African Mining Week (AMW), taking place from 14-16 October 2026, is emerging as a critical platform to convert geological potential into investable projects, partnerships, and value chain development across the continent.
The continent currently holds 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves, positioning Africa at the centre of the global energy transition and industrial supply chain realignment. As reported, Sub-Saharan Africa alone is estimated to produce US$2 trillion ($2.83 trillion) of metals required for the energy transition by 2050.
This year’s event, held in Cape Town, will examine how African producers can move beyond the volume-led growth to capture greater value across mining, processing, and trade.
Rachelle Kasongo, AMW event director, says the event is designed to bring project developers, governments, and international investors into the same room to accelerate transactions that move Africa’s mining sector from potential to production.
Scaling up
Across Africa, mineral producers are scaling up production and leveraging international partnerships to secure capital and technical expertise.
Energy Capital & Power reports that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s largest cobalt supplier – recently partnered with the US to leverage technical expertise and financing. The partnership unlocks an estimated US$24 trillion in untapped mineral potential.
Similarly, Guinea, host to the world’s largest bauxite reserves, is enhancing cooperation with global investors to maximise its mineral value chain under the Simandou 2040 – an international cooperation and national development strategy.
Meanwhile, Zambia is actively engaging international investors to achieve its 2031 copper production target of 3.1 million tonnes per year.
Zambia is positioning itself as a major player in African mining with significant reserves of critical minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, and other precious metals such as gold, as Mining.com.au reported.
Mining is pivotal to the Zambian economy, contributing 76% of national export revenue, 23% of national tax revenue, and 11% of GDP. US$3 billion is spent on local content from all large-scale mines annually.
Ghana, Africa’s largest gold producer, also signed an agreement with South Africa’s Rand Refinery to expand domestic gold processing capacity, while Mali is developing a 200 tonne per year gold refinery in partnership with Russian investors.
Further, Zimbabwe is working with Chinese investors to expand lithium processing capacity ahead of its 2027 ban on lithium concentrate exports.
Mining the future
This year’s AMW theme is Mining the Future: Critical Resources, Sustainability, and Community Development’, reflecting a growing emphasis on project bankability, downstream beneficiation and cross-border collaboration.
AMW 2026 will feature high-level panel discussions, technical workshops, and networking sessions. The 2025 event attracted around 1,500 delegates, more than 85 speakers, and 315 companies and representatives from 22 countries.
The summit will also tackle crucial topics shaping Africa’s mining sector, including the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining, energy security, environmental sustainability, infrastructure development, women and youth empowerment, human capital development and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
African Mining Week serves as a premier platform for exploring the full spectrum of mining opportunities across the continent. The event is held alongside the African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies 2026 conference from October 12-16 in Cape Town.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: African Mining Week & Unsplash
