Upgrading in the Battery Value Chain: Possibilities in the Copperbelt

As the third AEGT cluster priority on productive linkages and the ‘infrastructures’ of extraction notes, a body of research suggests that locally focused industrial and infrastructure policies grounded in the extraction of critical minerals (CMs) represent an important opportunity for state-led strategies for sustainable development. This project focuses on the flagship state-led strategy for CM-based sustainable development to emerge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia in recent years: a bilateral effort, underway since 2021, to develop a regional battery value chain.

Several studies have charted the early development of this strategy at the level of documentary analysis, but have yet to enquire about the conditions and opportunities for economic upgrading in the Central African Copperbelt’s (CAC’s) battery value chain from the perspective of the different actors and stakeholders involved. Responding to this gap, the proposed project seeks to investigate the possibilities for upgrading in the battery value chain in the CAC.

The project will proceed in two stages. In the first stage, a comprehensive mapping of the full range of internal and external actors, groups and institutions involved in battery chain development will be undertaken. This will include documentation gathering of relevant policy and strategy documents. In the second stage, interviews with these different actors, groups and institutions will be conducted, to better understand the range of different perspectives and interests within the battery value chain in relation to the conditions and opportunities for regional upgrading within this chain.

With local partners, we will aim to co-author and publish one working paper in English and in French, as well as a policy brief based on the working paper. In addition, we will publish one academic journal article providing an assessment of the possibilities for upgrading in the CAC’s battery value chain and medium-term progress made towards this goal. We will also disseminate these findings via (social) media and online blogs, as well as in relevant mining industry and industrial development fora in both countries.