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Mining cannot deliver these outcomes alone, but project terms can enable or constrain them. Communities expect higher standards and a meaningful share of value. Governments need capital and capability. Companies need stable operating environments and legitimacy.

Investors need confidence and durable returns. No actor can secure these outcomes alone. Partnerships are therefore essential, but the label must be earned. An agreement, financing announcement or MoU may establish a transaction: access to resources, permits, markets in exchange for capital, technology, jobs or revenues. It becomes fragile when one party controls information, bargaining power and gains, while another bears disruption, environmental risk and long-term liabilities.

A partnership is not defined by the label. It is defined by whether it leaves governments, communities, local firms and investors better able to create and sustain value over time.

A credible mining partnership should pass four tests. First, it needs a purpose beyond extraction: It should create lasting value through skills, infrastructure, energy, local enterprise and public revenue – not simply move concentrate to export. Second, it must build agency, not dependency: Governments, communities and local firms need information, capability and meaningful influence over decisions that affect them. African Mining Vision is well versed on these aspects. Third, it must share the value and risk fairly: Benefits, jobs, procurement, impacts, closure costs and liabilities must be transparent and fairly allocated. Fourth delivery must be accountable: Commitments need clear milestones, named responsibilities, local participation, independent scrutiny and consequences for failure.

For investors, these are not simply social considerations. Projects with credible local legitimacy, competent public counterparts, transparent obligations and workable grievance mechanisms are more likely to secure approvals, withstand political cycles and operate through volatility.

Building African capability

Stronger partnerships must build African capability. With effective access to finance, business support, geological information, infrastructure, skills and markets – in this scenario artisanal and small-scale miners, domestic mining firms and local suppliers can become powerful engines of employment and enterprise on their soil.

Global capital, technology and markets remain important. African countries also need to consistently invest in institutions, technical skills and negotiating capacity to set and enforce the terms of engagement. Regional cooperation is equally fundamental: not every country needs its own refinery or battery plant. Morocco’s proposed lithium-iron-phosphate battery facility should be judged not only by production capacity; but by whether it helps build a durable regional ecosystem of industrial capability.

African industrial leadership also matters and credible partners who share the vision. The scale and market building approach associated with Dangote offers a useful lesson for solid minerals. Local value creation becomes more credible when investment is linked to infrastructure, technical capability, capital and demand – not policy aspiration alone.

Lessons and accountability

Balanced terms matter. Zambia’s privatisation era agreements exposed the risks (as seen in other African countries during the 1980s-2000s) of generous incentives, weak negotiating capacity and fiscal terms untested across commodity cycles. Transparency, state capability and regular review remain essential, even with multilateral support.

The experience of mining in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo provides a related insight:

partnerships must be tested on the ground, not assumed from transactions. Contractual rights and external capital alone do not create partnerships where conflict risks, contested ownership and historical grievances impact accountability. Before calling an initiative a partnership, ask: does it create value beyond extraction; build agency for institutions, communities and local firms; share value, risk and liabilities fairly; and make commitments transparent, measurable and enforceable? If not, it may be a transaction. It should not be marketed as a partnership.