Surging global demand for critical minerals could soon turn Africa into a hotbed of mining technology, as investors bet on digital tools to fast-track discovery and reduce exposure in high-risk jurisdictions.
Last month, KoBold Metals, a Silicon Valley-backed startup funded by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, entered the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo to begin AI-driven exploration across sites in the central-African state estimated to hold $24 trillion in untapped resources.
It is the California-based company’s second major push on the continent, following its $2billion investment in Zambia’s Mingomba copper project.
This comes amid a bid by African states to stimulate investments into their green minerals sector, including building lithium-ion batteries supply chains to electrify the world’s transport fleet.
In its Critical Minerals Market Review 2023, the International Energy Agency forecasts that the demand for critical minerals will more than triple by 2030 under a “net zero” scenario.
Still, Ghana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have already made sweeping curbs on green material exports to industrialised nations at the expense of local manufacturing, as other nations mull similar moves.
Stringent controls include the suspension of export licenses of some firms to foster local processing.
Now, mining stakeholders are keen to deploy technology to speed up rare earth mineral prospecting and production as China tightens exports.
Last year, China—one of the few other countries with critical green minerals—tightened export controls on certain types of graphite, essential for battery production and electronics.
Amid escalating trade tensions with the U.S., Beijing expanded restrictions on rare earth elements last month, making Africa the next viable source, with states and investors banking on tech to bolster output.
Tellingly, at the upcoming African Mining Week (AMW) in Cape Town in October, there will be a dedicated technology forum for mining firms and tech providers to network.
“The forum will connect African mining projects with global technology providers and investors, showcasing how digital solutions are transforming resource extraction and redefining the mining value chain,” Energy Capital & Power said in a statement.
Already, firms such as KoBold which uses proprietary machine-learning algorithms and geophysical datasets, are targeting deeper, less-accessible deposits that conventional players often avoid due to cost or uncertainty.
The firm backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is part of a growing wave of tech-enabled miners shifting focus from traditional resource basins to frontier markets with critical mineral upside.
Congo’s potential, already the world’s largest cobalt source and a major copper exporter, has long been constrained by underdeveloped infrastructure, regulatory friction and security risks.
But rising demand for battery metals is prompting companies to ratchet up investments in new mining tech like Kobold’s.
Similar strategies are unfolding across the continent. In Zimbabwe, Caledonia Mining is spending $1.1 million to digitise operations at the Blanket Mine, installing new planning software and biometric attendance systems to support an output increase to 77,500 ounces in 2025.
In Botswana, Botswana Diamonds is applying AI to identify copper, silver, and nickel prospects, after early results showed its models could detect patterns missed by traditional surveys.
Tech deployment has also gained traction in South Africa, where players like Kilken Platinum and Rio Tinto are scaling up predictive maintenance systems, autonomous equipment and real-time data platforms.
A joint Accenture–World Economic Forum report projects that digitalisation could unlock R213 billion ($11.6 billion) in value for the country’s mining sector by 2026 through efficiency gains and risk reduction.
African Mining Week is expected to spotlight case studies in digital optimisation, automation and AI-enabled exploration, with a strong emphasis on the net benefit to local economies.
Still, structural hurdles remain Congolese logistics networks are patchy, permitting regimes vary widely, and investors remain alert to political volatility.
Nonetheless, the influx of tech-led entrants signals a growing willingness to absorb those risks—particularly as competition for cobalt, lithium and copper intensifies globally.
bird story agency
