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Electric Cars and Niche Metals Lure Cash to Africa's Mines

Cobalt, lithium, niobium among metals drawing interest
Biggest African mining conference starts Monday in Cape Town

A truck carries newly excavated kimberlite rock out of the open pit at the Voorspoed diamond mine, operated by De Beers SA, in Kroonstad, South Africa, on Tuesday, May 3, 2017. The Anglo American Plc unit plans to store carbon-dioxide in kimberlite -- a type of ore best known for containing diamonds, but which also naturally reacts with carbon to remove it from the atmosphere.Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

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By Thomas Wilson and Thomas Biesheuvel

February 2, 2018 at 12:00 AM UTC

Updated on

February 2, 2018 at 11:58 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Rising commodity prices may have revived enthusiasm for African resources, but it’s unlikely to be the old mainstays of coal and iron ore pulling crowds next week as the mining industry meets in Cape Town.

The electric-vehicle boom and shifting industrial demand have transformed formerly niche metals -- from lithium and cobalt to praseodymium and neodymium -- into the hot new drawcards of African mining.