Online Reporter
Fairness Moyana in Victoria Falls
AFRICA must forge stronger partnerships with Europe and India to unlock greater value from its critical mineral resources, International Solar Alliance (ISA) Director-General Mr Ashish Khanna has said.
Mr Khanna said Africa possessed vast mineral wealth, while Europe had financial resources as well as research and development capabilities, and India contributed a substantial skills base. However, he noted that the three regions were not collaborating sufficiently to build integrated supply chains.
He was speaking during a Press conference held on the sidelines of the recently concluded 8th ISA
Regional Committee Meeting for the Africa Region, hosted by Zimbabwe in Victoria Falls.
“Africa has the minerals, Europe has the money and the R&D, and India has the human skill but they are not collaborating to create a supply chain that can be very useful for these countries,” said Mr Khanna.
He said inadequate collaboration had contributed to the concentration of global manufacturing capacity, with between 80 and 90 percent of photovoltaic and battery manufacturing located in a single country.
Mr Khanna said the ISA would undertake a study focusing specifically on Africa’s critical minerals and the opportunities for local value addition.
“We will do a specific study only on Africa of both critical minerals and localisation of value addition,” he said.
He, however, stressed that such efforts would require increased international financing to support manufacturing and enable African countries to move beyond exporting raw minerals.
Mr Khanna cited Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery as an example of the continent’s value-addition potential, saying Africa needed more investments of that nature and stronger collaboration among countries.
The call for increased beneficiation comes as Zimbabwe intensifies efforts to derive greater value from its mineral resources, including critical minerals used in clean energy technologies.
Energy and Power Development Minister Cde July Moyo said regional cooperation was vital to ensure African countries shared expertise and technologies as they advance mineral beneficiation programmes.
He said regional initiatives coordinated through the African union and regional economic blocs were helping countries align their mineral development strategies.
“In Africa, there are people who are advanced in one area and others are involved in another area that we must continue to share,” said Moyo.
He said Zimbabwe was already making progress towards beneficiation across several mineral sectors, including platinum, ferrochrome and steel.
Minister Moyo said mining companies were increasingly integrating thermal and solar power to support mineral processing while improving the environmental performance of their operations.
“We cannot export our platinum and platinum beneficiation is taking place,” he said.
Moyo also said some platinum producers had started developing solar power plants to support beneficiation, while the steel sector was pursuing a mix of thermal and solar energy sources.
Minister Moyo said Zimbabwe’s ferrochrome industry was similarly embracing solarisation, with all 14 ferrochrome plants expected to combine thermal and solar power by the end of the year.
He said the shift was not only aimed at promoting beneficiation but also at ensuring Zimbabwean mineral products complied with environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards increasingly required by international markets.
“We think that we can move the technology value chain also while we are moving the beneficiation of our minerals,” said the minister.
The officials said closer collaboration in research, technology, finance and skills development would be essential if Africa is to transform its mineral wealth into manufacturing capacity while creating more jobs and economic opportunities across the continent.
The 8th ISA Regional Committee Meeting for the Africa Region brought together stakeholders to discuss renewable energy deployment and explore ways of accelerating Africa’s transition to clean energy.
