Africa’s $29. 5 Trillion Mineral Wealth: A Call for Strategic Transformation. Cape Town, South Africa — 9th February 2026 Lead Paragraph: Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has released a comprehensive study indicating that Africa holds an estimated $29.
5 trillion in mine-site mineral value, accounting for roughly 20% of the global mineral wealth.
However, the continent captures only a fraction of this economic value, with $8. 6 trillion remaining undeveloped.
The report underscores the need for a strategic shift in how Africa’s mineral resources are managed, emphasizing the importance of industry, infrastructure, and demand.
The AFC’s study highlights the challenges faced by Africa in fully capitalizing on its vast mineral resources. Fragmented geological data, uneven coverage, and limited transparency are identified as key factors contributing to the underdevelopment of the continent’s mineral resources.
The report advocates for improving the availability and quality of geological data as a crucial step to de — risk projects and attract investment.
Furthermore, the study emphasizes that the current mine — site values significantly understate Africa’s true potential. When minerals are processed into steel, aluminium, fertilizers, batteries, and alloys, the value created expands by an order of magnitude.
This underscores the need for Africa to focus on industrialization and infrastructure development to fully harness the economic potential of its mineral endowment.
The Compendium of Africa’s Strategic Minerals, launched at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, aims to reframe the mineral sector through an African development lens. It maps full value chains and links reserves and production to processing capacity, power, and transport infrastructure, and regional industrial corridors.
This approach is intended to improve data transparency, de — risk exploration, lower the cost of capital, and guide smarter investment into mining and enabling infrastructure.
The report also finds that mineral production, enabling infrastructure, and demand rarely co — locate or align at scale. This misalignment is evident in the steel value chain, where Africa’s world-class endowments of ferro-alloys such as manganese, chromium, and nickel are commercially tethered to Asian steel cycles rather than Africa’s own development trajectory.
The Africa Finance Corporation’s study calls for a strategic rewire of Africa’s mineral endowment, focusing on industry, infrastructure, and demand. With the right approach, Africa could transform its mineral wealth into a catalyst for economic growth and development. Further details regarding the implementation of these strategies are expected to be revealed in the coming weeks.
*Additional reporting by ImNews | Sources consulted: 3*
