The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, historically associated with oil fields stretching to the horizon, is running an acquisition campaign in Africa that would be the envy of any global mining major. At stake are not gold deposits or copper veins alone, but the precise minerals — cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese, rare earth elements — that form the physical foundation of the global clean energy economy.
New analysis from African Business Intelligence reveals that Saudi entities have quietly built equity positions, joint ventures, and extraction concessions in at least eleven African countries, with particular focus on the copper belt of Central and Southern Africa.
The Kingdom’s Strategic Logic
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 — Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious programme to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil dependency — has a critical minerals dimension that receives less attention than the entertainment and tourism wings of the project, but is arguably more consequential for long-term economic survival.
The logic is straightforward: the post-fossil-fuel economy will run on batteries, motors, and electronics that require a specific suite of metals and elements. Africa holds an estimated 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, including the majority of global cobalt supply.
The Competitors: China, US, Europe — and Now Riyadh
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has for over a decade been building a dominant position in African mining. The United States, under the Trump administration’s “Project Vault” initiative, has committed $12 billion to securing African mineral supply chains. Into this crowded room walks Saudi Arabia, with one significant competitive advantage: money, speed, and a notable willingness to operate without the human rights or governance conditionality that Western democracies increasingly insist upon.
The Central African Prize
The Democratic Republic of Congo remains the central prize in the global critical minerals competition. Saudi Arabia’s Sakima mining subsidiary has reportedly been in advanced negotiations for stakes in two copper and cobalt projects in the DRC’s Haut-Katanga province. Whether that transformation benefits Africans as much as it benefits the Kingdom remains the central unanswered question.