Africa is sitting on a treasure that, by one authoritative estimate, amounts to USD 29.5 trillion in mineral wealth. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests that treasure is finally being converted into something the continent needs even more urgently: jobs.
A sweeping new study released last week by the Africa Finance Corporation — the Compendium of Africa’s Strategic Minerals 2026 — places Africa’s share of global mineral reserves at roughly 20%, with at least USD 8.6 trillion of that wealth still sitting untouched beneath the continent’s surface. The report arrives at a moment when global demand for critical minerals is accelerating, geopolitical rivalries are intensifying over supply chains, and African governments are increasingly insisting that resource extraction translate into local economic benefit.
“The question is no longer whether Africa has the resources,” said one senior AFC official. “The question is whether Africa has the infrastructure, the capital, and the institutional frameworks to turn those resources into sustained employment and industrialization.”
- USD 29.5T – Estimated total mineral wealth across Africa
- 20% – Share of global mineral reserves held by Africa
- USD 8.6T – Untapped mineral reserves still unexploited
- 15,000+ – Jobs generated by AFC USD 700M mining portfolio
Expanding production, expanding payrolls
Across the continent, mining companies are advancing new greenfield developments and reviving dormant brownfield operations — and the employment ripple effects are already visible in government statistics and investment filings.
In Namibia, the resumption of uranium extraction in 2025 and 2026 is providing a shot in the arm to a sector that has been working hard to diversify. At a mining industry forum in Cape Town, Deputy Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy Gaudentia Krohne disclosed that the country’s mining industry directly employed 20,843 people at the close of 2024. Namibia is now moving into rare earths, copper, and lithium in addition to its traditional uranium base, and is finalising a new minerals bill intended to provide investors with greater regulatory clarity.
“Namibia is committed to supporting small-scale miners and improving livelihoods. We are focusing on finance support schemes and training support programs to equip our workforce with emerging skills.”
— Gaudentia Krohne, Deputy Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy, Namibia
In South Africa, the government has unveiled plans to mobilise ZAR 2 trillion — roughly USD 110 billion at current exchange rates — over the next five years to strengthen its critical minerals value chain. The strategy encompasses exploration, project development, advanced manufacturing, and skills training. According to official data, formal mining employment in the country held steady at approximately 468,000 workers in mid-2025, even as commodity prices fluctuated. Analysts say the ZAR 2 trillion commitment, if fully realised, could meaningfully push that figure higher over the medium term.
In Zambia, copper remains king, and the sector is delivering. More than 73,000 workers were employed in mining in 2025, and several high-profile investment announcements are set to expand that figure significantly. U.S.-based startup KoBold Metals is committing USD 300 million to develop the Mingomba copper deposit, a project expected to generate more than 700 direct jobs. Meanwhile, Vedanta Resources has pledged USD 1.5 billion at its Konkola Copper Mines, and First Quantum Minerals has announced a USD 1.25 billion expansion at its Kansanshi S3 project — two of the largest individual mining investments on the continent in recent years.
Capital into careers: the AFC model
The link between targeted financing and employment creation is perhaps best illustrated by the AFC’s own track record. Speaking at African Mining Week 2025 in Cape Town, Molebogeng Mazibuko, the corporation’s Associate Vice President of Investment, outlined how the AFC has deployed roughly USD 700 million into mining across the continent — generating, by its count, more than 15,000 jobs. Notably, up to 70% of that capital has been directed specifically toward critical minerals, reflecting the global pivot toward battery technologies, clean energy infrastructure, and semiconductor supply chains.
Mazibuko called for deeper partnership between African institutional investors and global financiers, arguing that the current pipeline of bankable projects across the continent far exceeds available local capital — and that bridging that gap is the single most effective lever for accelerating employment growth.
The DRC: a USD 24 trillion question
Nowhere is the employment potential more striking — or the gap between potential and reality more acute — than in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC’s mining sector already supports more than 100,000 jobs, according to Minister of Mines Louis Watum Kabamba, who made the disclosure at AMW 2025. But the country’s total estimated mineral reserves are valued at approximately USD 24 trillion, and by Kabamba’s own account, barely 10% of that has been exploited to date.
A bilateral agreement signed in December 2025 between the United States and the DRC — covering mineral extraction, value addition, and trade — is now being closely watched by industry observers globally. If implemented effectively, analysts say it could substantially increase foreign direct investment into the Congolese mining sector and accelerate job creation, particularly in processing and downstream manufacturing. China, which already has deep roots in Congolese mining, is also expanding its engagement, creating a competitive dynamic that some African officials say could ultimately benefit Congolese workers and communities — provided the right regulatory frameworks are in place.
Beyond extraction: the value-addition imperative
A recurring theme in the AFC compendium is that raw mineral extraction, while important, represents only the beginning of Africa’s employment opportunity. The report identifies aluminium, fertilizers, battery materials and advanced alloys as downstream industries with enormous potential to multiply the number of jobs connected to each tonne of mineral extracted. For most of Africa’s mining history, ore has left the continent as raw or semi-processed material, with the value-added stages — smelting, refining, chemical processing, component manufacturing — taking place elsewhere.
Shifting that pattern is a central ambition of multiple African governments. South Africa’s ZAR 2 trillion initiative explicitly targets manufacturing and skills training, not just exploration. Zambia has introduced policies to encourage local refining of copper. And at the continental level, the African Continental Free Trade Area is being increasingly discussed as a framework through which intra-African trade in processed minerals could be structured and incentivised. AfCFTA, if leveraged effectively, could become a powerful multiplier for downstream mineral employment across the continent.
Closing the investment gap
For all the momentum, significant obstacles remain. Access to capital is a persistent constraint, particularly for smaller-scale African operators who lack the balance sheets and credit histories that international lenders typically require. Project development timelines stretch for years — or decades — when financing is delayed. Regulatory uncertainty, infrastructure deficits, and currency volatility add further complexity for foreign investors considering large commitments.
Against that backdrop, African Mining Week 2026, scheduled for 14–16 October in Cape Town, is being positioned as a deal-making platform specifically designed to close the gap between available capital and shovel-ready projects. Organisers say the event will bring together global institutional investors, development finance institutions, mining companies, and African government officials in structured sessions aimed at moving transactions from concept to commitment.
The ambition is straightforward: translate the continent’s mineral endowment — all USD 29.5 trillion of it — into employment, industrial capacity, and broadly shared prosperity. Whether that ambition can be fully realised will depend, as it always does in Africa’s resource story, not just on what lies beneath the ground, but on the decisions made above it.
“Africa does not need more studies telling us we are rich. We need the financing, the infrastructure, and the political will to make that richness work for African workers and African communities.”
— Senior AFC official, speaking on background, Cape Town, 2025
