The US is placing its critical minerals hopes in the Lobito Corridor project, which it says will also bring growth and jobs to Africa
In his first – and most likely last – visit to sub-Saharan Africa as US President this week, Joe Biden chose to focus on the planned upgrade of a cross-border railway that is set to take minerals needed for the energy transition out of Central Africa to the coast and on to the United States.
After walking among the cargo containers at Angola’s Lobito port, from where copper and cobalt will be shipped, Biden sat around a wooden table in a food processing facility with the leaders of Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the Lobito Corridor Trans-Africa Summit.
He told his African peers that the Lobito Corridor railway project would be a “game changer”, bringing economic growth to Africa and the rest of the world. Currently, copper is transported to the port by road with truckers often stuck in queues for weeks at border crossings, but the railway’s supporters claim it will cut the journey time from several weeks to just days.
The White House said it was announcing over $560 million in new funding this week – including commitments expected to generate at least $200 million in additional private-sector capital – for infrastructure projects along the Lobito Corridor. US investments now total more than $4 billion, it said, adding that with G7 partners and regional development banks, international investment in the Lobito Corridor exceeds $6 billion.
The Lobito Corridor is an old, recently-restored railway which runs from the Angolan coastal port of Lobito 1,344 km to the border town of Luau, where it links with the railway of the cobalt-rich DRC. A coalition of local and Western companies and governments want to extend it to Zambia’s copper mines.
Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy will require huge amounts of copper to carry electricity and cobalt for batteries. The US and China are competing to source limited supplies of these materials for their electric vehicle manufacturers.
China is helping refurbish the Tazara railway linking Zambia’s Copperbelt province to Africa’s east coast in Tanzania. In Angola yesterday, Biden’s energy and investment adviser Amos Hochstein said that copper and cobalt is “now going to be switching direction on this corridor”.
Local benefits
Speaking after Biden, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said the project, which he drew up with Hochstein in his “dingy office” in Zambia’s capital, is a “huge opportunity” for Africa. He added that the minerals will “make our global economy greener”.
He stressed the importance of linking the railway with the Chinese-built Tazara eastern railway “which will really mean that we can connect our continent” from the west to east coast.
Sitting next to him, the president of neighbouring DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, said the project would create 30,000 jobs,