Securing Minerals for the Energy Transition 2025

Executive summary Critical minerals are essential to the energy transition, forming the foundation of low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs), energy storage systems and photovoltaic cells. The International Energy Agency (IEA) classifies them as vital yet vulnerable to supply disruptions. This report focuses on critical minerals found in the Southern African Region (SAR) – including copper, cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, chromium, platinum group metals (PGMs) and vanadium – and analyses their value chains across 10 SAR countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Many SAR countries have higher reserves-to- production ratios than global peers, allowing longer production at current rates and underscoring their role in global supply. Despite these large reserves, exploration is underfinanced in SAR countries, attracting less than 10% of total global spending. Despite SAR’s mineral wealth, financing challenges hinder the development of its value chains. From January to June 2025, the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Energy and Materials and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) organized consultations and workshops to discuss the financing challenges with key regional stakeholders. Financing challenges were grouped into eight themes: policy uncertainty, investment risks, energy access, transportation barriers, innovation lag, pace of industrialization, skill gaps and demand volatility. Workshop participants proposed proven and innovative solutions like designing de-risking finance structures, upgrading infrastructure networks, adopting advanced technologies and leveraging offtake agreements to ensure predictable revenues. This paper outlines the solutions that emerged, illustrating each with a case study that offers a replicable model for SAR countries. Some span multiple countries, like the Lobito Corridor in Angola, DRC and Zambia, while others highlight national efforts, like Namibia’s “green iron” project with the European Union (EU). The inclusion of innovation piloted in Chile reflects how solutions from outside the region can also be adapted and scaled to enhance mining operations in Southern Africa.This paper unlocks solutions to finance and scale critical mineral value chains across Southern Africa. Securing Minerals for the Energy Transition: Finance for Southern Africa 5