Although Africa has spent decades digging valuable minerals out of the ground, much of the economic value is shipped elsewhere.
The continent has vast quantities of gold, copper, cobalt, lithium, bauxite, uranium, and other critical minerals needed by the modern global economy. However, what it often lacks is reliable electricity to turn those minerals into higher-value products.
This is where some experts believe that Nuclear Power can change the economic situation of the continent. Nuclear energy is increasingly being discussed as a potential source of electricity for Africa’s growing data-centre industry and artificial intelligence ambitions. But its bigger economic significance could lie elsewhere, which is in mineral processing, manufacturing and industrialisation.
Prof. Bismark Tyobeka, principal and vice-chancellor of North-West University and a nuclear energy expert, argues that small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors could provide dependable power to energy-intensive industrial operations, including mines and processing facilities.
“Everyone sees growth in Africa, but growth cannot happen without energy security,” he said. “You cannot attract investment where there is no energy security. We are holding Africa back if we do not make major investments in these technologies.”
As the experts explain, a mining company can extract copper, lithium or bauxite using a particular amount of electricity. But converting those raw materials into refined metals, chemicals, components or finished products requires substantially more reliable industrial power.
If that electricity is unavailable, expensive or frequently interrupted, investors have little incentive to build processing plants. The result of this situation is a continent that exports raw material while importing the processed product.
A country that exports an unprocessed mineral earns revenue from extraction. A country that refines it, manufactures components from it, and develops industries around it can potentially create additional jobs, businesses, tax revenues, technical skills, and export opportunities along the same value chain.
This signals that reliable nuclear power could therefore become more than an answer to an electricity shortage. It could become a tool for changing where economic value is created.
Prof. Tyobeka sees opportunities in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia and Guinea, where abundant mineral resources could be matched with dependable electricity to support processing closer to the mine.
The attraction of SMRs and microreactors is their potential suitability for industrial locations that may be far from major electricity infrastructure.
“SMRs and microreactors are particularly well suited because their size allows them to be deployed almost anywhere. They can be built in factories,” he said.
This model could create a different development trajectory for Africa’s resource-rich economies.
For him, instead of building mines first and worrying about power later, governments and investors could begin planning mines, reactors, processing plants and industrial zones as interconnected economic infrastructure.
He stresses that a mine that supports local mineral processing needs engineers, technicians, transport companies, equipment suppliers, maintenance businesses and other services. A processing industry can then provide inputs for manufacturing, while reliable electricity can support factories producing increasingly sophisticated goods.
Prof. Tyobeka’s proposal is an indication that Africa does not necessarily need to find more minerals to become richer from its mineral wealth. It needs the power to do more with the minerals it already has.
