Critical minerals in Senegal: A plea for sovereign and local governance

The emergence of industrial sovereignty requires Senegal to make a decisive break with the current low-value-added extractive model for critical minerals. This was the plea made in Dakar on Monday, September 21, by Papa Fara Diallo, president of the "Publish What You Pay" Coalition, during a workshop presenting the findings of a national study entitled: "Critical Minerals and Energy Transition in Senegal: Documenting the Issues and Anticipating the Challenges."

For PCQVP, the energy transition must be "fair, transparent, and inclusive." Therefore, the role of critical minerals (such as phosphate—essential for our food sovereignty—lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and other rare earth elements) in the national energy transition strategy must, according to the coalition, be considered within this broader, sovereignist vision. They must contribute to energy and industrial sovereignty, but also to sustainable development, the coalition believes.

“Senegal must not only be a country that possesses critical minerals. It must be a country that knows how to govern them and transform them into strategic resources for our economic development,” he declared on the sidelines of the presentation of this study conducted by a team of scientists in four extractive regions of Senegal (Thiès, Ziguinchor, Tambacounda and Kédougou) whose objective is to: “document our potential in critical minerals, listen to the communities, understand the geostrategic and socio-environmental issues and bring the stakeholders into dialogue.”

The civil society organization is calling for value to be captured locally, from exploration to processing. This ambition requires anticipating demand by investing heavily in research and vocational training in order to achieve a genuine "skills transition." "We must move from a logic of extraction to a logic of value creation, industrialization, skills development, and job creation," emphasizes Mr. Diallo.

According to him, the energy transition will only be truly successful if it is also a "fair transition for communities, young people, women, and territories." Moreover, the results of the study, conducted with the support of the African Climate Foundation, "highlight a strong expectation from communities, who are demanding to be fully consulted and integrated into decision-making processes."

PCQVP therefore invites decision-makers to involve local stakeholders in the governance of critical minerals in the context of developing a national strategy.