For African critical minerals producers, transnational policy arenas and regulatory regimes raise important opportunities and obstacles for leveraging new investment. International investor protection mechanisms, supply-chain due-diligence initiatives, and regional policy initiatives like the AMV represent contrasting influences on policy-making. Bilateral investment treaties and other mechanisms have helped to enforce “legal enclosure”, insulating investments from policy reforms and constraining states’ regulatory options. In other areas, supply chain due-diligence initiatives focused on responsible sourcing of minerals have helped to reduce risks like those associated with conflict minerals and labour exploitation. Evidence suggests northern green policies may lead to further pressure to address African rights concerns although others – including scholars focused on contemporary Canadian mining and the energy sector – are sceptical of “audit culture extractivism.” At the same time, while the African Union and international donors have sought to reassert the agency of African states in mining governance and foster locally-oriented minerals development as part of a green strategy, their challenge to the dominant market-friendly mining codes has been uneven. This cluster will address research gaps in 2 main areas: the options for challenging investment protection regulations and frameworks with respect to critical minerals extraction; and the opportunities offered by transnational regulations and South-North solidarity links for the building of African critical minerals development strategies, including value chain audits, fair pricing, and environment and human rights protections. Regionally-based comparative cases will be the primary research methodology.

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Conceptualising ‘Critical Minerals’

• How does the framing of critical minerals influence policy?
• Tracking the trajectory of CM consensus definitions in policy making, and regulatory impacts
• Which interests are contesting and shaping the designation of which minerals are ‘critical’, and what are the wider implications of these contestations and their
  outcomes

Regional Policy Initiatives and Harmonisation Efforts

• Tracking innovations regarding CMs, including shortcomings of existing codes and implementation, and challenges facing CM-focused interventions
• Strategies for regional definitions and modelling regulatory codes around CMs

Transnational Influences on Dispute Settlement between States and Foreign Mining Companies

• How are countries in the research area managing their disputes with mining companies over CMs and what role do transnational investment protection mechanisms play in these disputes?
• What opportunities exist to counter the problematic and anti-democratic effects of transnational investment protection mechanisms?

Implications of Transnational Governance Initiatives for Mining Affected Communities

• ESG Implications for ASM extraction of CMs
• Drivers of international regulatory code reforms
• Measuring and assessing outcomes of code reforms and reform processes

State Capacity/Institutional Fragility around CMs

• Conflict surrounding CMs and questions of ‘State Monopoly of Violence’
• CM inflections on State institutional and legal frameworks
• Understanding CM policy processes via ‘Political Settlements’ approach (i.e. focused on underpinning and shifting socio-political coalitions, and constraints)