With the DRC and Somalia on board and new coltan discoveries made in Kenya, the East Africa Community (EAC) is now destined to become one of the largest critical minerals deposits rich and source region in the world, yet maximizing value and benefits as region remains elusive.
By Moses Kulaba, Governance and Economic Policy Center
@criticalminerals @energytransition
On the 15th December 2023, the Federal Republic of Somalia became a full member of the EAC becoming the 8th country to join this economic block. With its admission following closely on the DRC in 2022, the EAC has a total population of 320 million people with a geographical size of about 5.4million sqkm straddling from the Indian Ocean coastline to the Atlantic coastline.
The EAC now boasts as one of the largest single economic block with large deposits of minerals critical for mitigating climate change by driving the green industrial revolution and transition to clean energy. There are already prospects that Ethiopia and Djibouti will be joining the EAC. If this happens the EAC’s geographical size, population and mineral wealth will expand to rival or overtake other economic regions such as the European Union.
The size of Mineral Deposits combined
According to the EAC reports, the region is endowed with a variety of minerals, including fluorspar, titanium and zirconium, gold, oil, gas, cobalt and nickel, diamonds, copper, coal and iron ore. Such mineral resources present an opportunity for development of the mining industry, which is currently underdeveloped.
Mineral Resources in EAC
| Country | Precious metal, Gemstones & Semi-Precious Metal | Metallic Minerals | Industrial minerals |
| Burundi | Gold | Tin, Nickel, copper, cobalt, niobium, coltan, vanadium, tungsten | Phosphate, Peat |
| Kenya | Gemstones, gold | Lead, zircon, iron, titanium | Soda ash, flour spar, salt, mica, chaum, oil, coal, diatomite, gypsum, meers, kaolin, rear earth |
| Rwanda | Gold, gemstones | Tin, tungsten, tantalum, niobium, columbium | pozzolana |
| Tanzania | Gold, diamond, gemstones, silver, PGMs | Nickel, bauxite, copper, cobalt, uranium | Coal, phosphate, gypsum, pozzolana, soda ash, gas |
| Uganda | Gold, diamond | Copper, tin, lead, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, uranium, niobium, tantalum, iron | Gypsum, kaolin, salt, vermiculite, pozzolana, marble, soapstone, rear earth, oil |
| South Sudan | Gold, silver | Iron, copper, tungsten, zinc, chromium | Oil, mica |
Source: EAC Vision 2050 and South Sudan Development Strategy
With the pressure of climate change and the 4th industrial revolution driven by a few green minerals, the EAC hosts vast deposits of minerals such as coltan, nickel, tantalum, copper and others vital in driving the green technological revolution to a cleaner energy future.
The admission of the DRC to the EAC was a game changer to the region’s positioning as a global player in the critical and strategic mineral’s space. According to multiple sources the DRC is the world’s leading producer of cobalt, used in the manufacture of batteries. It is also the world’s fourth-largest producer of copper, used in the assembly of electric cars and the infrastructure of most renewable energy sources. Lithium deposits, estimated at over 130 million tones, are also present in the southeast.
The DRC has most of the mineral ores that produce key components in making computer chips and electric vehicles, technologies that are powering the drive to the future. In a typical computer, copper and gold are key components used in making the monitor, printed circuit boards and chips. Cobalt constitutes 6.45 percent of the materials that make electric vehicle batteries while copper constitutes 25.8 percent. Jointly, copper and cobalt constitute more than a third of EV batteries.
DRC is rich in these minerals, producing 68 percent of the world’s cobalt — the largest globally — and over 1.8 million tons of copper annually. Copper is estimated to gain and maintain more value on longterm compared to other minerals.
Before the DRC and Somalia’s membership, the EAC was already a major player. According to Geological Survey of Tanzania, Tanzania has close to 24 documented critical minerals such as Nickel, Tantalum and sits on the 4th largest premium grade graphite deposits in the world. Between 2005 and 2020, there was an exploration boom relative to other minerals for Tanzania’s Critical Minerals.
Uganda has vast deposits of copper and tungsten in its south western border areas while Rwanda is one of the world’s largest producers of tin, tantalum, and tungsten (3Ts) and coltan. Burundi has copper, cobalt and nickel in 2019, Burundi produced about 2% of the world’s production of tantalum. Kenya has vast deposits of titanium, a mineral used in the manufacturing of aircraft transportation and solar panel parts. The new discoveries of coltan announced in Embu County in 2024 adds to Kenya’s list of valuable minerals. Although the commercial volumes of the new discoveries are yet to be determined, Kenya’s announcement expands the EAC’s critical or green mineral deposit map and its role in the green energy transition. Somalia, the EAC’s new entrant has some deposits of tantalum, tin and uranium.
These minerals lie along a common geological mineral belt running from Ethiopia and South Sudan downwards across the DRC, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania into Mozambique. The combined volume of these green minerals’ deposits competitively will rival other countries like China, Australia and regions such as the Lithium triangle in Latin America.
Given the global challenges related to climate change and the potential transition to a clean future. Energy Security and Energy transition are among the hottest areas of investment. The dash to secure deposits and supply chains of minerals critical to the development of green technology is on. Many countries endowed with these minerals are seeking to create wealth based on this transition.
Despite this critical mineral resources’ wealth, the EAC has failed so far to leverage and maximize economic benefits as a single region remains elusive. The EAC’s share of global investment in this lucrative extractive sector remains small. The EAC is riddled with extractive policy fragmentation, overriding nationalistic political desires and catastrophic death of joint extractive policy and governance actions.
According to the EAC treaty, the EAC partner states have agreed to take concerted measures to foster co-operation in the joint and efficient management and sustainable utilization of natural resources within the Community. Yet the EAC has no publicly available documented comprehensive regional plan on governing or managing mineral resources. The EAC has focused on management of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Minerals are categorized as other natural resources.
By treating Minerals as a somewhat lesser regional priority, the EAC is missing out on a huge current and future economic opportunity internally and externally to drive the region to prosperity. We will discuss more about what these opportunities are and how the EAC can benefit in a separate article. Keep reading.