Long dominated by Chinese, Australian and assorted European players, Africa’s mining sector is experiencing increased interest from North American companies.

While a slew of American newcomers are scrambling for a piece of the strategic minerals powering the lucrative Green Energy Revolution, Canada’s Allied Gold Corporation is proving that the shiny metal remains as precious as ever.

Their way is being smoothed by a United States government intent on preventing Beijing from cornering the market on critical minerals.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 earmarks more than $370bn to support green industrial policy in the US. It has also made energy transition and securing supplies of critical metals strategic priorities for Washington.

That same year, the US and Canada worked together to launch the multinational Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) in Toronto. Since then the Joe Biden administration has continued to invest in the African mining sector, notably via its ambitious effort to add value to the continent’s minerals by developing a battery precursor plant at the border of Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia while facilitating their exports of cobalt and other critical minerals by connecting them to the port of Lobito in Angola.

Here are some of the key North American players in African mining:

Large-scale mining operations cost money – and deep-pocketed investors are willing to take a gamble.

Simon Tiemtoré

The American-Burkinabè businessman runs a highly diversified investment fund from his home base in Minnesota, with interests in finance, hotels and agribusiness across Africa. Now he has its eyes set on the continent’s lucrative mining sector. Last summer Tiemtoré’s Lilium Capital group acquired 90% of Burkina Faso’s Wahgnion and Boungou gold mines from London-based Endeavour Mining for nearly $300m.

Charles Stith

The former US Ambassador to Tanzania under President Bill Clinton has emerged as a key African-American rainmaker on the continent through his Pula Group. Already engaged in real estate, consulting and philanthropy, Los Angeles-based Pula has registered three subsidiaries in Tanzania to explore and develop mineral deposits: Pula Kahama Gold Partnership, Pula Group Tanzania and Pula Graphite Partners. In June 2021, Pula created a joint venture with Tanzanian trading firm G.M. & Company to conduct exploration in the gold-rich northwestern region of Kahama.

John Dowd

The Boston-area investor ran the GoGreen Investments Corporation until its 2023 merger with Lifezone Metals, where he is now a director. Founded in 2021 in Houston, GoGreen was a blank check firm – also known as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) – created to facilitate capital access for clean energy companies.

GoGreen’s $1bn merger with the owner of the Kabanga nickel project in northwest Tanzania is an early show of confidence in the mining reforms promoted by President Samia Hassan.

A slew of new US companies are jumping into the strategic minerals game.

Bronwyn Barnes

Despite her Australia background, Barnes earns a place on the North American list as the new president and CEO of the US-based High Power Exploration Inc. A leading woman in the Australian resources sector for the past 25 years, Barnes has worked for companies ranging from small-cap explorers to mining giant BHP. HPX was founded by mining billionaire Robert Friedland to develop the ultra-high-grade Nimba iron ore project in Guinea. Just last month, Barnes was in Liberia to meet with newly elected President Joseph Nyuma Boakai about the Liberty Corridor, a heavy-duty railroad connecting the Nimba district to the Liberian deep water port at Didia.

Tom Baroody

Baroody’s K-Technologies is the American partner to London-listed Rainbow Rare Earths in the recovery of economic quantities of the strategic metals from phosphogypsum stacks in Phalaborwa, South Africa. The Florida-based company specialises in developing chemical processes to extract rare earths from the waste byproducts of phosphoric acid production. Sourcing the building blocks for everything from electric car batteries to wind turbines is a US government priority, earning Baroody a spot as an expert witness at a recent congressional hearing on how to establish a ‘robust’ US supply chain of critical minerals.

Craig Dean

Dean is the executive chairman and CEO of the Gerald Group, having led the world’s oldest and largest independent, employee-owned metals trading house since 2012 after five years as CFO. Founded in 1962, the Gerald Group is quickly expanding into new African markets, with a focus on adding value across the minerals supply chain. Dean is also the chairman and CEO of Marampa Mines Limited, the Gerald Group’s flagship subsidiary in northern Sierra Leone.

Daniel Driscoll

Driscoll leads the Lilium Mining subsidiary of American-Burkinabè businessman Simon Tiemtoré’s growing investment empire. A lawyer by training, Driscoll is an expert on the African mining sector, having previously led the legal teams responsible for the Semafo and Teranga gold mining operations in West Africa for London-based Endeavour mining. After serving as vice president for Legal, Risk & Compliance at Endeavour from 2018 until 2022, Driscoll now finds himself the leader of a West African gold producer after Lilium Mining took over Burkina Faso’s Wahgnion and Boungou mines from his previous employer last year.

Shawn McCormick

A former director for African affairs at the White House National Security Council under President Bill Clinton, McCormick has more than 30 years of experience working on the continent. Following a stint as regional adviser for Africa for BP in London, McCormick is now deeply engaged in the minerals space as senior adviser for Africa at London mining-focused private equity firm Appian Capital Advisory. McCormick is also chairman of Trinity Metals, which explores for tin, tungsten and tantalum in Rwanda, and a non-executive director with both Rainbow Rare Earths and Karo Mining Resources, which operate in South Africa and Zimbabwe, respectively.

Chris Showalter

A veteran of investment banks Goldman Sachs and Hannam & Partners, Showalter has been CEO of Lifezone Metals since December 2022 after running its flagship Kabanga nickel project in northwestern Tanzania for the previous two years. Incorporated in 2008 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year, Lifezone aims to supply low-carbon metals to the battery and electric vehicle markets through its hydromet technology that largely eliminates the polluting smelting process. Showalter secured tens of millions of dollars in investment funding for its Kabanga project from mining giant BHP starting in 2021 before the company merged with Houston-based special purpose acquisition company GoGreen Investments last year.

Canada is home to some of the biggest names in African mining.

Robert Friedland

No list of North American miners could be complete without mention of Robert Friedland. Once derided as ‘Toxic Bob’ but now celebrated as a ‘rock star’ of the mining world, the charismatic founder of Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines may well have the most private money invested in mining on the continent. These include major stakes in copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo, iron ore in Guinea (via US-based HPX) and nickel and copper in Côte d’Ivoire (through Ivanhoe Electric). Friedland’s Ivanhoe has also signed up as the first user of the US-backed rail line connecting DRC and Zambia copper belt with the Angolan port of Lobito.

Peter Marrone

While critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium and nickel dominate the conversation, Canada’s Marrone proves that there’s still plenty of money to be made with good old-fashioned gold. The former lawyer and investment banker turned mining magnate founded Toronto-based Yamana Gold in 2003 to mine gold, silver and copper mines in Canada, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Marrone sold Yamana for $4.8bn last year and launched the Allied Gold Corporation, raising $267m in the largest mining IPO in Canada since 2010. Allied controls gold-producing assets in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.

The Joe Biden administration is keen to catch up to China and secure a reliable supply of strategic minerals on the continent.

Amos Hochstein

An Israeli-American diplomat and former businessman, this veteran of the Barack Obama administration is the White House’s key man on African minerals. Now serving as President Biden’s senior adviser for energy and investment after being in charge of global energy security at the State Department, Hochstein criss-crossed the globe in 2023, meeting President João Lourenço in Luanda, promoting a “win-win partnership” at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town and signing a seven-way memorandum of understanding in Brussels to develop the rail corridor linking mines in DRC and Zambia with the port of Lobito in Angola.

José Fernandez

Hochstein’s counterpart at the State Department, Fernandez has served as under secretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the State Department since August 2021. The former law firm partner has been the driving force behind key initiatives on climate change, clean energy and supply chain security, notably the Minerals Security Partnership. The partnership between US allies aims to secure a stable supply of raw materials crucial to the green energy revolution, notably in Africa.

Helaina Matza

Previously the director of energy transformation at the State Department, Matza now serves as the acting special coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII).

Largely seen as the West’s belated answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the PGII was launched by President Biden at the G7 in 2022 with the aim of mobilising $600bn in public and private funds through 2027 to fund infrastructure projects in developing countries.

Its projects include the rail corridor connecting the rich mines of northern Zambia and southern DRC to global markets through the port of Lobito in Angola.

The revolving door between the public and private sectors is alive and well in the mining space.

Peter Pham

A former director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and special envoy to the Great Lakes and later the Sahel under President Donald Trump, Pham bridges government, academia and business. Since leaving government, the Vietnamese-American trailblazer has emerged as a leading critic of China’s dominance of DRC’s mining sector and an informal adviser to President Felix Tshisekedi’s government. Pham is the new non-executive chairman of US-based HPX and also sits on the board of Rainbow Rare Earths, a London-listed mining company looking to separate rare earth oxides from gypsum and mining waste dumps In Phalaborwa, South Africa.

Frank Fannon

The first-ever assistant secretary of state for energy resources under President Barack Obama now advises global clients on development and the energy transition via Washington-based Fannon Global Advisors. A managing director at BHP in charge of the Australian mining giant’s US corporate affairs prior to his service in government, the former energy diplomat sits on several boards – including deep sea miner Impossible Metals – and is a regular speaker at African Energy Week in South Africa. He is also a sought-after expert on global energy matters, with appointments at both the Atlantic Council and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Tony Carroll

Finally, no overview of the North American mining scene would be complete without mention of Tony Carroll. The deeply connected Washington lawyer has more than three decades of experience in the African investment space and was a driving force behind the creation of South Africa’s Mining Indaba in 1994. He remains involved with the annual networking and deal-making conference while serving as vice president of the trade policy and investment advisory firm Manchester Trade in the US capital.