Critical Minerals Debate Highlights Call for Fair Growth and Energy Transition

A debate on the contradictions inherent in critical minerals, which, one the one hand, are essential for modern technology, while on the other, are fraught with environmental, social, geopolitical and supply chain vulnerabilities, took centre stage on the last day of the P20 Speakers Summit.

A senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Dialogue, Ms Sanusha Naidu, fleshed out these anomalies in her presentation. She focused on how critical minerals should bring about inclusive growth, but yet developing countries that are endowed with these critical minerals, have yet to accrue any meaningful benefit from them. 

“These minerals, such as lithium, cobalt and platinum, among others, are significant factors in driving growth, on one hand. On the other, they are also significant disruptors in how we consider development and how development is defined in the context of where we see a resource engagement juxtaposed by a resource deficit,” Ms Naidu noted.

For her, the question of our time is how to build industries with a low carbon economy, while at the same time securing employment security and environment sustainability. Meanwhile, she noted that the role of parliaments in this regard is to consider how to ensure that citizens benefit from their critical minerals to address social exclusion, while also considering the issues of transparency and political stability. “We have to consider how do we utilise these minerals to reduce inequality while ensuring that there is stability where critical minerals are prevalent and play a critical developmental role.”  

The Vice President European Parliament, Ms Christel Schaldemose, concurred that given the fact that African countries hold a third of critical mineral resources, they have a right to demand that they should not leave their respective countries without creating industries, jobs and facilitating development. 

She assured the delegates that Europe is participating in this debate with a willingness to learn and to form partnerships that are mutually beneficial. She reported that the new European Union Raw Material Act makes it compulsory to create added value of processing, manufacturing and industrialisation at the source.  

Citing her country’s trajectory in this regard, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia, Ms Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, stated that the recent discovery of lithium, oil and uranium reserves in her country has position it to be a significant player in the global minerals landscape, particularly in the clean energy transition.

However, she said, the global transition to clean energy and sustainable development hinges on “our collective ability to responsibly extract, process and utilise critical minerals while ensuring that their benefits reach all segments of our society.”

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Botswana National Assembly, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, mentioned the positive impact critical minerals have had on his country’s economic success. “The stewardship of our mineral wealth is a proof that when managed wisely they shape lives, strengthen institutions and improve lives . . . As you may all be aware, Botswana, at its independence, before the discovery of minerals, it was a very poor country. But over time, minerals transformed it into an upper middle-income country.” 

The story of its minerals-driven economic development continues into the green industrialisation, he pointed out. “As the global economy pivots towards clean energy and digital transformation, the demand for critical minerals, such as lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements, that we are endowed with, has intensified. And now these resources are not merely economic assets, they are instruments of empowerment, innovation and global solidarity.”  

As such, he said, his country aligns itself with mining vision of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, which emphasises transparency, community benefit and environmental stewardships.

The strategic correlation between critical minerals and beneficiation from the clean and just energy transition was further amplified by the Speaker of KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature, Ms Nontembeko Boyce. She noted that while the demand for these resources is accelerating, their supply chains remain unfairly concentrated among a handful of countries that dominate extraction, while others control processing and manufacturing. “This imbalance introduces geo-political vulnerabilities and social injustices, especially in resources-rich, but yet economically vulnerable regions in the Global South.” 

Without strategic intervention, Ms Boyce noted, our countries will be reduced to raw material suppliers, missing out on the benefits of industrialization, job creation and long-term economic transformation. “To counter this, our parliaments must advocate for equitable and inclusive legislative frameworks of mineral beneficiation.”  

Abel Mputing

6 October 2025