According to a senior American official, the United States is keen on helping Kenya develop a critical minerals processing industry, as it races to garner more access to Africa’s critical minerals than China.
This move coincides with Kenya evaluating bids for the development of the coastal Mrima Hill deposit, an asset projected to hold tens of billions of dollars in rare earth elements and niobium, a critical metal utilized in aerospace manufacturing.
“Critical minerals are a top priority for President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and we are ready to work with Kenya as it becomes a regional leader in this space,” Frank Garcia, assistant secretary of state for Africa, told a meeting of the Kenyan business lobby group American Chamber of Commerce.
“We are ready to help you build a mining sector that is transparent and attracts legitimate businesses, respects communities , and helps secure global supply chains.
“If we are serious about rare earth minerals, energy and a stronger America, we do it in partnership, not alone,” he added, as seen on Reuters.
Chris Kulukundis, the U.S. acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Southern Africa and critical minerals, stated that Kenya and the United States have established a consensus regarding the appropriate framework for advancing the development of the mining sector.
“The Mrima Hill tender process is moving forward in a transparent manner. We have two U.S. consortia that we believe are going to be able, if successful and if chosen, to develop the project in the correct way,” he said.
“Some of our competitors are efficient at one thing: pulling minerals out of the ground, whisking them offshore and capturing all value addition far away from the lands from which the minerals originated,” he said.
Kenya has identified deposits of several strategic minerals, including rare earths, niobium, lithium, graphite, copper and nickel.
Australia’s RareX and the United States’ Critical Metals Corp announced in July that they had been selected to compete for the rights to develop Mrima Hill.
Harry Kimtai, senior secretary for Kenya’s state department of mining, stated at the meeting that there are six businesses on the list, two of which are American.
However, the Kenyan government is yet to release its shortlist.
During the G7 summit held on the shores of Lake Geneva, Kenyan President William Ruto disclosed these developments, stating that discussions with U.S. officials were advancing and that a formal agreement could be finalized in the near future.
“We have agreed that the minerals will be processed in Kenya,” Ruto told Reuters.
US’s new plan on besting China in the critical minerals race
The United States’ brawl with China for African resources such as copper, cobalt and other critical minerals has led it to leverage offtake deals and state-backed funding to remain competitive.
Offtake is the procedure by which a country or company acquires the right to a portion of a mine’s output in exchange for investment or other support.
These procedures allow US firms to ensure long-term supply while de-risking large-scale mining operations, an approach long adopted by Chinese state-linked enterprises across the continent.
Control of, or secured access to, these resources is increasingly viewed in Washington as a national security imperative tied to supply chain resilience and energy transition, rather than a commercial goal.
To secure the crucial resources stated above, the US has set its sights on Zambia, Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The United States is moving toward offtake and other trading arrangements, like its agreement with Mercuria and its agreements with Congolese state miner Gécamines, in order to push output into value chains that are aligned with the United States and controlled by Chinese refiners, rather than putting American operators in high-risk nations.