Redflag over mineral rush

CLOUDINE MATOLA

The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) has raised a red flag over the intensifying scramble for Africa’s critical minerals, warning that the unfolding gold rush risks deepening poverty, displacing communities without consent and accelerating environmental degradation across the continent.

The church body’s concerns come at a time when Zimbabwe has suspended the export of all raw minerals in a decisive move aimed at promoting transparency, strengthening in-country value addition and enhancing accountability in the mining sector.

Speaking at the Pamoja Critical Minerals Alliance–Africa continental strategy planning workshop and official launch this week — facilitated by the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) — ZCC general secretary Reverend Wilfred Dimingu said Africa once again stands at a historic crossroads.

“A new global rush is underway,” Dimingu said. “Governments, multinational corporations and financial markets are racing to secure Africa’s critical minerals — lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements and platinum — resources essential for electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, digital technologies and defence industries.

This surge is driven by intensifying geopolitical competition, urgent climate commitments and corporate pressure to secure supply chains.”

While the global narrative frames the rush as part of a necessary clean energy transition, Dimingu argued that the lived reality for many African communities remains unchanged.

“Today’s language is different. We hear of green growth, clean energy and sustainable transition. But for many communities across Africa, mining still means displacement without consent, extraction without development, profit without accountability and an energy transition without justice,” he said.

“Africa risks once again being treated as a quarry for global solutions rather than a continent of sovereign peoples with the right to shape its own future.”

Dimingu described the contradiction at the heart of the global energy transition as deeply troubling: minerals extracted from African soil are powering a greener world, yet the communities from which they are sourced often remain trapped in poverty.

“The contradiction of our moment is worrying,” he said. “Minerals extracted from African soil are powering a greener world, yet the communities from which they come often remain in poverty, facing environmental destruction, social disruption and broken livelihoods.”

“A transition that claims to save the planet must not be built on the sacrifice of African lives and lands. This is not merely an economic problem; it is a profound moral crisis.”

Across the continent, surging demand for lithium, cobalt, copper, manganese and rare earth elements — key inputs in electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure — has triggered heightened exploration and extraction activities.

Zimbabwe, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Africa are among countries with significant reserves, attracting growing interest and investment from China, Europe and the United States.

Yet critics argue that without strong governance frameworks, local value addition and community safeguards, the rush may replicate the historical pattern of extractive exploitation that has long characterised Africa’s relationship with global capital.

The ZCC urged religious leaders across the continent to take a clear and courageous stance on the issue, warning that silence would amount to complicity.

“Today, the Church and other faith traditions must again decide where they stand,” Dimingu said.

“Will we bless systems that crucify communities for the sake of global prosperity? Or will we stand prophetically with those whose land, labour and lives are treated as expendable?”

“Silence at such a moment would make us complicit. But courageous engagement can help shape a future in which Africa’s mineral wealth becomes a blessing rather than a curse.”

He added that if faith institutions fail to speak out, they risk becoming “chaplains of injustice rather than servants of liberation.”

Zimbabwe’s recent policy shift to halt raw mineral exports is widely seen as an attempt to break with the past by encouraging domestic processing and beneficiation. Authorities argue that exporting unprocessed minerals has historically deprived the country of higher earnings, jobs and industrial development opportunities.

For the ZCC, however, policy reform alone is not enough. The broader challenge, it argues, is ensuring that mineral extraction — whether for traditional industries or the global green transition — is anchored in justice, transparency and community empowerment.

As the global race for critical minerals accelerates, the church’s intervention adds a moral dimension to what has largely been framed as an economic and geopolitical contest.