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Green energy is an opportunity for African mining
During a recent virtual workshop on the future of mining in Africa post-COVID-19, experts discussed the opportunities presented by the global transition towards green energy. The sentiment arose that Africa’s mineral sector must seize these opportunities in green energy and decarbonisation.
The webinar, organised by the African Natural Resources Centre (ANRC) and the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), both entities of the African Development Bank, in partnership with Nordic Africa Institute, was part of a series examining the impact of the pandemic on Africa’s extractives sector, particularly minerals, oil and gas.
GLOBAL TRANSITION TOWARDS GREEN ENERGY
The ongoing global transition towards green energy and rapid decarbonisation holds significant potential for Africa’s extractives sector, the participants heard.
One opportunity lies in growing demand globally for lithium, which is used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and off-grid energy storage.
“Africa is strategically positioned to derive maximum benefits from the growing global lithium-ion batteries (LIB) industry,” says Dr Cosmas Ochieng, director of the ANRC, who moderated the event on 9 December. In 2018, Zimbabwe and Namibia were among
the top 10 global producers of lithium, with Zimbabwe alone holding 11 million tonnes of lithium ore in its Bikita mines in the country’s Masvingo region.
According to African Mining Market, Zimbabwe is poised to become one of the world’s largest lithium exporters. Lithium ore is becoming an indispensable raw material for the automotive industry. The demand for lithium batteries in the new energy auto industry is growing which raises the price of the resource. In terms of lithium’s importance to the future of energy it is so highly in demand that it is regarded as “white oil”. African leaders must step up and include battery production as a continent-wide development priority, participants urged.
AFRICA MINING VISION
Among other themes discussed by the participants was the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), a policy framework created by the African Union in 2009 to ensure Africa utilises its mineral resources strategically for broad-based, inclusive development.
Some of the goals of the AMV is to create a mining sector that:
• Is knowledge driven and conceived as a key component of a diversified, vibrant and globally competitive industrialising African economy.
• Effectively garners and deploys resource rents and (that) is healthy, inclusive, environmentally friendly, socially responsible and appreciated by all stakeholders and surrounding communities.
• Catalyses and contributes to broad-based growth and development through upstream, downstream, sidestream and infrastructure linkages.
• Increases the level of investment flows into mining and infrastructure projects to support broad socio-economic development.
Lithium mica lepidolite
“The realisation of the Vision hinges on strong political will and a commitment to developing strong capable mineral management systems and institutions. It requires an astute understanding of Africa’s relative advantages in the global mineral value chain,” says
Dr Antonio Pedro, director of the Economic Commission for Africa’s subregional office for Central Africa.
In a presentation on drivers of the sector in the post-pandemic period, Dr Kwasi Ampofo, metals analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says “adoption of renewable energy is rising in the mining sector. Investments in renewable energy have increased significantly in the last 10 years,” he says.
Ampofo urged African mining companies to take a lead in decarbonisation of their operations and the transition to clean energy to attract ‘green’ funds.
Lithium batteries for environmentally friendly electric vehicles
A Lithium mine in Western Australia
African Development Bank www.afdb.org
