As the world transitions to green energy, the race is on to control the mining and refining of vital minerals such as cobalt, lithium and graphite. The current leader in that race, by far, is China – which controls the majority of the market. But that dominance is fast being challenged by the West.In Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) supplies more than 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt, exported almost exclusively to China. Just south of the DRC, China has made extensive investments in Zambia, which has one of the world’s highest-grade deposits of copper. On the margins of the Global Gateway Forum, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the DRC and Zambia to develop the critical and strategic raw materials value chains. A similar deal was struck with the US last year. Europe, US racing to challenge China’s dominance over vital African minerals market, but will they succeed?
