africa.  

If you can't access the article in the above link, try doing so here.

China-EU Competition in Africa

 Courthouse News Service published on 9 October 2025 an article titled "EU Woos Mineral-rich Africa as China Tightens Resource Grip" by Yuval Molina Obedman.  

The European Union pledged $440 Billion through 2027 in infrastructure investment in Africa as it competes for influence with China. The EU program emphasizes private sector investment and blended finance using grants, loans, and guarantees.  

DOGE Targets First Trump Administration's International Development Finance Corporation

 Politico published on 28 April 2025 an article titled "DOGE Targets US Foreign Aid Agency Created under First Trump Administration" by Robbie Gramer and Sophia Cai.  

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) was created with bipartisan congressional support during the first Trump administration to provide private sector funding for development projects in lower- and middle-income countries--offering an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative.

A team of DOGE personnel went to the DFC headquarters in Washington this week to begin assessing the agency's effectiveness and alignment with the president's agenda.  

Comment:  Because the DFC was created during the first Trump administration, it may be left intact.  In any event, it was a good initiative that should be retained.  But that has not stopped DOGE from dismantling other good institutions such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson Center.  

US-China Competition for Africa's Critical Minerals

 National Public Radio posted on 4 December 2024 an article titled "D.R. Congo's Mining Capital Is at the Heart of Biden's Bid to Counter China in Africa" by Emmet Livingstone.

A small mining town in the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo is at the center of US-China competition over critical minerals in Africa.

American and Chinese-financed Railway Projects in Southern Africa: Competition or Cooperation?

 The Center for Strategic and International Studies published on 10 October 2024 a commentary titled "Two Railroads, One Vision" by Judd Devermont.

The US has mobilized over $4 billion to develop the Lobito Economic Corridor, including refurbishing Angola's Benguela rail line and supporting a rail line expansion between the southern DRC and Zambia.  This project will improve the movement of minerals and goods to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast.  China is making available $1 billion to revitalize the Tanzania-Zambia Railway built in the 1970s that terminates in Dar es Salaam in the Indian Ocean.

While these projects are being framed in the context of great power competition, they offer the possibility of serving as an example of great power cooperation and one that accomplishes a Pan-African goal for a transcontinental rail link from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic that will expand economic development throughout the region.  This could be done by connecting the two projects if all parties were to agree.   

China Finances Rehab of Tan-Zam Railway

 Nanyang Technological University posted on 28 October 2024 an article titled "China to Revive East African Railway as Scramble over African Resources Intensifies."  

China signed a memorandum of conversation to upgrade at a cost of more than $1 billion the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) originally constructed with an interest free loan from China in the 1970s.  The line, designed to move copper from Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam on Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast, has deteriorated and is operating at a fraction of its potential.

TAZARA will also compete in the years ahead with a new US and EU funded railway that will move minerals from the mining areas of Zambia and the DRC to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast.

Biden Goes to Angola Not Just to Counter China

 The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal published on 18 October 2024 a commentary titled "Why President Joe Biden Is Going to Africa--It's Not (Just) about China" by Tibor Nagy, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Trump administration.  

President Joe Biden's belated trip to Angola in December is not only about competition with China, but also an effort to showcase an attractive Western development project in the Lobito Corridor that links Angola with the DRC and Zambia.  

Great Power Competition in Africa

 This is the opening statement on 11 September 2024 of Acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, John Bass, on "Great Power Competition in Africa" before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The statement is critical of China's trade practices in Africa.  It is even more critical of Russia's widespread human rights abuses and disinformation activities on the continent.  

US-China Competition Over African Minerals Ramps Up

 The US Institute of Peace published on 12 September 2024 an analysis titled "What Does the Emerging China-Africa Minerals Consensus Mean for U.S. Initiatives?" by Cobus van Staden.  

The US-led Lobito Corridor project in Angola, Zambia, and the DRC to improve transport for the export of minerals to the Atlantic Ocean would appear to be competing with China's recent agreement to finance the upgrading of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway with its outlet to the Indian Ocean.  The question for Africa is whether it can manage both relationships to its own advantage.