For decades, America’s engagement with Africa was largely defined by aid, public health programmes, security partnerships and political diplomacy, but Washington is now making a harder commercial calculation as it seeks to secure critical minerals, opening both direct and indirect investment opportunities for resource-rich African countries.
US President Donald Trump on Friday announced $3 billion in government-backed investments in critical minerals, including rare earths, and battery projects, sharpening focus on Africa, which holds about 30% of the world’s mineral reserves.
“We’re reclaiming America’s rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world,” Trump told more than 200 mining executives, investors, educators and politicians at the State Department.
The funding includes a $1.4 billion conditional loan to Sila Nanotechnologies, $400 million for scandium miner Sunrise Energy Metals and $150 million for magnet developer Niron Magnetics.
The US Export-Import Bank is also expanding financing for mineral projects as Washington builds mining, refining and manufacturing capacity at home, while separately courting critical-minerals opportunities in Africa, where it already finances billions of dollars in other sectors.
