[vc_column_textCompiled 7 April, updated 9 August 2025
Africa is crucial for neighbouring Europe – but also for the United States – for one reason :
Unlike most of the world’s major mining areas, where resources will be exhausted in the coming decades, Africa appears to be a largely untapped Eldorado. About a third of the world’s reserves, for all metals, are locked up there. And this proportion is much higher for some of the most strategic. “I think Africa will lead the world in terms of mining. And not by the margins, but by a wide margin,” Robert Friedland, founder of Ivanhoe Mines, which operates the giant Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the DRC, told in 2023. “Africa is fortunate to have the largest mineral deposit on the planet, which is just beginning to be scratched,” added the American tycoon known for his shocking phrases.
The control of mineral resources aggravates the competition between the great powers. Most of the operating mines on the continent belong to Chinese companies (*) . They control at least half of them in the DRC and at the end of 2023 got their hands on the Khoemacau copper deposit in Botswana, one of the largest in Africa. In 2018, the latter controlled 41% of African cobalt production and 28% of copper production.
(*) Rare earths, the metals used for components, are ‘the problem’ now for Trump, in whose negotiations China is starting from a position of strength ( ‘US president gets long-awaited conversation with XI’, Le Monde, 7 June 2025). Moreover, while the US has left Africa to its fate, China, in addition to having a military base in Djibouti, is negotiating to install itself militarily in nine other African states.
Having abandoned an industry known to be environmentally and socially devastating, Westerners are trying to catch up. Represented by big players such as Ivanhoe Mines, Anglo American (UK), Glencore (Switzerland) and First Quantum Minerals (Canada), they control about a quarter of the continent’s mining production. In July 2024, the Financial Times revealed that the US pressurised Kinshasa to cancel the sale of copper and cobalt assets to Norin Mining, a subsidiary of a Chinese arms company. In turn, emerging countries are entering the battle…
How do you read the graph below?
Africa has 90% of the world’s platinum…
Africa has 187 sites where copper (cuivre) is being explored for mining or extracted…
- there are other important raw materials, such as cocoa, for example.
But the most important reasons, apart from the control of rare earths and metals, are:
- the population explosion (in 2050 there will be 2.5 billion Africans – source: “la Ruèe vers l’Europe” Stephen Smith- Grasset)
- which intersects with Islamic fundamentalism (in Tchad or Chad – where I have just been), in addition to the Russians, there are the Saudis, who are financing mosques almost everywhere. Do you remember the Twin Towers bombing? It was the year 2001.
- then there is the illegal immigration that is under the control of Vadimir Putin
Sudan ‘s, by the way, is getting worse:
In Sudan, ravaged by two years of civil war, the conflict is spilling over
Clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces have already claimed more than 150,000 lives in two years.
Almost 13 million people have been displaced and half of Sudan’s 44 million people are on the brink of famine.
Who is profiting from the strategic errors of the Americans?
1 ) primarily Russia
Russia also controls the entire sub-Saharan strip and the trafficking of migrants.
The Trump administration has caught up: “…by getting a peace agreement signed between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda on Friday 27 June at the White House… The continent’s economic priorities often coincide with those of the United States. On 30 June, the US State Department announced the signing of contracts and commitments worth ‘more than $2.5 billion [€2.1 billion]’ at the end of the US-Africa trade summit held in Luanda, the Angolan capital, from 22 to 25 June.
Construction of grain silos, development of an electricity transmission line that will connect Angolan hydroelectric power plants to mines in the Kolwezi region of the DRC: several projects are part of the development of the Lobioto Railway Corridor, a massive US-funded project to facilitate the export of critical minerals across Angola’s Atlantic coast
But “…the Djiboutian chairman of the African Commission, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, warned in Luanda: “If 36 African countries are banned from obtaining visas for the United States, how can trade between our two spaces develop? If customs duties are imposed abusively against African states, and for some more than 40% in customs duties, how will business develop? “…
p.s.. : France ‘s only weapon left in Africa is the weak CFA franc. A little bit.
2) Who is taking advantage of the Americans?
China , which has trade agreements, without tariffs, with 53 African countries and which has recently surpassed the US in appreciation among Africans.
P.S.: Trump seems to have realised his mistakes: the US resumes contacts with the Sahel juntas (1 August 2025).
As Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger move closer to Russia at the expense of their Western partners, two senior US officials recently visited the region to discuss, among other things, the fight against terrorism.
