【By Observer News, Wang Yi】Africa is rich in critical mineral resources such as lithium, rare earths, cobalt, and tungsten. These minerals are not only core raw materials for consumer electronics like mobile phones and computers, but also crucial for electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, and even the military industry. For a long time, China has been the dominant force in the global market for critical minerals, with not only abundant domestic reserves but also large-scale mining investments overseas.

The BBC on November 10 pointed out that this has made the United States uneasy, prompting it to accelerate efforts to expand its access to critical minerals, with Africa seen as a key link.

Data from the "China-Africa Research Program" at Johns Hopkins University shows that U.S. direct investment in Africa reached $7.8 billion in 2023, surpassing China's $4 billion, marking the first time since 2012 that U.S. investment in Africa has exceeded that of China.

The leading force behind this wave of investment is the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a government agency established during Trump's first administration in 2019. On its website, the institution openly states that its establishment was aimed at "countering China's presence in strategic regions."

Funds from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation have entered African mining. Last year, Rwanda's Trinity Metals received a $3.9 million grant from the institution to develop tin, tantalum, and tungsten mines.

Shawn McCormick, chairman of Trinity Metals, said, "The U.S. government strongly supports us and hopes to directly extend the supply chain to the United States." The company has now transported Rwanda's tungsten to a processing plant in Pennsylvania, USA, and has reached an agreement to send Rwanda's tin to a smelter in the U.S.

Mccormick denied to the BBC that the move was influenced by U.S. government funding, insisting that "the U.S. did not instruct the company's CEO and executives to 'ship tungsten to the U.S.'", but rather made the decision based on commercial considerations. Five percent of Trinity Metals' shares are held by the Rwandan government, and TechMet, an Irish mining investment company, is also one of its shareholders.

Miners are working. Trinity Metals

However, some people in Africa have already become alert to U.S. investment. Sepo Haihambo, an economist from Namibia and former senior executive of the First National Bank of Namibia, warned that African countries must firmly uphold their national interests when negotiating with U.S. entities and should not expect any benefits.

"It is unrealistic to expect Americans to come forward and negotiate terms favorable to Africa," she said, "Therefore, Africa needs to be well-prepared for these interactions and clearly define what it wants."

Haihambo believes that Africa should move away from the old path of "mineral-for-cash" and explore more equitable frameworks such as production-sharing, joint ventures, and local equity participation. She also suggested considering the accumulation of funds to establish sovereign wealth funds to support development in areas such as education and healthcare.

At the same time, she called for more mineral processing to be done locally in Africa, rather than simply exporting the ore abroad, so that Africa can truly control the value chain.

ReElement Africa, a subsidiary of an American resource company, is building a critical mineral smelting plant in South Africa. Ben Kincaid, CEO of the company, said, "We cooperate with African countries to build processing facilities near the mining sites, which not only creates higher value, but also enhances workers' skills, stimulates regional economies, and lays the foundation for further industrialization."

However, Professor Lee Branstetter, an international economist at Carnegie Mellon University, said that the U.S. has already "missed the opportunity" in its strategy toward Africa. He pointed out that trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on African countries weakened local favorability towards the U.S.

New data from the African polling organization "Afrobarometer" shows that two-thirds of respondents in 35 African countries surveyed believe China's influence is "relatively positive" or "very positive".

"In multiple surveys, China's ranking has always been higher than that of the U.S." A recent article by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) "China Power" project analyzed that policies implemented by the Trump administration have caused resentment among African publics, shaping anti-American sentiments. During Trump's first term, ambassadorial positions in several African countries remained vacant for a long time, and the U.S. had almost no high-level diplomatic representatives in the region. At the same time, the government implemented a "travel ban" that prevented citizens from several African countries from traveling to the U.S.

This situation worsened further during Trump's second term. In June of this year, the U.S. introduced "Travel Ban 2.0," mainly targeting African countries. In August, the U.S. also announced that visitors and business people from certain African countries would be charged a visa deposit of up to $15,000. Additionally, the application fee for H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign talents was increased to $100,000, further damaging the image of the U.S. among the African elite.

More disappointing for African countries was that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade preference program implemented by the U.S. since 2000 for sub-Saharan African countries, expired on September 30, 2025. Despite appeals from leaders of several African countries to the Trump administration to extend it, the act has not yet been renewed.

Different from the U.S., the article points out that China is not only the largest trading partner of most African countries, but also actively participates in the construction of key infrastructure - from ports, highways to parliamentary buildings, Chinese construction companies are the main players in the African engineering sector. Therefore, "unless Washington changes its policy toward Africa, placing specific projects above mining transactions and symbolic gestures, the U.S. will not pose a significant challenge to China's investments across the continent."

This article is an exclusive contribution from Observer News, and unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7571112075485921807/

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