You Can’t Have One Without Copper!
By Tshepo Magagane
[The liberal international order’s replacement thus won’t be negotiated in Geneva or adjudicated in The Hague. It will be determined by who controls the energy flows, mineral deposits, and technological systems on which all modern life now depends.
The cost of oil extraction in the Gulf is the lowest in the world, rarely exceeding $10 per barrel—far below the cost of shale fracking in the United States (about $62 per barrel, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve) or Russia (where the least expensive wells cost $25 to $40 per barrel to operate)
Nine-tenths of China’s investment growth in 2025 was in the green energy sector. It has also decoupled this growth from Western demand: Some 47 percent of China’s green tech exports now flow to emerging markets,
“Climate Leviathan”: a global system where the climate emergency is used as a pretext for a new form of command-and-control dominance, in which tribute is paid in technological dependency and the risk of political blackmail at the hands of what is also a deeply illiberal and nationalistic regime in Beijing.
If the original Cold War was in large measure a contest for the “hearts and minds” of the postcolonial world over competing models of economic development, this new era will be a contest for the metabolic souls of the middle powers—the infrastructural and energy foundations on which their futures will be built.
Julius Nyerere called a “positive neutrality” that would prevent their territories from becoming a mere theater for superpower proxy wars.
plurilateral diplomatic arrangements
a mineral producers’ compact between Brazil and India requires no great-power blessing and answers to no hegemonic arbiter.
Because the electrostate model requires vast quantities of critical minerals—lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and so on—countries rich in these resources have become a crucial strategic prize.
icy pragmatism of plurilateral mineral-purchasing clubs and technological suturing
convert their mineral wealth, demographic weight, and hard-won diplomatic capacity into a genuine third path.]
Why this is such a monumental period for Africa.
It is how we set the parameters for Copper projects Development on the Continent.
It is about embedding mining as a panopticon of Economic Development.
It is about the focus on S in ESG – E and G only can follow S – not the other way around.
It is about how we bring about Indigenous mine ownership and participation.
It is about how we build out the required infrastructure and energy.
It is about creating capital pools that will be the foundation for Tertiary Economic Sectors.
