Powering the US-Africa Partnership: Energy Infrastructure, Critical Minerals & Investment Strategies

As global interest in Africa’s critical minerals and infrastructure corridors accelerates, financing models that bridge international capital with on-the-ground execution are becoming increasingly important. In this interview withGarthKlintworth,Chief Representative Officer,AbsaBank Limited Representative Office – Americas, the bank outlines how its US platform and pan-African footprint are working alongside institutions such as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and U.S. Export-Import Bank to structure bankable projects across energy, mining and regional transport corridors.

In 2023, a mine operating along the Central African Copperbelt moved its first test consignment through the Lobito Corridor, using the refurbished rail spine that links the Democratic Republic of Congo to Angola’s Atlantic coast. Roughly 1100 tonnes of copper concentrate from the Kamoa-Kakula complex in Kolwezi were loaded at the Impala Terminals facility and sent west by rail to the Port of Lobito

When gold broke through the $4,000 mark to reach a new record high in October last year, and continued its historic rally to surpass $5,000 per ounce for the first time in late January, the buying behaviour in gold moved from a safe haven asset and de-dollarisation based on a range of geo-political and economic events to a clear momentum based trade filled with ‘hot money’.

It is often said that Africa holds close to a third of the world’s known reserves of the minerals essential to the energy transition and to emerging industrial technologies. The figure appears so frequently in policy papers and investor decks that it has become almost rhetorical, a shorthand for potential rather than a measure of realised strategy. But that is beginning to shift, at least at a discernibly faster pace.