Brookings Calls for a U.S.-Africa Critical Minerals Strategy-But Is Washington Thinking Big Enough?

Highlights

• Brookings report evaluates six policy tools—loans, grants, equity investment, and more—to mobilize private capital for U.S.-Africa critical mineral supply chains.
• China controls 92% of rare earth processing, 96% of graphite, and 80% of cobalt processing, underscoring the scale of the U.S. competitive challenge.
• African governments increasingly demand domestic processing and manufacturing partnerships, not just raw material extraction deals.
• Brookings recommends blended public-private finance focused on rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and graphite with sustained policy continuity across administrations.
• REEx argues the real contest is over integrated industrial ecosystems, not individual mines, requiring the U.S. to build midstream capacity with African partners.

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A new report by Dafe Oputu and Landry Signé of the Brookings Institution's Africa Growth Initiative (opens in a new tab) argues that the United States must adopt a coordinated, long-term investment strategy if it hopes to compete with China for Africa's vast critical mineral resources. Rather than concentrating solely on mine development, the report evaluates six policy tools—including loans, grants, political risk insurance, equity investment, supply management, and technical assistance—to mobilize private capital and strengthen U.S.-Africa supply chains. The central conclusion is straightforward: without a durable, whole-of-government strategy that aligns public policy with private investment, Washington risks falling even further behind China in securing the minerals that underpin defense, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, energy transition technologies, and economic competitiveness.

REEx Insight

The Brookings report correctly identifies Africa as one of the decisive geopolitical arenas of the emerging critical minerals economy. Rare Earth Exchanges® believes, however, that the report points toward an even larger strategic conclusion. Great Powers Era 2.0™ is not fundamentally a contest over mineral deposits. It is a contest over industrial ecosystems.

China understood decades ago that mining alone creates limited strategic advantage. It invested across the entire value chain—from exploration and infrastructure to refining, separation, precursor production, manufacturing, logistics, financing, and long-term commercial partnerships. Africa became an integral part of that strategy.

Brookings notes that China now controls approximately 92% of global rare earth processing, 96% of graphite processing, 80% of cobalt processing, and 71% of lithium processing while leveraging decades of investment across Africa.

For the United States, the challenge is therefore much larger than financing more mines. It is whether America and its allies can build an integrated midstream industrial base capable of competing with China's.

From Mining Strategy to Industrial Strategy

The Brookings team did not conduct laboratory or economic modeling. Instead, the report synthesizes policy analysis, government data, prior research, and extensive consultations with investors, government agencies, African policymakers, and industry participants conducted between 2024 and 2026. The result is less an academic paper than a strategic roadmap for policymakers.

Its recommendations revolve around three fundamental policy choices:

• Should the United States encourage more value-added processing within Africa rather than simply importing raw materials?
• Should policy prioritize long-term market share over near-term financial returns?
• Should government focus on securing today's supply—or catalyzing tomorrow's production capacity?

Brookings recommends expanding blended public-private finance, concentrating resources on a smaller group of strategically important minerals—including rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and graphite—strengthening partnerships with African governments, and maintaining policy continuity across administrations.

Where the Real Competition Lies

Perhaps the report's most important observation is that African governments increasingly want more than mining investment.

Many are seeking domestic processing, refining, manufacturing, and higher-value industrial activity rather than continuing to export raw ores. Brookings argues that supporting local value addition could simultaneously strengthen African economies while reducing

China's dominance over global processing. That represents a notable evolution in U.S. thinking. Rather than viewing Africa simply as a resource supplier, the report envisions African nations becoming partners in a diversified critical minerals value chain.

Limitations

This is a policy report, not a financial feasibility study or quantitative economic model. It does not estimate the capital required to overcome China's three-decade investment advantage, nor does it fully explore whether Western firms can compete against state-backed Chinese financing and pricing strategies. The report also recognizes persistent obstacles, including political risk, fragmented U.S. policymaking, inconsistent funding, and mining project timelines that routinely extend well beyond a decade.

Conclusion

Brookings makes a compelling case that Africa should become a cornerstone of U.S. critical minerals strategy.

Yet the report also illustrates how far the competition has evolved. China is no longer simply a dominant mining investor. It has constructed an integrated industrial ecosystem linking geology, infrastructure, processing, finance, manufacturing, and diplomacy.

The United States cannot realistically replicate that position overnight. But it can compete—if it shifts its focus from financing individual mines toward building resilient industrial ecosystems with trusted African partners.

That may ultimately be the report's most important lesson.

REEx Connect

Lead Authors: Dafe Oputu (Research Associate) and Landry Signé (Senior Fellow), Africa Growth Initiative, Brookings Institution.

Key Organizations: Brookings Institution; Africa Growth Initiative; U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC); U.S. Department of Defense Office of Strategic Capital; U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA); Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM); African Development Bank; Africa Finance Corporation.

Citation: Oputu D, Signé L. Toward a U.S.-Africa Critical Minerals Investment Strategy: Tools, Priorities, and Trade-Offs. Brookings Institution, Africa Growth Initiative, July 2026.