Kemcore, a major importer of mining chemicals across Africa, is pushing ahead with plans to manufacture key processing inputs locally, starting with a new facility in Botswana and another in Angola.
The company aims to reduce miners' dependence on supplies from China and the Middle East. Geopolitical tensions, including the recent conflict involving Iran, have already driven up costs and disrupted shipments of critical reagents.
Sulfuric acid prices at Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port have climbed to a premium following disruptions to sulphur shipments, Kemcore founder and commercial officer Calisto Radithipa revealed.
The Botswana plant, with a total project cost of 103 million dollars, is scheduled to start operations by the middle of next year. It will produce sodium metabisulphite (SMBS), sodium hydrosulphide and flotation collectors such as xanthates. These are chemicals essential for processing copper and cobalt ores from the Central African Copperbelt.
Initial annual output is expected to reach 57,500 tons from 2027, scaling up to around 250,000 tons by 2032, or roughly 25 percent of Africa's demand for these reagents. The company is targeting about a quarter of the continent's 500 million dollar metals processing chemicals market, with local production forecast to deliver meaningful cost savings for operators.
Much of the funding will come from African sources, according to Kemcore CEO Godfrey Johnson, who declined to identify investors citing confidentiality. Some US agencies have expressed early interest in backing the project, as Washington seeks to diversify critical minerals supply chains away from Chinese dominance. No commitments have been finalized.
A separate facility in Angola, already funded and tied to a rare earths development, will focus on sulfuric acid and caustic lye production, with expected annual capacities of 88,000 tons and 50,000 tons respectively. "Africa cannot continue exporting raw materials while importing the chemicals needed to process them," Johnson said. "The technology is available, the customers are here and so are the raw materials."
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia remain central to Africa's copper output, while Congo dominates global cobalt supply. This positions the region as a strategic battleground in the race for energy transition minerals between the US and China.
The US State Department said Washington is focused on supporting transparent investment and local processing in partner countries where it makes economic sense.
Source: Reuters
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