African countries aim to expand their mining sector

African leaders, mining experts, and global investors are gathering in South Africa for a yearly conference about mining.

Africa has a lot of valuable minerals, about 30% of the world’s reserves. But most of these minerals are not being used.

“Africa has the ability to become a key part of the world’s shift to cleaner energy, with mining as its central focus,” stated South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa at the start of a four-day event in Cape Town.

We will talk about the competition to get important minerals from Africa. These minerals, like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite, are needed to make renewable energy, like solar panels and wind turbines.

South Africa emits the most greenhouse gases in Africa. The majority of these gases come from power plants that use coal. These power plants make 80% of the electricity in the country.

South Africa is having a hard time shutting down their coal power plants because of the energy crisis.

President Ramaphosa said that South Africa is working towards changing its energy in a fair way. The goal is to do this in a way that the country can manage, make sure there is enough energy, and create new opportunities for people.

Many African countries send out valuable minerals as raw materials without making them more valuable at the place they come from. This has made them not get the most out of these resources. It has also led to unfair labor practices in the mining industries in Africa.

Countries have trouble getting their minerals to markets because they don’t have the right transportation and facilities. This makes it expensive and inefficient.

The mining industry has only given 8% of the money to the government in the top 15 African countries that rely on mining.

African governments will want to have more say and get better deals for their resources at the conference.