Africa’s Regional Blocs Must Prevent a Silent Scramble for Critical Minerals

A new scramble for Africa is underway. It is not marked by warships or colonial flags, but by battery supply chains, green transition targets, and high-level trade delegations. The race is for lithium, cobalt, graphite, manganese, platinum group metals and rare earth elements — the minerals powering electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and digital infrastructure.

This scramble is quieter than the 19th-century version. But its implications could be just as profound.

The difference today is that Africa is not politically fragmented in the same way. The continent possesses regional…