it itself. China “consumes” more cobalt than anyone else in the world, the vast majority of which goes towards the rechargeable battery market. This dynamic is not unique and there is even a name for it: the paradox of plenty or, less charitably, the resource curse. “One thing that comes to mind is the DRC is especially rich in cobalt, but it’s also ‘rich’ in the number of people living in poverty,” said Fatima Denton, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa. This paradox is seen in many developing countries throughout the world as too often there is an imbalance between potential and reality.
investment is also making most of the profit. At the moment, no other country exemplifies this better than China.
PHOTO: UNU
Big processing in little China China, by both its size and its
If we don’t have an advanced knowledge of what we have... the predatory tendencies we saw in the past will emerge again.
development capacity, has plenty of the mineral deposits needed for the energy and green transitions along with the means to extract them. Yet over the past several years China has invested heavily in mines in developing countries around the world, especially across southern Africa. This effort is but one component in the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to bolster China’s economy – and influence – through massive international infrastructure investment. The ore extracted from these mines is often shipped back to China for processing via the Maritime Silk Road sea route across the Indian Ocean. DR Congo and Indonesia may have a hold on “upstream” cobalt and nickel reserves, respectively, but it is China that dominates the following “midstream” and “downstream” steps in refining of those minerals. Globally, the country refines 79 percent of the world’s cobalt and 68 percent of nickel, according to an estimate in a recent report by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Other strategic
Fatima Denton, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa
“Africa hasn’t done very well in terms of geological mapping and
understanding the value of what it has,” Denton said. “So, if we don’t have an advanced knowledge of what we have, then I think the predatory tendencies we saw in the past will emerge again.” But for many countries that are rich in natural resources but lack the means to capitalize on them, foreign investment is a welcome, if double-edged sword. On the one hand, a country with limited means to develop their own extraction industries might seek outside money to do that development for them. On the other hand, the country making that
minerals are not far behind, as 59 percent of lithium and 40 percent of copper are refined in China. While those strategic minerals are often mined elsewhere and then dispatched to China for processing and refinement, the country boasts a clear advantage in one class of minerals: rare earth elements (REEs). This set of 17
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