Africa's critical mineral powerhouses brace for renewed U. S. -China race after Trump's defense order
The United States has taken another step in its effort to reduce reliance on China for strategic raw materials, with President Donald Trump signing a sweeping executive order designed to secure Americas defense supply chains - placing Africas mineral-rich economies firmly at the center of an intensifying geopolitical contest. | Business Insider Africa
The United States has taken another step in its effort to reduce reliance on China for strategic raw materials, with President Donald Trump signing a sweeping executive order designed to secure America's defense supply chains - placing Africa's mineral-rich economies firmly at the center of an intensifying geopolitical contest. The order directs the U. S. Department of Defense to strengthen oversight of critical mineral supply chains, restrict waivers for sourcing sensitive materials from designated foreign countries, and encourage defense contractors to qualify new domestic and partner-nation sources of minerals and components essential to military production. While the directive focuses on safeguarding America's defense industrial base, it also reinforces Washington's growing urgency to diversify supply chains away from China, which dominates the global processing of several minerals vital to advanced weapons systems, semiconductors, aerospace technologies and military electronics. That shift is expected to elevate the strategic importance of African producers, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Africa and Zambia, which collectively possess some of the world's most sought-after mineral resources. Africa holds an estimated 30% of the world's known critical mineral reserves, according to the African Development Bank, making the continent indispensable to global efforts to secure supplies of cobalt, copper, platinum group metals, manganese, graphite, lithium and rare earth elements. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accounts for roughly 70% of global cobalt mine production, supplying a mineral that is essential for advanced batteries and a wide range of defense applications. Neighboring Zambia is Africa's second-largest copper producer, supplying a metal that is critical for military communications, electrical systems, power infrastructure and advanced defense manufacturing. South Africa remains the world's dominant producer of platinum, accounting for around 70% of global mined platinum output, while also ranking among the world's leading producers of manganese and vanadium - minerals that are increasingly important for defense, aerospace and advanced industrial applications. . Africa becomes the next battleground for strategic mineral supply chainsTrump's latest directive builds on a broader U. S. strategy to secure critical minerals from trusted partners while reducing exposure to supply chains controlled by geopolitical rivals. In recent years, Washington has backed projects such as the Lobito Corridor, a strategic transport network linking the copper and cobalt belts of the DRC and Zambia to Angola's Atlantic coast, providing an alternative export route that bypasses traditional logistics channels. The executive order is also likely to intensify competition between the United States and China, which has spent more than two decades investing heavily in African mining assets and today controls or holds significant stakes in many of the DRC's largest cobalt operations. Chinese companies also dominate the global refining of cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements, giving Beijing considerable influence over downstream supply chains. For African governments, the renewed Western focus presents an opportunity to attract fresh investment, particularly into local processing and refining rather than simply exporting raw ores. Countries including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Madagascar are also expected to benefit as demand grows for lithium, uranium, graphite and rare earth elements that are increasingly viewed as strategic national security assets. Rather than marking a short-term procurement shift, Trump's executive order signals that access to critical minerals has become a defining feature of global security policy. For Africa's leading producers, especially the DRC, South Africa and Zambia, the continent's vast resource wealth is increasingly becoming a geopolitical advantage as the world's largest economies compete to build resilient, China-independent supply chains.