Rare earth strategy provides ‘opportunities for Africa’ as US attempts to counter China

The United States is recalibrating its approach to securing critical minerals from Africa, pivoting from a strategy of exporting raw materials to funding local processing infrastructure. Tom Haslett, managing director of policy for critical minerals at the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), acknowledged that unlike China, which has 'significant industry backing for both processing and downstream manufacturing,' the US and Europe lack that capacity. This creates a 'real opportunity for Africa' to develop local beneficiation—the process of adding value to raw minerals before export. Haslett emphasized that the US is 'not at the point where we say everything must go back to the US, because we cannot yet process it all.'

This industrial bottleneck is driving a two-pronged US strategy: the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) provides early-stage grant funding for feasibility studies to de-risk projects, after which the DFC steps in with large-scale financing and political risk insurance. However, Chris Berry, head of commodity advisory firm House Mountain Partners, cautioned that 'building scale at speed is something the US and EU governments are not accustomed to doing.' To compete with China's dominance in rare earth processing, Berry argued the US must combine deep capital markets with permitting reform and allied collaboration. The shift could reshape global supply chains for critical minerals essential to electronics, defense, and green energy.