Africa must set the terms of ‘green gold’ minerals boom and avoid historical extraction

As global demand for transition minerals surges, the continent has a rare chance to turn resource wealth into real power, but only if it strengthens governance and puts communities first.

Africa is home to the minerals driving the global energy transition: cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese and copper. These are the materials the world now calls “green gold”, the essential ingredients in batteries, electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies. Yet beneath this glossy rebranding lies a troubling contradiction – while the world rushes to decarbonise, many African communities are still paying the price of extraction with their land, their health and their futures.

From Zambia’s copper belt to the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo and SA’s mining towns, the story is painfully familiar. Water sources are poisoned, farmlands are rendered unusable and families are uprooted. Children drop out of school to labour in informal mining, and women face heightened risks of violence as mining economies distort local power dynamics. Local development remains stunted, even as billions in profits leave the continent, a loss underscored by the recent “slow-motion exit” of Anglo American. Through radical restructurings and demergers, the century-old giant is effectively unbundling its historic South African identity to refocus on global copper assets, leaving behind a legacy of unfilled social obligations and a measurable decline in local tax revenue.

This corporate retreat highlights the urgent need for manufacturing and trade policies that enable Africa to capture more than the current 5% of value realised locally. Without robust safeguards, the rush for transition minerals risks becoming the newest chapter in an old and devastating narrative: resources flowing out, harm staying behind.

African legal systems are making strides. New laws on responsible sourcing, environmental oversight and supply-chain transparency are emerging. The African Union is exploring continental frameworks such as the African Green Minerals Strategy, which could create a stronger, unified governance architecture, an African counterpart to the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act and the global push for due diligence legislation. These developments are promising, but they are not enough.

Fragmented legal frameworks

Legal frameworks remain fragmented, despite the promise of a “single window” for permits, the One Environmental System (OES) has devolved into a jurisdictional tug-of-war between the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. This confusion is compounded by the Draft Mineral Resources Development Bill, which introduces overlapping compliance requirements that even seasoned regulators struggle to navigate.

Enforcement remains inconsistent, with regulators constrained by limited capacity and being under-resourced. Communities, who bear the direct consequences, are still largely excluded from decisions about their land and livelihoods. The result is a regulatory framework that appears robust on paper but is fragmented in practice, allowing accountability gaps to persist.

We must confront a persistent myth, that “tougher rules will scare investors away”. In reality, serious investors, those interested in long-term, stable returns, seek exactly the opposite of weak regulation – they want predictability, they want certainty, they want clear rules that prevent land conflicts, labour abuses, environmental lawsuits and reputational damage. What truly deters investment is chaos such as polluted rivers, community protests, legal disputes and violent conflict. Strong governance is not anti-investment but pro-stability, pro-development and profoundly pro-justice.

A just approach to transition minerals must also be intersectional. Women living near mines often shoulder the burden of environmental harm while being excluded from benefits. Research in the DRC and Ghana shows they frequently face health risks and gender-based violence with little or no institutional support. The tragic story of Mam Fikile Ntshangase serves as a haunting reminder of the ultimate price women pay for their activism.

A mother and grandmother, Mam Ntshangase was assassinated in her home for resisting the expansion of a coal mine that threatened her community’s water and land. Her murder illustrates how lack of protection for environmental defenders allows a culture of impunity and fossil-fuel terror to flourish. Children lose educational opportunities as they are drawn into hazardous labour, while migrant workers and artisanal miners face dangerous conditions with little protection. Laws and policies must reflect these lived realities, not as footnotes, but as central pillars of governance.

Africa stands at a global turning point.

Leverage

The demand for transition minerals is accelerating, and major economies are positioning themselves to secure supply. This gives Africa leverage, but only if we exercise it. By strengthening national laws, coordinating regional standards, and enforcing continental norms rooted in human rights and environmental justice, Africa can set the terms of engagement rather than accept them.

There is no doubt that energy transition will reshape the world, but the question is whether it will also transform Africa positively, equitably, and sustainably – or will it simply replicate old patterns of extraction dressed in green rhetoric?

The minerals beneath our soil can power a global shift to clean energy, but they must also power something deeper: a shift toward justice, accountability and dignity for the people who have too often been left behind. The moment to choose that path is now. DM