As global demand for critical energy transition minerals (CETMs) continues to increase, local processing and value addition is the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s fastest route to industrialisation and economic diversification.
The recent 9th SADC Industrialisation Week (SIW) and Exhibition, held in Durban South Africa, highlighted a key initiative promoting responsible mineral extraction.
Supported financially by the International Climate Initiative (IKI), the five-year regional project on responsible and inclusive energy transition mineral value chains is led by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). It is promoting responsible mining and sustainable industrialisation across the six SADC countries.
From copper in Zambia, cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), manganese in South Africa and lithium in Zimbabwe, the SADC region is key to a clean energy future and to green industrialisation around the world.
Held under the theme, Resilient, Sustainable and Inclusive Industrialisation through Infrastructure Development, Agricultural and Critical Minerals Transformation in Pursuit of a Just World, the SIW underscored the critical importance of responsible mineral extraction.
“Our work, through the project on promoting ESG principles and responsible mining directly contributes to sustainable industrialisation because environmental governance is critical in shaping industrial policy across the SADC region,” said ECA Economic Affairs Officer, Oliver Maponga, noting that the responsible exploitation and value addition of critical energy transition minerals in the region was a key contributor to value chains development, industrialisation, transformation and economic diversification.
The project is being implemented in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe which hold vast reserves of cobalt, copper lithium, manganese, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements. The implementing partners in the project include the African Union Commission’s African Minerals Development Centre; the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits Enterprise); WWF Germany, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) and Projekt Consult GmbH. The project will result in the development of ESG compliant mining policies, improved environmental and climate monitoring practices while ensuring participation and benefit sharing of local mining communities in mining-related governance and the strengthened capacity of communities in mining areas.
A panel convened by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and ECA during the Industrialisation Week, on “Towards Competitive and Resilient Industrialisation in SADC” focused on enhancing industrial competitiveness by aligning regional policies with the needs of enterprises, traders, and mining communities and on artisanal small-scale miners as key actors along the CETMs value chain.
The discussion focused on how artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) contributes to the critical energy transition mineral value chains and how they should not be left behind in the sharing of benefits.
“Artisanal and small-scale miners occupy important nodes in the supply of critical energy transition minerals as reliable sources of the minerals despite their technological, financial and skills limitations,” said Maponga. “We need to ensure that the benefits that result from responsible mining and processing of critical energy transition minerals trickle down to the entire mining value chain.”
The empowerment of artisanal and small-scale miners in responsible mining value chains is a key recommendation in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.
Speaking at the SIW, the SADC Executive Secretary, Elias Magosi, noted that the regional body was endowed with the mineral resources, markets and partnerships needed to industrialise. What is needed is to prioritise industrialization through investing in infrastructure and skills, transforming agricultural value chains, and beneficiating critical energy transition minerals at source.
Africa Fact: A visitor in 1331 AD considered the Tanzanian city of Kilwa to be of world class. He wrote that it was the “principal city on the coast the greater part of whose inhabitants are Zanj of very black complexion.” Later on he says that: “Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed cities in the world. The whole of it is elegantly built.”
Cowboy Booter
Alaska: You have two cows. Their combined IQ is higher than that of your most popular governor.
Sapiens
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”