As such it would be easy to say minerals have taken a hammering. But not all – some, three of them to be exact, are proving bulletproof, and may just serve to refocus Africa’s growth priorities.
One might hazard a guess would be lithium – used to make batteries for which the rechargeable variety is increasingly in demand (think Tesla) – prices have gone up.
But Wilfried Pabst, who runs a lithium operation in Zimbabwe, says the continent’s lithium is of a lower grade than that used to make batteries: that technology exists in, you guessed it, China.
But you wouldn’t be too wrong: graphite is another component of batteries, in addition to other uses such as in steel-making, electrodes and in lubricants.
Where there’s recovery
Mining continues in countries such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Madagascar, and prices have seen a recovery in the last six months. Graphite is only about 5% of what is used in batteries, with the bulk in steel-making which is suffering from the Chinese hangover, but costs of production are expected to increase in the Asian country, as demand for use in lithium batteries also goes up. In other words, the only way is up.
