Africa set to take leadership in global graphite supply from China by 2026

Tanzanian graphite production is expected to grow forty times this decade. This is at least what Benchmark Mineral Intelligence indicated on Tuesday April 25 in a new report, stating that 11.4% of the world’s graphite production would come from the country by 2030 against barely 0.6% l ‘last year.

According to these forecasts, the East African country could even overtake Madagascar as the second African producer of this essential material for electric vehicle batteries. Note that Benchmark is based on multiple projects soon to be in production.

For the past two years, several companies have in fact accelerated their investments in the country, with major discoveries such as that of the “ largest measured mineral resource of graphite in the world “, announced in February 2022 by the Australian Black Rock Mining in Mahenge.

According to the Ecofin Pro database, a third of graphite projects in development on the African continent are in Tanzania. More than half of the 11 projects identified are economically viable and their owners, mostly Australians, are currently working on signing sales contracts or obtaining financing to start construction work.

At the end of March 2023, the execution rate of the construction site of the Lindi Jumbo graphite mine, of the Australian Walkabout Resources, even exceeded 85%.

As a reminder, African graphite production is currently dominated by Mozambique, followed by Madagascar. Together with Tanzania, these countries should collectively take the lead in world graphite production from China by 2026, again according to Benchmark forecasts.

According to the firm, Africa will represent 40% of the world’s graphite supply in three years, compared to 35% for China (68% in 2021, compared to 15% for Africa).