Unalloyed Power: Why Africa’s Mineral Processing Gap Is an Energy Gap
Africa does not lack minerals. It mines 74% of the world’s cobalt, yet accounts for just 3% of its processing. The Energy & Materials chapter of the Africa CEO Playbook argues that this is an energy problem: processing can require four to five times the energy of extraction, and that energy does not reliably exist at most African mine sites.
The numbers make the gap visible. African mining will need an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 MW of mining-grade power by 2030, while the current trajectory delivers only around 1,500 MW. And the grid remains the binding constraint: every $1 invested in generation typically requires 50 to 80 cents in transmission.
The chapter sets out how to close that gap: planning energy and processing as a single task at corridor level, combining renewables for mine-site power with gas for industrial baseload, connecting Africa’s gas to its own markets (only 3% is sold within the continent today), building blended finance at 15 to 20-year tenors, and co-locating processing at the mine, as Guinea’s alumina refinery programme and A2MP-linked projects in Cameroon and Gabon are beginning to show.
A practical roadmap for business leaders, investors and policymakers ready to turn Africa’s mineral wealth into industrial value.
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