US plans to break China's dominance over critical minerals via Africa

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – The US plans to use Africa as a supplier of critical minerals, which have a growing importance rising incrementally year-by-year, to break China's dominance on them, according to the Economist.

Africa is home to around 30% of the world's mineral resources, according to the UN Environment Program. So it is a crucial destinations to meet the need for minerals.

The International Energy Agency expects that clean energy technologies will need 40 times more lithium, 25 times more graphite and about 20 times more nickel and cobalt by 2040 versus 2020.

"China is the dominant global player in refining strategic minerals. It refines 68% of nickel globally, 40% of copper, 59% of lithium, and 73% of cobalt," the Brookings Institution, an American think-tank, said in a report it released in July.

"China has had free rein for 15 years while the rest of the world was sleeping," Brian Menell, chief executive of mineral firm TechMet, was quoted as saying in The Economist story.

The US officials are worried about China becoming "an OPEC of one in critical minerals" and conduct more active diplomacy in Africa, according to the report.

US President Joe Biden hosted more than 40 African leaders in Washington in December, and numerous of senior officials have visited the continent, while Biden is also expected to visit Africa this year.