Forecasts suggest that the global economy is facing a 'commodity gap' in the near future as the demand for battery minerals could outstrip supply; could Africa be the continent to fill the gap?
There is certainly good reason to see Africa making a valuable contribution to future suppliers of mined commodities from lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite to manganese, iron, copper, chrome, uranium and aluminium.
While there are considerable resources of these minerals available in Africa and even currently being mined, there remain challenges which prevent their economic extraction - and which are regularly raised and discussed at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
"One of the reasons why the gold sector thrives in many parts of Africa, for example, is because it needs relatively little in the way of national or state-managed infrastructure," said Van Zyl.
