The United Nations has chosen Guinea, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe for a new programme intended to help mineral-rich developing countries capture more of the value generated by the energy transition rather than simply supplying raw materials.

Alongside Indonesia, the five African states make up the first group to receive support through the Country Support Mechanism on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, announced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on September 23. The programme will provide policy advice, legal and regulatory expertise, environmental and social safeguards, and support for building domestic mineral value chains. UNDP and the UN Development Coordination Office are leading the country-support mechanism.

Selwin Hart, Guterres’ special adviser and assistant secretary-general for climate action, told Bloomberg that 15 countries had been considered. In a subsequent response, his office said the six were selected using five criteria: government commitment; mineral endowment and development potential; UN system readiness; prospects for resource mobilisation; and demonstration and replicability value.

Without this support, Hart warned, resource-rich countries risk remaining “mere exporters of raw materials, while others benefit enormously from their mineral wealth”.

Zambia offers an immediate test of the policy trade-off. The government wants to move further down the copper value chain, but in June extended the suspension of a 10% export duty on copper concentrates until September 30 to help clear stockpiles while major smelters underwent extended maintenance. IntelliNews reported that the waiver covered 271,742 tonnes of concentrate. With the suspension due to expire on September 30, no further extension had been announced.

Guinea faces the same value-capture problem at a different stage of the chain. The country was the world’s largest bauxite producer in 2024, accounting for an estimated 33.2% of global output, according to the US Geological Survey, but far less value is retained locally through alumina refining. On June 13, construction began on a roughly $1bn alumina refinery at Boffa backed by Chinese state-controlled aluminium producer Aluminum Corporation of China Limited, or Chalco (SSE: 601600; HKEX: 2600), with planned capacity of 1.2mn tonnes a year.

Nigeria is also trying to push more mineral processing onshore. The UN Economic Commission for Africa and Nigeria Energy Forum launched their lithium-sector report on June 30, focusing on sustainable production, processing and value addition. Two days later, Nigeria commissioned the $250mn Diamond New Energy lithium mining and processing plant in Nasarawa State, with capacity to process 6,000 tonnes of lithium ore a day. As IntelliNews reported, the project was developed by Chinese investors in partnership with the state government, Jiuling Lithium and Canmax Technologies (SZSE: 300390).

Zimbabwe has taken one of the most interventionist approaches to forcing the shift downstream. It has restricted exports of unbeneficiated lithium and plans to ban lithium concentrate exports from January 1, 2027. Miners are moving towards deeper local processing, although Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has warned that slow construction of planned lithium sulphate plants could make the timetable difficult to meet.

Madagascar, by contrast, remains much more exposed to the gap between mineral endowment and industrial capture. It has important graphite, nickel and cobalt resources but remains concentrated in upstream activity. A UNCTAD assessment published in June identified 124 actionable products across eight sectors that could create about 19,700 direct and indirect jobs. IntelliNews reported previously on the country’s growing importance as a graphite producer and its wider nickel and cobalt potential.

The wider UN framework dates back to the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, established in 2024. A task force launched in December 2025 now coordinates UN work across value addition, traceability, mining legacies, artisanal mining and circularity, with the country-support mechanism intended to translate that work into national programmes.

Across the five African countries, the common problem is less geological scarcity than industrial capture: how to turn mineral endowment into processing, manufacturing and jobs rather than allowing much of the downstream value to be realised elsewhere.