U.S. Losing Africa’s Critical Minerals, Trump’s Gamble or Strategic Blunder?

Highlights

• Trump administration’s aid cuts potentially push African nations closer to Chinese economic influence
• Africa seeks to assert control over critical mineral resources like cobalt, platinum, and lithium
• U.S. must shift from aid to strategic investment to compete with China’s aggressive African engagement

---

The recent OilPrice.com article (opens in a new tab) by Alex Kimani presents a stark warning: The Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and cut aid to Africa could severely undermine U.S. access to critical minerals, pushing African nations further into China’s economic sphere.

At the heart of the issue is South African Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe’s (opens in a new tab) declaration that Africa should withhold its vast mineral resources—including cobalt, platinum, lithium, and rare earths—if the U.S. chooses to withdraw financial support. The article outlines China’s aggressive economic expansion across Africa, securing crucial supply chains through long-term infrastructure investments, debt diplomacy, and strategic alliances. However, while the piece paints a compelling picture of U.S. geopolitical decline, it fails to address deeper structural flaws in both U.S. and Chinese engagement strategies, as well as Africa’s own agency in shaping its future.

Accurate Accounting

The Trump administration’s short-sighted disengagement from Africa is likely a strategic gift to China. Given China’s relentless efforts to develop Africa in exchange for rights and leverage in critical minerals, for example.

For years, U.S. policymakers have paid lip service to Africa’s importance while failing to meaningfully invest in its development or industry. Now, by cutting aid and ignoring Africa’s demands for industrialization and fairer trade, Washington is ensuring that African nations will look elsewhere—namely to Beijing, which has spent decades embedding itself in Africa’s economic fabric through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), strategic debt financing, and aggressive mineral acquisitions. The numbers speak for themselves: China-Africa trade soared from $1 billion in 1980 to $282 billion in 2023, and Beijing’s control over Africa’s mineral wealth continues to expand.

An Evasion of other Realities

However, Kimani’s analysis falls short by presenting Africa as a passive player, merely reacting to U.S. and Chinese actions. African leaders are not just helpless victims of foreign policy shifts—they are increasingly shaping their own economic future. Mantashe’s statement is not just a reaction to U.S. aid cuts; it’s part of a broader push for Africa to assert more control over its own resources. The African Union’s Agenda 2063, the push for localized mineral processing, and efforts to create regional trading blocs are all signs that Africa is moving toward breaking its historical cycle of resource exploitation. The real question is: Can Africa use this geopolitical standoff to negotiate better terms for its own development rather than simply switching from one foreign benefactor to another?

Is China a Savior or a Predator?

The article rightly points out that China’s “investment” strategy is not purely benevolent—it is a calculated effort to lock African nations into debt dependency and secure mineral dominance. However, the author fails to interrogate why African nations continue to engage with China despite these risks. The answer is simple: China is offering what the West has refused to provide for decades: real infrastructure, long-term contracts, and strategic investment in industry.

The U.S., on the other hand, has largely treated Africa as a charity case, funneling aid instead of creating long-term economic partnerships. If Washington wants to compete with China, it must move beyond aid and embrace genuine trade, technology transfers, and industrial cooperation.

The Real Problem: U.S. Inaction, Not Just Trump’s Policies

While Kimani blames the Trump administration for undermining U.S. access to Africa’s resources, the truth is that U.S. disengagement from Africa has been a bipartisan failure spanning decades. So we cannot blame Donald Trump.

Even during the Biden administration, or for that matter Obama’s, despite rhetoric about securing critical mineral supply chains, the U.S. failed to match China’s economic muscle. Biden’s Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) was meant to counterbalance China’s mineral monopoly, but it remains underfunded and lacks serious strategic direction. Meanwhile, African nations see China building roads, railways, and refineries and see little reason to prioritize U.S. interests over their own economic reality.

The Path Forward

If the U.S. truly wants to reclaim influence in Africa, it must stop treating the continent as merely a source of raw materials and start investing in African industry and technological capability. This means:

1. Shifting from aid to investment – Instead of cutting USAID, the U.S. should expand financial tools like the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to invest in African infrastructure and industrialization.
2. Securing equitable trade agreements – African nations are tired of extractive economic models. Washington must offer fairer terms for mineral exports and support local value-addition industries.
3. Challenging China’s monopoly on infrastructure – Instead of complaining about Chinese influence, the U.S. must provide competitive financing for African infrastructure projects.
4. Partnering with African nations on resource governance – Rather than seeing Africa as a battleground for U.S.-China competition, the U.S. should work with the African Union to create transparent, mutually beneficial mineral agreements.

Final Verdict

Kimani’s article effectively captures the geopolitical risks of Trump’s Africa disengagement, but it falls short by failing to examine the deeper systemic failures of U.S. foreign policy in Africa. The real issue isn’t just Trump cutting aid—it’s that the U.S. has never truly prioritized Africa’s economic empowerment. Unless Washington is willing to change the way it engages with the continent, it will continue to lose ground to China—not because of Beijing’s brilliance, but because of America’s own strategic negligence.