What: Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals Value Chain, and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation
Who: African Development Bank Group, African Governments, African Union Commission and Partner Institutions
When: Friday, 10 July 2026, 8:30 a.m. - 5:15 p.m. (GMT)
Where: At the Radisson Blu Hotel in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)
The African Development Bank Group, in collaboration with African Governments and the African Union Commission, will host a Ministerial conference on 10 July 2026 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, entitled "Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals Value Chain, and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation."
This high-level event will bring together African ministers responsible for Mining, Energy, Industry, Green Economy and Natural Resources, as well as senior representatives of African regional development banks, the African Union Commission, the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), regional financial institutions, strategic technical partners and institutional investors.
Africa holds approximately 30% of the world's reserves of the most critical minerals--including cobalt, lithium, graphite, rare earth elements, platinum group metals, copper, manganese and nickel. The continent's mineral endowment is estimated at about US$29.5 trillion (819% of Africa's GDP, or roughly 8.2 times Africa's annual GDP) in mine site value, representing approximately 20% of the global total, of which about US$8.6 trillion (239% of Africa's GDP) remain undeveloped. Global demand projections for critical minerals are unequivocal: by 2040, demand for platinum group metals is expected to increase by more than 1,000%, lithium by 842% and copper by 88%, compared with 2023 levels. The scale and pace of this growth point to an unprecedented industrial transformation. The electric vehicle and battery value chain alone is projected to grow from USD 7 trillion in 2030 to USD 59 trillion by 2050.
The Forum will provide African leaders and representatives of partner institutions with an opportunity to define strategic pathways on local value addition and make concrete commitments to enable the continent to leverage its vast critical mineral resources for sustainable development.
Participants will discuss ways to position the critical minerals sector as a key driver of structural transformation in support of Africa's development priorities, including industrialization, energy security, infrastructure development, digitalisation, job creation and regional economic resilience, through African-led partnerships and sustainable financing.
The Forum will also identify concrete measures to strengthen the link between mineral beneficiation and local value addition, in line with the objectives of Agenda 2063, the African Green Minerals Vision, the African Development Bank Group's Ten-Year Strategy, and the Bank Group Four Cardinal Points through the mobilisation of capital and large-scale investment across Africa. The Forum will mark a defining milestone for the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), adopted through the Abidjan Consensus in April 2026, mobilising blended finance, guarantees, and institutional capital to address Africa's critical minerals investment gap.
