has awakened with more ambition in mining and processing and building alliances with like-minded partners," said Carroll, who is also an adjunct professor in the African studies program at Johns Hopkins University.Ī first-time sponsor of the Mining Indaba this year was Chinese company Zijin, one of the largest mining groups in the world with interests in lithium, copper and other metals.įILE - Zijin Mining chairman and founder Jinghe Chen speaks during the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2023 conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. He also assured African countries the United States would respect "environmental, social, and governance standards." However, their extraction can come at an environmental or social cost to African countries that have big deposits.įernandez echoed remarks made by Pope Francis on his recent trip to Congo denouncing "economic colonialism" in Africa, which could be seen as a swipe at Beijing. Rare earth minerals are essential for electric vehicle production and expanding the production of green technologies. The West woke up to this strategy too late and have been scrambling ever since," he said. The Chinese made it a "priority to corner the market for critical minerals about two decades ago and supported that strategy with massive public diplomacy and infrastructure investments into Africa - most of which via long-term debt. Tony Carroll, the director of Acorus Capital and an international adviser to the conference known as the Africa Mining Indaba, told VOA the session came at a critical time for the West. China is responsible for some 80 percent of the world's lithium refining. 6, 2023.įernandez - who did not mention China by name - noted that electric vehicles are expected to command half the global market by 2030 and that demand for lithium is expected to increase 42-fold by 2040. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment speaks at Investing in African Mining Indaba 2023 conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Feb.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |