UN to help six nations extract more value from critical minerals

Published Wed, Sep 23, 2026 · 10:44 PM

THE United Nations selected six countries in Africa and Asia to receive support aimed at helping them extract more value from their critical mineral deposits, which are seen as crucial to the global energy transition. 

The announcement, made by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday (Sep 23), will initially benefit Indonesia, Zambia, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Nigeria.

UN agencies will coordinate to help the countries develop their industries.

Without this support, “we run the risk of repeating the mistakes of the past, where these countries are trapped at the bottom of global value chains”, said Selwin Hart, Guterres’ special adviser and assistant secretary-general for climate action, in an interview.

They would remain as “mere exporters of raw materials, while others benefit enormously from their mineral wealth”, he said. 

The Country Support Mechanism on Critical Energy Transition Minerals follows Guterres’ creation of a panel to promote processing two years ago.

It is being initiated as demand for copper, cobalt, lithium and other metals surges with the global roll-out of renewable-energy plants and increasing adoption of electric vehicles. 

Zambia is Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, while Zimbabwe is the continent’s leading supplier of battery-material lithium.

Indonesia is the world’s top nickel miner, Guinea is the largest bauxite producer and Madagascar has reserves of cobalt, graphite and nickel. Nigeria’s mineral deposits are largely untapped.

UN agencies will work together to offer “policy advice, legal and regulatory expertise, helping countries strengthen environmental and social safeguards”, Hart said. “The system can also provide assistance with value chains.”

Already, some countries are seeking to extract more value from their resources. Zimbabwe is pressing lithium miners to process the mineral domestically – with a ban on exports of unprocessed ore due to take effect – and has suspended exports of tungsten and antimony. 

The program will be led by the UN Development Programme and the UN Development Coordination Office. Hart said that the six nations were selected from a list of 15 including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s leading cobalt producer.

“The work that is already ongoing and taking place in these other countries will continue” he added. “There will be a more coordinated system of prioritised support to the six countries that have been identified.” BLOOMBERG