This week sees the African Mining Indaba kick-off in the South African city of Cape Town, where stakeholders are gathering to discuss the long-term economic growth and, more importantly, the sustainability of the continents’ mining sector.

At the conference, the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) will highlight how African Union (AU)member states can leapfrog from using polluting internal combustion engines (that are mostly powered by diesel and petrol) to electric mobility and benefit from Electric Vehicle (EV) value chains.

Electric mobility in this instance refers to terrestrial mobility and spans the breadth of 2, 3 and 4-6-wheel electric EVs.

These are in the global mainstream due to the motivation by the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aimed at addressing the challenges around climate change, rising temperatures and violently erratic weather patterns that result in heavier precipitation, unexpected wind and pressure systems and uncontrollable, wildfires, especially in Africa.

In anticipation of climate related and persistent long-term changes detrimental to economies, some member states have committed to focus on EVs. This is with the foresight that their increasingly urbanising cities may become increasingly prone to the vulnerability of climate change caused by vehicle emissions. This commitment encompasses deliberate frameworks, responses, policies and platforms ranging from multilateral funding mechanisms to altogether new authorities in order to position themselves to the transition sector economies in accommodating EVs.

From a continental perspective, the Africa Green Minerals Strategy (AGMS) is the latest framework grounded in the AMV, that pushes for the use of mineral endowments to underpin growth, development, industrialisation and job creation by fully developing inter-sectoral linkages on matters relating to EVs, renewable energy sources, green technologies and electrifying Africa.

This strategy impacts more than just EVs, as it involves building and strengthening local mining supply chains and mineral feedstocks into starting and growing regional manufacturing and requisite infrastructure concerning the extraction of minerals critical to a green, low-carbon future in Africa.

The resonating of the AGMS with policy in some member states is instantaneously on tax incentives and investment provisions, with cases in point being norms allied to globally trailblazing activities in the global value chain of EV production, such as tax -free importation of EVs in tandem with heavily discouraging imports of internal combustion engines (ICE) in one Member State jurisdiction whilst another Member State jurisdiction will deduct 150% of the cost of investment from the taxable income of any manufacturer that puts up assets, buildings, plant and machinery or in improvements to assets to produce EVs.

The Africa Green Minerals Strategy: Objectives and Implementation the AGMS was developed to harness emerging opportunities and to ensure equitable resource-based industrialisation from the extraction and exploitation of mineral resources on the African continent, which is one of the best endowed regions for such assets in the world. The long-term aim is to develop value chains and all their associated linkages to leverage green mineral resources for green industries to serve regional markets and continental markets under the African continental free trade agreement (AfCFTA).

In addition, the clean energy transition offers huge opportunities to close energy deficits and electrify Africa. The vision statement is for “An Africa that harnesses green mineral value-chains for industrialisation and electrification, creating green technologies and sustainable development to enhance the quality of life of its people.”

The past decade has seen spectacular advances in the lifting of trade and investment barriers to commodities within the continent thanks to the accelerated ratification of the AfCFTA. The global decarbonisation agenda has entailed massive investments in infrastructure in mining associated with renewed appetite for mineral resources with the changing dynamics of global mineral resource demand patterns, especially those relating to EVs, renewable energy sources and related battery storage systems.

The four pillars of the AGMS, each address the policies and practices that need to function harmoniously to achieve the strategy’s goals and realise the AMV vision, namely:

1. Advancing mineral resources development

2. Developing people and technological capability

3. Building key value chains

4. Mineral stewardship.

With a focus on two/three-wheeler EVs, renewable energy, grid transmission infrastructure and mini-grid battery storage system value chains for the context of Africa – the multiplier effects on improving the quality of life on the continent becomes glaringly apparent.

Challenges and Opportunities for Electric Vehicle Development in Africa

The increased adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Africa is taking place at a time when the AGMS is coming to prominence, though EVs are only but a part of what the AGMS addresses in the grand scheme of socio-economic transformation related to decarbonisation and green minerals on the continent. The AGMS responds to the increasing importance of clean energy, including electric mobility, in the global transition to decarbonise economies.

Battery technologies are rapidly advancing and are expected to outpace the cost reductions achieved by focusing on just solar generation in the coming decade. Moreover, Africa accounts for a significant amount of minerals essential to battery production, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, iron, phosphate and rare-earth elements.

Africa's vehicle industry must rapidly adapt to the upcoming extensive changes required to move from ICE vehicles to EVs.

In alignment with the AGMS Pillar on “developing people and technological capability", entrepreneur models that provide effective technology transfer and knowledge sharing can be quicker to establish in import substitution.

Once optimised, technology transfer and replication for scale through clusters will be easy to adopt in wider and more advanced regional and continental networks. Africa's EV development of two and three wheelers in particular, can provide an immediate shared effect on the mineral industry and even greater positive influence on industry scalability.

Deliberate penetration effect models in education such as Science Technology, Engineering and Maths programmes can accelerate catching up with global averages in EV productivity that stretches beyond EV production, provided this development contributes indirectly to the mechanical, electrical, and electronics industries.

Future prospects Electric vehicle industry development in Africa is one to leverage the continent’s overall industrial growth within the framework of the AGMS. Support to strengthen value chains for EVs to become a regional industrial leg with African suppliers along these value chains, from recycling to developing secondary material processing capabilities, could result in sustained structural transformation related to equitable resource-based industries in Africa.

Coordinated continental planning aligned to the AGMS assumes that in the near future, regional economic communities will focus on their Member State comparative capabilities, while allowing the creation of creditable and sustainable reverse value chains that include collection, treatment and refurbishment centres transforming waste batteries into core material and regionalising and distributing secondary material processing capabilities.

*Mkhululi Ncube in his private capacity as a respected voice in the African mining and minerals sector. His views and opinions are strictly his and not those of the African Minerals Development Centre, nor those of the African Union. He is a speaker at this year’s Africa Mining Indaba.

** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of IOL or Independent Media.

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