Africa's minerals

How much of the world's supply

Africa's share of world mine production, mineral by mineral, cut by producing country. Seven countries, each Africa's largest producer of at least one of them, keep one colour in every row; the other African producers are dark grey and the rest of the world is the pale track. Hover a row for every African producer and the world's largest.

Production in 2024 from the British Geological Survey, which names every producing country; lithium, tantalum and rare earths in 2025 from the USGS, whose tables for them are cleaner but fold small producers into "other countries", so their African share is a floor. Ores (manganese, chromium, bauxite, iron, phosphate, titanium, zircon) are by gross weight, metals by metal content, diamonds by carats.

Where the mines are

521 mines and 174 processing plants of these minerals that the USGS located across Africa for 2018, with their operators and owners; 1,183 known deposits; and 1,048 exploration projects. Pick a layer and a mineral: the countries take that mineral's share of world production and only its sites stay on the map. Hover a country or a site for the detail.

Mines and plants are the USGS's compilation of Africa's mineral industry (2021), from its Minerals Yearbook country chapters for 2018: a site's status is as of 2018 ("assumed active" means the yearbook listed it without a note), its capacity is the yearbook's, and owners are as reported then; some have changed hands since. Only sites of the page's minerals are drawn; the cement, steel, salt, coal and other industrial-mineral sites are in the data file, and oil and gas are left out. Deposits are where the USGS records ore, not a list of working mines: from its major mineral deposits of Africa and the Middle East (Open-File Report 2005-1294) and its critical-mineral deposits of the world (Professional Paper 1802, 2017); a deposit in both is drawn once. Exploration projects are from the USGS World Minerals Exploration Database, each last confirmed active between 2004 and 2018. Shares of world production as in the chart above. Borders and lakes from Natural Earth.

Who owned the mines

The 460 mines of the page's minerals that the USGS compilation lists as working or being built in 2018 (not those on care and maintenance or closed), by where their owners were based. Each mine counts once, split by its owners' equity stakes; an owner counts for the home country of its ultimate parent, and a government or company of the mine's own country counts as "host". This is a count of mines, not of their output or value: a small gold mine weighs as much as Kamoto. 92% of the equity could be classified; the rest is the grey track. Hover a row for the largest owners.

Across all of them, companies and miners of the mine's own country held 30% of the equity and its government 17%; European companies 21%, Chinese 6.1% and North American 6.7%. In the copper and cobalt mines, European companies, Glencore first, held 31% and 41%, Chinese companies 22% and 12%. Australian companies held 38% of the titanium mines, governments 89% of the phosphate mines, and local and artisanal miners most of the tin and tantalum mines.

Owners and stakes from the USGS compilation (2018 reference year). Their home countries were classified for this page, from each parent company's own filings and stock-exchange listings, as of 2018: Glencore counts for Switzerland, Anglo American for the United Kingdom, AngloGold Ashanti for South Africa, CMOC for China, Vedanta for the United Kingdom (its Indian-controlled parent is noted). Mines with several minerals count for each. Europe is the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and the Channel Islands.

Twenty-five years of output

Africa's share of world mine production each year from 2000 to 2024, from the BGS. Hover a panel for the year, the share and the largest African producer.

What is left in the ground

Africa's share of the world's known reserves (orange) beside its share of 2025 mine output (blue), for 17 minerals, from the USGS. Reserves are what can be mined at a profit with today's knowledge and prices, as companies and governments report them, so they move with prices and with exploration.

The USGS names only the larger reserve holders and leaves some countries' reserves unreported ("NA"), so Africa's share is a floor. Platinum-group reserves are for all six metals; output is platinum's. Iron is by iron content, bauxite and phosphate by marketable rock, titanium as TiO2 in ilmenite.

Where it goes

What the rest of the world reported importing from African countries in 2024, by destination: ores and concentrates, and the first metals made near the mine (cobalt hydroxide, copper cathodes, ferrochrome, gold bars, rough diamonds). Hover a row for the values and the largest exporters.

UN Comtrade, imports reported by partner countries ("mirror" data, which is more complete than many African customs' own), in US dollars at the importer's border. Trade through a hub shows the hub: gold refined in Switzerland or the Emirates, diamonds sorted in Belgium or Dubai, cobalt and copper that cross Zambia or South Africa on their way. Europe here is the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway; "everywhere else" is led by Indonesia for chromium, Thailand and Malaysia for copper, Canada and Australia for gold, and Pakistan and Türkiye for phosphate. Importers reported 387 tonnes of gold from South Africa in 2024, 4 times the 90 tonnes mined there (BGS): the rest is gold refined in or traded through South Africa, which customs records count as South African. The United Arab Emirates is missing: it had not reported its 2024 imports when this was fetched. In 2023 it reported buying USD 37.0 bn of gold from African countries, most from Guinea, Mali and Ghana, and USD 6.9 bn of diamonds; the bars leave that year out, so the gold and diamond rows understate the Gulf.

Rare earths

The seventeen metals in the magnets of wind turbines, electric motors and guided missiles. China mines most of the world's and refines nearly all of it. Africa mined 1.1% of world output in 2025 (USGS: Madagascar 2,700 tonnes of rare-earth oxide, estimated from China's imports, and Nigeria 1,500, against China's 270,000), but holds known reserves of 890,000 tonnes in Tanzania and 860,000 in South Africa, and some of the most advanced projects outside China. 16 of them are in the register below, compiled on 13 Oct 2026 from ministries', regulators' and the owners' own filings: two producing, two being built, eight at feasibility, two earlier and two stalled.

Country by country

Every African country that mines 1% or more of the world's output of one of these minerals, has three or more deposits on the map or exported more than USD 50 million of them in 2024. The platinum-group metals count once.

How this page was made

Production

The British Geological Survey's World Mineral Statistics, through its open API, for mine production by country from 2000 to 2024. It names every producing country, so Africa's share is a whole share. Where a country reports a total and its parts (gem and industrial diamonds, grades of ore), the total is taken. Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI 2026, used with the acknowledgement BGS asks for. For lithium, tantalum and rare earths, whose BGS tables mix ores, concentrates and contained metal country by country, the USGS's 2025 figures are used instead.

Reserves

The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (public domain), read from its "World Mine Production and Reserves" tables. The USGS folds smaller producers into "other countries" and leaves some reserves unreported, so Africa's shares from it are floors.

Mines and plants

The USGS Compilation of Geospatial Data (GIS) for the Mineral Industries and Related Infrastructure of Africa (2021): every mine and processing plant in the USGS Minerals Yearbook's African country chapters for 2018, located, with its commodities, capacity, status, operator and equity owners. A site listed once per commodity is drawn once. Oil and gas fields and refineries are left out. Status and owners are as of 2018. Its exploration layer (the USGS World Minerals Exploration Database) is the map's third layer.

Owners

The owners' home countries are this page's classification, not the USGS's: each owner counts for the home country of its ultimate parent in 2018, from the parent's filings and listing; a government or company of the mine's own country counts as "host". The full list is in the review table under the chart, and in minerals_owners.json. A mine's equity is split by the stakes the USGS gives; owners listed without a stake share what is left.

Deposits

Two USGS datasets from its ArcGIS server: Open-File Report 2005-1294 (major mineral deposits of Africa and the Middle East) and Professional Paper 1802 (critical-mineral deposits of the world, 2017). Each point is placed in a country by its coordinates; a deposit listed in both, within about 8 km and with a mineral in common, is drawn once.

Trade

UN Comtrade's public API: imports reported by every other country in 2024 from each African country that mines the mineral (per the BGS and USGS), for the HS headings of its ores and first products (listed in the table). Values are at the importer's border, in US dollars; goods refined or re-exported in a country count as that country's. A country that has not reported a year is missing from it: in 2024 that is the United Arab Emirates, whose last reported year is given beside the chart and never added in. Lithium's heading, 2530.90, also holds other minerals, so its row is approximate. Rare earths are left out: Africa's concentrates ship under headings shared with other ores.

Rare earths

A register kept by hand in minerals_ree.json: each project with its owners and their home countries, its stage, resource, buyers and lenders, and the address each fact was read from: ministries, regulators' filings (ASX, TSX, LSE, JSE), technical reports and development banks' own pages.

Files

minerals.json (production, reserves, trade), minerals_sites.geojson (deposits), minerals_facilities.geojson (mines and plants) and minerals_exploration.geojson. Rebuilt with fetch_minerals.py and build_minerals.py.