Statement by the Secretary-General on Building Africa’s Mineral Value Chains
Africa’s mineral future will not be secured by extraction alone. It will be built through exploration, technology infrastructure, local processing, tokenization, strategic capital and systems that transform mineral wealth into shared prosperity.
01. Africa’s Resources Need Systems
Africa is rich in minerals, youth, ambition and possibility. Yet potential alone does not produce transformation. Without systems for exploration, financing, processing, traceability and market access, Africa’s mineral wealth will continue to leave the continent without creating sufficient value at home.
The task before Africa and its partners is therefore clear: to build the systems that connect resources to industry, minerals to markets, and communities to prosperity.
02. The Josephs of Africa Must Be Seen
Across Africa, young miners work in difficult conditions while the minerals they extract power smartphones, electric vehicles, digital infrastructure and advanced technologies around the world.
Their labour should not end in poverty while value is created elsewhere. Africa’s mineral economy must be redesigned so that communities, workers and young people participate in the prosperity generated by the resources beneath their soil.
03. Exploration is the First Investment
Africa cannot develop what it has not discovered. Modern mineral exploration, AI-enabled mapping, satellite intelligence and verified geological data are essential for building bankable projects and reducing investment risk.
Through continental exploration initiatives and strategic partnerships, Africa can move from under-mapped potential to verified opportunity, enabling investors and Member States to build from knowledge rather than uncertainty.
04. Technology Must Transform the Value Chain
The future of African mining will depend on technology infrastructure that can trace, protect, finance and move minerals responsibly from mine to market.
Digital mine-to-market systems, blockchain-enabled traceability, AI-powered mineral quantification, smart warehousing, identity tracking and tokenized inventories can help strengthen transparency and connect Africa’s mineral resources to global capital and ethical markets.
05. No More Exporting Raw
Africa must move from exporting raw minerals to building processing, refining and manufacturing capacity on African soil.
Local processing and regional beneficiation hubs can ensure that jobs stay, value stays, skills stay and dignity stays within the continent.
06. Tokenization and Financial Sovereignty
Mineral tokenization offers Africa a new pathway to unlock liquidity, transparency and financial sovereignty from verified mineral assets.
Through instruments such as the Africa Mineral Token and the Madini Blockchain Platform, Africa can connect its resources to compliant, traceable and investable financial systems while strengthening ownership and participation in the value created from its minerals.
07. A New Partnership with Technology and Capital
Africa does not need charity. It needs capital, systems and partnerships grounded in shared value.
The opportunity before global investors, technologists and innovators is to partner with Africa not as a passive supplier of resources, but as a co-builder of value chains, digital platforms, processing infrastructure and long-term prosperity.
08. Closing Message
Africa’s mineral future requires courage, investment and implementation. It requires partners who are willing to move beyond theory and participate in building the systems that will define the next generation of mineral development.
The Josephs of Africa do not need to be saved. They need to be seen, invested in and connected to systems that work.
Let us build. Let us trade. Let us tokenize. Let us rise together.
Adapted from the keynote address delivered by H.E. Moses Micheal Engadu, Secretary-General of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group, at the Silicon Valley Minerals Forum, Stanford University, California, on 18 June 2025.
