US-Africa Critical Minerals Forum 2025 Aims to Rebalance Supply Chains
On 15 October 2025, the US-Africa Business Center under the US Chamber of Commerce held its US-Africa #CriticalMinerals Forum in Washington, DC. Then, on 17 October 2025, the US Chamber of Commerce releases its White Paper entitled: “Strategic Ground: Strengthening America’s Security Prosperity through US-Africa Critical Mineral Partnership.” The White Paper follows the research report by the Brookings Institution on the same subject matter entitled “Leveraging US-Africa Critical Mineral Opportunites: Strategies for Success.”
Some 300 delegates attended the Forum, including high-level representatives from both the public and private sectors as well as civil society. It is worth recalling that the US Chamber of Commerce is one of the premier organizations in the US regrouping the private sector.
In the USA, #CriticalMinerals are defined by the Energy Act of 2020 as those that are ‘esssential to the economic and national security.’ According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) report released in August 2025, out of fifty or so listed critical minerals, the US is totally dependent on imports for 12 critical minerals, and for another 28, it has to import more than 50% of its needs, thus rendering the US vulnerable to market manipulation or supply disruption. The Top 10 critical minerals, including rare earths elements (#REE), for the US are: samarium, rhodium, lutetium, terbium, dysprosium, gallium (#Ga), germanium (#Ge), gadolinium, tungsten and niobium.
Africa has 30% of the global reserves of #CriticalMinerals. As such, Africa cannot be ignored in the CriticalMinerals or #RareEarths equation. Currently, thirty-five African countries already produce at least one critical mineral. In particular, the Paper underlined #cobalt from the DR Congo, #bauxite from Guinea, and #lithium from Zimbabwe.
“It’s a productive way for us to rebalance US supply chains as well as support jobs and economic growth in these countries.”
US-Africa Business Center President Kendra Gaither
The White Paper recommends starting with midstream development, before graduating to full-fledged Local Value Addition (#LVA) as well as building the enabling infrastructure in order to transform Africa into a processing hub while bringing about mutual prosperity. In that spirit, the Forum took note of ‘Africa’s Green Minerals Strategy (#AGMS)‘ issued by the African Union in December 2024 which seeks to leverage Africa’s critical mineral resources into sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth.
The Forum came rigth after the Senate confirmed Benjamin Black as the new CEO of the International Development Finance Corporation, which is endowed with a war chest of USD 60 billion to fund projects in US’s national interest, with a particular emphasis on Africa. In addition to DFC, the US Export-Import Bank stand ready to promote private investments into Africa by applying derisking instruments.
Africa can become a key and reliable partner of the US in reconfiguring of the Global Value Chain (#GVC) of Critical Minerals. The Forum called for an intensification and coordination of a ‘mineral diplomacy’ with the Department of State, Department of Energy, Department of Treasury, Department of Intgerior with USGS, DFC, EXIM Bank as well as the private sector in the global race for critical resources.
Despite the Trump administration boycotting the G20 Summit in South Africa, the American private sector, represented by US Chamber of Commerce, intends to mark its presence at both the ucpming B20 and G20 Summits.