G20 Critical Minerals Framework Sets Out Path for African Processing and Jobs

Africa holds more than half the world’s cobalt, nearly 48% of its manganese, and roughly a fifth of its natural graphite. It also sits on significant reserves of copper, nickel, lithium, and platinum group metals. Yet most of these minerals leave the continent in raw or semi-processed form, only to return as finished clean energy products made elsewhere.

A new framework developed under South Africa’s G20 presidency is intended to change that. The Critical Minerals Framework sets out voluntary guidelines for adding more value locally—processing ore closer to where it is mined rather than shipping it out unrefined. The approach is known as local beneficiation at source.

The economic argument is hard to ignore. According to South Africa’s government minerals strategy, processing critical minerals on the continent could create around 2.3 million jobs and raise Africa’s GDP by roughly 12%. In South Africa alone, unemployment sits at 31.9%. Among 15- to 34-year-olds, it reaches 43.7%.

Demand for these materials is rising fast. The International Energy Agency projected in 2025 that lithium demand would grow fivefold between 2025 and 2040. Graphite and nickel demand is expected to double over the same period, while cobalt and rare earth requirements could climb by 50% to 60%.

The G20 framework also calls for spreading mining, transport, and processing across multiple countries to reduce reliance on any single source. It pushes for strong environmental and social protections in line with African countries’ own laws and proposes building a continental inventory of mineral deposits to guide future exploration without harming communities.

South Africa’s position in this picture is striking. The country holds between 80% and 90% of the world’s platinum group metals and more than 70% of global chromium and manganese resources—metals widely used in electronics and clean energy components.

A separate but related challenge is workforce capacity. The continent graduates large numbers of geoscientists, but gaps remain in areas such as geometallurgy, geodata science, and predictive modeling. Closing those gaps will require targeted training, university–industry partnerships, and incentives for mining companies to share specialist knowledge.

The framework is voluntary and non-binding. Still, it represents a coordinated signal from G20 members that Africa’s mineral wealth should translate into African manufacturing capacity, not just raw material exports.

Image source by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

Article source Department of Mineral Resources SA