Scramble for critical minerals spurs an African rail revival

Southern Africa’s railways are suddenly getting global attention and attracting billions of dollars in investment, with a race to secure copper supplies needed for the energy transition at its centre.

From Angola on the continent’s west coast to Tanzanian on the east, governments and investors are readying to revive decades-old rail lines that have fallen into disrepair and build new ones. Much of the new demand for freight comes from the central African copperbelt that Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo share.

“We’re at a turning point – it’s very historic,” Babe Botana, executive director at the Southern African Railways Association, said in an interview. “The rest of the world is developing interest to come and revitalize the railway industry.”

Already, truck logjams clog routes out of Congo, which last year overtook Peru as the world’s second-biggest source of copper used in electric vehicles and data centres that power the artificial intelligence boom.

Zambia has ambitious plans to catch up with its northern neighbour. From the US and European Union to China, there’s a growing realisation that rail must play a central and strategic role in allowing exports to flow.