- Critical minerals: Zambia has moved to enforce 20-40% local procurement quotas while the DRC takes 10% equity. We analyze how new 2026 beneficiation policies are forcing mining giants to share value.
A tonne of raw lithium leaves an African port for a fraction of the price it will command six months later as a refined battery cathode destined for an electric vehicle factory in the U.S., Europe or China. This gap in value, between the dusty ore and the finished component, represents the single greatest economic opportunity for the continent’s resource-rich nations.
Closing this gap is the work of “beneficiation”: the process of adding value to a resource through local processing, smelting, and refining. And in 2026, this concept is no longer just an aspiration of the African Union’s Agenda 2063. It is becoming law.
From the Copperbelt to the Katanga region, new regulations in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are fundamentally reshaping the mining industry, forcing multinational corporations to cede ground, and value, to local economies.
Why Beneficiation? The Right to Develop
The argument for beneficiation is not merely economic; it is philosophical. Senegalese jurist Keba M’baye explicitly linked the concept to Article 22 of the African Charter, which enshrines “The Right to Development.” To extract a resource and ship it overseas without benefiting the local population, the argument follows, is a violation of that right.
This principle is codified in the African Mining Vision (AMV), the continent’s flagship policy framework. The AMV calls for resource-based industrialization and urges governments to “take proactive measures to leverage their natural resource endowments through the promotion of mineral beneficiation and value addition.”
Historically, the AMV notes that African governments have failed to “impose minimal levels of beneficiation, allowing multinational corporations to process minerals elsewhere to the detriment of African economies.” The result is a continent rich in resources but poor in the infrastructure, jobs, and industrial capacity those resources should fund.
Economist Nasubila Ng’ambi, a mining policy analyst, puts a stark number on this failure. Sub-Saharan Africa’s development index languishes at 0.568, where 0.5 is the lowest and 0.9 the highest. “This demonstrates that the region is living far below the privileges that could be afforded by its resource endowments,” she argues. Beneficiation, she contends, offers an unparalleled opportunity for job creation and shields economies “from the volatility largely associated with trading in raw commodities.”
The Global Context: A 40% Surge in Critical Minerals Demand
The urgency for these policies is amplified by global trends. As the world transitions toward cleaner energy, the demand for the minerals buried beneath African soil is skyrocketing.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that if the Paris Agreement targets are met, the push for cleaner energy will drive a 40 per cent increase in demand for rare earth elements. The figures for battery minerals are even more staggering: copper demand is projected to rise by 70 per cent, nickel and cobalt by the same margin, and lithium by a dramatic 90 per cent.
With more than 30 per cent of the world’s critical mineral deposits located in Africa, the continent stands to be the main benefactor. However, the IEA issues a stark warning: without command over the full value chain, from pit to port, African nations remain vulnerable to external actors who capture the majority of value-added activities.
The challenges are real. “Infrastructure deficits in smelting, refining, and logistics are a challenge,” the IEA notes. “Africa currently lacks the industrial capacity to smelt at scale and the local talent pool needed for refining and mineral separation.” Yet, it is precisely these gaps that beneficiation policies are designed to fill, turning infrastructure deficits into investment opportunities.
A Continental Shift: Beyond Raw Exports
The message is resonating across the continent. South Africa’s Medium Term Development Plan for 2024 to 2029 explicitly prioritizes increased beneficiation. Dr. Neva Makgetla, a special attache with the Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies think tank, highlights the government’s intent to “focus on processing minerals so that we export finished products rather than raw commodities.”
Further north, Tanzania and Malawi have enacted strict bans on the export of unprocessed minerals like rubies, sapphires, and rare earths. Kenya has aligned its mining policy with the AMV and its own Vision 2030, which seeks to end raw mineral and agricultural exports in favor of local value addition.
But the most consequential moves in 2026 are happening in the two giants of Central African mining: Zambia and the DRC. Their new laws provide a blueprint, and a warning, for how resource nationalism is being rewritten for the energy transition era.
Zambia’s 2026 Mining Regulations: Procurement as Policy
On 1 January 2026, a new regulatory era dawned on the Zambian Copperbelt. The Zambia Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development (MMMD) issued the Geological and Minerals Development Regulations, a suite of rules designed to force mining companies to integrate local businesses into their supply chains.
The regulations, issued under Section 10 of the Geological and Minerals Development Act of 2025, apply to every mining and mining-related company operating in the country. Their goal is unambiguous: to increase local participation and capture more of the mineral value chain within Zambian borders.
The core mechanism is a mandatory, escalating local procurement quota. Effective immediately, every company must allocate at least 20 per cent of its annual procurement budget to local Zambian companies providing core mining goods or services. This is not a one-off target.
- Within one year, the quota rises to 25 per cent.
- Within two years, it climbs to 35 per cent.
- Within five years of the commencement date, the law mandates a minimum of 40 per cent local procurement.
Furthermore, the procurement of non-core mining goods and services critical to operations is now exclusively reserved for local companies. The message to multinationals is clear: if a Zambian firm can provide it, you must buy from them.
To ensure compliance, the government has armed the law with significant penalties. A company found to be in violation is liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding $17,690, plus an additional $885 for each day the offence continues.
The government justifies this push by grounding it in the National Mineral Resources Development Policy (2022), which explicitly seeks to increase Zambian ownership and promote domestic procurement. The 2026 regulations transform that policy aspiration into a legal obligation with a dollar sign attached.
The DRC’s Revised Code: Equity as Leverage
Across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the approach to beneficiation and local control takes a different, but equally aggressive, form. The DRC’s revised Mining Code focuses not on supply chains, but on ownership.
The centerpiece of the revisions is a mandatory transfer of equity. The new law requires the transfer of 10 per cent non-dilutable shares to the government whenever a company applies for or transfers mining rights. This is not a one-time event. For each renewal of mining or exploitation rights, an additional 5 per cent of equity must be transferred to the state.
“These provisions directly increase the government’s stake in mining companies, ensuring greater long-term benefits from mining development,” explains law specialist Chen Jung in his 2025 analysis of the revised code. As of early 2026, this has resulted in the DRC government taking direct ownership stakes in dozens of new copper and cobalt ventures, fundamentally altering the risk-reward calculation for foreign investors.
Unlike the Zambian model, which seeks to build a local industrial ecosystem through procurement, the DRC model focuses on securing a direct financial pipeline from extraction to state coffers. Both, however, serve the same ultimate purpose: ensuring that the extraction of critical minerals translates into tangible, lasting benefits for the host nation.
The New Reality of 2026: A Negotiation, Not a Given
The contrasting approaches of the DRC and Zambia illustrate the diverse toolbox African nations are now deploying. Whether through procurement quotas in Lusaka or equity stakes in Kinshasa, the era of raw mineral exports as the default model is ending.
For multinational mining corporations, this presents a new and complex operating environment. The extraction of copper, cobalt, and lithium in 2026 is no longer just a geological challenge; it is a political and legal negotiation. The right to dig is now explicitly tied to a binding commitment to build, whether through local supply chains or shared ownership.
Together, Zambia’s escalating procurement quotas and the DRC’s mandatory equity transfers signal a definitive shift. They mark the transition from aspiration to enforcement, from the African Mining Vision’s dream of industrialization to the hard reality of regulations, fines, and share certificates. For the continent’s critical minerals sector, 2026 is the year the promise of beneficiation began to be written into law.
Read also: DRC, Indonesia, Chile forming ‘critical minerals OPEC’
