Mozambique's northeast ruby mines generate nearly a fifth of the country's mining revenue while supporting 60,000 artisanal miners who've been criminalized by their own government. The mines sold some five million carats and earned about $6 million, but the workers sifting through soil to extract rubies—many from local communities earning a living from resources beneath their feet—were branded illegal and subjected to crackdowns.
The disconnect between policy and people came into sharp focus this week at a high-level conference in Accra, Ghana, where experts called for democratic governance and citizen participation to replace extraction models that enrich corporations while marginalizing communities. Fatima Mimbire, a project director and extractive industry researcher from Mozambique, said her country had regarded artisanal miners as illegal until research presented the facts. "Many of them are members of communities where these resources are found but are not integrated into the mining economy," she said. "The state always focused on big mining companies, excluding the local people."
Communities Bear the Cost
The three-day Regional High-Level Conference on Governance, Critical Minerals and Conflict in Africa, organized by the Open Society Foundations, pressed African governments to place accountability and peacebuilding at the center of their response to global demand for strategic minerals. In Mozambique, the lack of inclusion is partly blamed for the rise of extremist groups that have forced thousands from their homes and sometimes attack mines.
Mimbire said Mozambican communities had traditionally practiced artisanal mining to survive, long before global firms arrived in their areas. A special license had been created for local small-scale miners, but it was never implemented. The lack of structured engagement fueled illegal dealing and smuggling. "They are not paying taxes because they are marginalised," she said. "No one takes them into account. They are just surviving." She added that informal trading allows buyers to pay less than they should, with some foreigners fueling that informality because they can profit from lower prices.
Mozambique is now reversing the trend by allowing informal miners to create associations that engage directly with authorities, register small firms and train members on their rights and obligations. "They are now able to explain that they are small-scale miners, not criminals," Mimbire said. "The locals have also organised themselves into groups and scheduled the sale of their minerals on specific days so they do not have to compete. We can prevent conflicts between formal mining companies and artisanal miners. The state should incentivise the associations and implement programmes to introduce new technology to them."
Governance Failures Fuel Conflict
Dr. Chukwuemeka B. Eze, Director of Democratic Futures in Africa at Open Society Foundations, based in Dakar, Senegal, said most mines are located in rural areas and local communities are often told to relocate and allow mining firms to take over. Sometimes they resist. Other times they're forcibly removed, leaving long-term resentment. "If you look at most of Africa's critical minerals today, they are all in rural communities," he said. "Most of these rural communities that have these critical minerals are also places where there are issues of conflict and civil war."
He called these governance questions. "If the government cannot manage mineral resources, if it cannot distribute wealth or involve local communities in decisions on how to manage critical minerals, it increases the propensity for conflict," Eze said. "Lack of transparency is responsible for some of the poverty that we see in Africa today, as well as some of the conflict."
Patient Matabishi, Civil Society Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo and leader of the NGO Dynamic Community for Social Cohesion and Development, said mining companies often lie to the public. "They promise to build roads or schools but vanish after extracting the minerals," he said. "We need a strong link between communities and governments to ensure leaders listen to the public." He added that villages with minerals often have no roads or infrastructure to serve the people, leaving them feeling marginalized while outsiders take advantage and drive wedges between communities to profit.
Matabishi said conflict in the Congo is both a cause and an effect of poor governance in the mining sector, especially the marginalization of artisanal miners. In some mining areas communities have had to pick up arms to protect their resources, while in other places people picked up arms because they were incentivized to join the looting or were funded by outsiders. "The local people are not stupid, even if they may not have gone to school or are old," he said. "They know what they want. If the government signs contracts with mining companies, it is very important that it speaks with the people and properly explains what is happening. Many times, this doesn't happen."
A Third of Global Reserves
As of 2026, current UN data show that nearly a third of the world's critical mineral reserves, including cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel, graphite, bauxite, platinum and other rare earth minerals, are found across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Guinea, Mali, Morocco and other African countries. That makes Africa's role in the global energy transition, including the production of electric vehicle batteries, hydrogen power technologies, electronics and electric vehicles, increasingly important.
Washington, in its National Security Strategy, has framed African critical minerals as essential to diversifying supply chains away from China, securing resources for clean energy and advanced manufacturing, and deepening partnerships through investment, infrastructure and diplomatic agreements. It identified corridors such as the Lobito Corridor in Angola and bilateral frameworks with mineral-rich African states as part of that strategy.
Dennis Mwinkpeng, a Resource Economist at Open Society Foundations, said artisanal miners sometimes produce more minerals than formal companies in countries such as Ghana and Zimbabwe. "We have underestimated the potential of this sector for a very long time," he said. "For instance, in Ghana, more than 50 percent of gold production in 2025 came from small-scale miners. It is not that there are no big companies in Ghana, but the output of these small-scale producers is significant."
He added that a large portion of the supply chain rests with local artisanal miners. "With big mining companies, very little benefit goes to communities," Mwinkpeng said. "With small-scale miners, whatever they earn, they reinvest in the local community, whether through procuring goods and services or supporting related businesses."
Why This Matters:
Africa holds nearly a third of the world's critical minerals needed for the global energy transition, yet the people living atop these resources remain locked out of formal economies and subjected to criminalization. When governments prioritize corporate contracts over community participation, they don't just fail their citizens—they create conditions for conflict, extremism and resource smuggling that undermine national security and revenue collection. The Accra conference's call for democratic governance and citizen participation isn't idealism; it's recognition that sustainable extraction requires accountability, transparency and equitable distribution of wealth. As global powers compete for African minerals to power electric vehicles and clean energy, the question isn't just who controls the supply chains—it's whether extraction will continue enriching distant shareholders while impoverishing the communities whose land yields the wealth. Formalizing artisanal mining through associations, licensing and technology transfer offers a path toward inclusive growth that keeps revenue local and reduces the grievances that fuel instability.