While falling share prices have kept CEOs awake at night across all time zones in 2022, companies with African assets have developed a thicker skin against global shocks through constantly having to prove project excellence that made up for high jurisdictional risks. Regardless of what happened overseas, African miners and explorers have always had to deal with issues from within the continent, including security concerns, power blackouts, poor infrastructure, and unstable governance, in a mix specific to each country.

Navigating these challenges, African players have developed projects with robust economics, leveraging on easy-to-find and easy-to-mine high grade and large tonnage deposits, as well as cheaper local procurement. Juniors have learned how to make investors look beyond the veil of jurisdictional uncertainty, while producers have become astute at operating mines profitably in some of the harshest environments, whether mining for diamonds at 3,000 meters altitude in Lesotho or developing some of the largest uranium mines in the deserts of Niger.

These aspects have toughened the African industry, but not insulated it from the vicissitudes of upset global markets. In an environment where private and public financiers judge projects more diligently, the industry’s logic is to minimize the risks within their control. Juniors, particularly, are eager to start making cash and lower their dependence on external funding.

This report includes in-depth regional coverage of Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, the DRC, Zambia, Tanzania, as well as commodity-based coverage of Precious Metals, Battery Metals, Base Metals, Graphite, Coal, Uranium, and Diamonds, based on interviews with 130 executives in 30 African countries.