Mining Corridors as Catalysts: Building on the Lobito Model

Why It Matters

The initiative secures U.S. access to essential minerals while reducing reliance on adversarial supply chains, strengthening both economic competitiveness and national security.

Key Takeaways

• US-DRC pact grants preferential mineral access.
• Lobito Corridor proved US‑DFI infrastructure model.
• Four new corridors proposed across Africa.
• Corridors aim to cut Chinese Belt‑and‑Road influence.
• Processing hubs will add value locally.

Pulse Analysis

Africa holds roughly 30 percent of the world’s known critical‑mineral reserves, making the continent a strategic prize in the global race for clean‑energy and defense technologies. As the United States confronts growing dependence on China for processed minerals, policymakers are shifting focus from raw‑material access to end‑to‑end supply‑chain resilience. By securing a partnership with the DRC, Washington gains a foothold, but without robust transport and processing infrastructure, the value of those deposits remains untapped, limiting both revenue for African states and security for the U.S.

The Lobito Corridor illustrates how coordinated public‑private financing can transform a regional bottleneck into a trade artery. Over three years, U.S. agencies partnered with African development finance institutions to fund rail, road, and port upgrades linking Zambia and the DRC to Angola’s deep‑water port. The project delivered measurable outcomes: reduced freight times, increased export volumes, and a template for risk‑sharing that attracted additional private capital. Its success underscores the importance of aligning strategic objectives with local development goals, ensuring that infrastructure investments generate sustainable economic benefits for host nations.

Building on that playbook, the proposed Liberty, Northern, and Nacala corridors, together with a Moroccan battery‑materials hub, aim to create a network of multimodal routes and processing sites across the continent. These corridors would diversify export pathways, lower logistics costs, and provide on‑shore refining capacity, directly challenging China’s Belt‑and‑Road dominance. For investors, the model promises predictable returns backed by sovereign guarantees; for African governments, it offers job creation, fiscal revenue, and greater control over their mineral wealth. Collectively, the corridor strategy could reshape global supply chains, bolster U.S. strategic autonomy, and foster inclusive growth in Africa.

Mining corridors as catalysts: Building on the Lobito model

February 10, 2026 · 7:01 am ET

Aubrey Hruby

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Bottom lines up front

• In December 2025 the US and the DRC signed a strategic partnership agreement giving the US preferential access to Congolese mineral deposits.

• The next step should be to build the infrastructure necessary for African nations to derive sustainable wealth from their mineral assets, and for the US to reap the benefits of the strategic partnership agreement.

• The financing approach and public‑private cooperation used to build the Lobito transportation corridor offers a playbook for the US and African governments and investors.

Executive summary

In an era defined by technological advancement and strategic competition, African critical minerals are central to US economic competitiveness and national security. The continent holds approximately 30 percent of the world’s known mineral reserves, including inputs vital to defense systems, energy technologies, and the digital economy. This geological endowment places Africa at the nexus of the global supply chain and energy security.

Current US dependence on adversarial nations—particularly China—for processed critical minerals creates strategic exposure that African partnerships can mitigate. Since launching the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, Beijing has established significant economic inroads through billions of dollars of investments in transportation, infrastructure, and energy across the continent. The US response must prioritize not only access to raw materials but also the development of processing infrastructure, transparent governance frameworks, and equitable partnerships that deliver mutual prosperity. Logistic corridors and processing hubs are key to this approach.

The successful development of the Lobito Corridor linking Zambia and the DRC to Angola’s port of Lobito over the past three years has demonstrated that collaborative partnerships between the US government and African development finance institutions (DFIs) can deliver transformative infrastructure, unlock mineral wealth, and promote regional integration.

This model can be replicated through four additional mining corridors and hubs. These include the proposed Liberty Corridor connecting Guinea’s iron‑ore belt to Liberia’s coast; the Northern Corridor linking Kenya’s port of Mombasa to landlocked East African states and eastern DRC via a multimodal network; the Nacala Corridor, which connects northern Mozambique to Malawi and Zambia through rail, road, and the Port of Nacala; and Morocco’s emergence as a near‑term mineral processing and manufacturing hub, particularly for battery supply chains. Together, these projects have the potential to deepen US‑Africa partnerships, strengthen supply‑chain resilience, counter Chinese influence, and advance sustainable development.

By applying lessons from the Lobito Corridor and pursuing corridor‑based strategies in resource‑rich African markets, the United States can position itself as the partner of choice for infrastructure development while securing access to the critical minerals needed for long‑term economic competitiveness and national security.

Image caption: A view of Lobito Port, on the day of a visit by US President Joe Biden, in Lobito, Angola, December 4, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz