At year 2026 Shanghai Metals Expo in Novermber, Women in Mining Africa (WiM-Africa) will advocate for stronger African participation in global minerals pricing, processing and value chains. The organisation said the continent must build the market infrastructure required to translate its vast mineral resources into greater economic influence.
In a statement on Tuesday, the organisation disclosed that its Executive Director, Dr Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji, would advance the position at the Shanghai Metals Expo 2026 in China in November, where she is scheduled to participate as a roundtable speaker.
According to WiM-Africa, the roundtable, convened by Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), will examine “Eastern Pricing 2.0: Integrating Futures, Physical Markets, Industry and Finance for the Next Stage of Global Metals Pricing.”
The organisation said the discussion will present an opportunity to examine how Africa could strengthen its influence in the markets where the value of its minerals and metals are determined.
WiM-Africa said Africa’s mineral wealth alone could not guarantee greater influence in global markets, stressing the need for stronger market intelligence, processing capacity, credible mineral data and commercial infrastructure.
“Africa cannot build pricing power simply by having minerals beneath its soil. We must put our African mineral ecosystem together — our producers, geological and market data, processing capacity, standards, laboratories, commodity exchanges, financial institutions and regional value chains — if we want to become more relevant in the markets where value is determined,” Asokoro-Ogaji said.
WiM-Africa said the issue had become more important amid intensifying global competition for copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths and other minerals critical to industrialisation and the energy transition.
The organisation said Africa’s response should go beyond negotiating better terms for exporting raw materials, arguing that the continent needed to progressively strengthen beneficiation and processing, mineral data systems, aggregation, traceability and certification.
It also identified market intelligence, access to finance, regional trading systems and direct relationships between African producers and international buyers as areas requiring greater attention.
WiM-Africa said one of the issues to be raised by its executive director in Shanghai would be whether the next generation of global metals pricing could establish stronger links between international price-discovery systems and the countries and communities from which minerals originate.
The organisation said the question should not be limited to whether pricing influence would shift from established Western markets to emerging Eastern markets.
Rather, it said the changing global pricing architecture should be examined in terms of how African production, value addition and market participation could become more integrated into global metals markets.
WiM-Africa also drew attention to the position of women and smaller-scale producers in the mineral economy.
It said access to credible prices, mineral testing, market intelligence, traceability systems and direct relationships with buyers could determine whether such producers remained at the mine-gate end of the value chain or developed into competitive businesses operating in higher-value segments.
The organisation therefore called for deeper continental dialogue involving governments, mining companies, commodity exchanges, financial institutions, laboratories, geological institutions, processors, traders, research organisations, women-led enterprises and regional bodies.
According to WiM-Africa, the objective should be to develop institutions and infrastructure that would enable Africa not only to produce minerals but also to understand, process, trade and influence their value.
It said Dr Asokoro-Ogaji’s participation followed an expansion of strategic cooperation between WiM-Africa and Shanghai Metals Market, providing a framework for engagement between African and Chinese stakeholders in mining, metals, battery minerals, market connectivity, knowledge exchange, technology and industry development.
WiM-Africa said it would continue to advocate greater African participation across the mineral value chain, particularly in data, processing, markets, finance and value creation.
The organisation said Africa’s challenge was no longer simply to demonstrate the size of its mineral endowment but to build the market architecture capable of converting that endowment into greater economic and pricing influence.
It said access to credible prices, mineral testing, market intelligence, traceability systems and direct relationships with buyers could determine whether such producers remained at the mine-gate end of the value chain or developed into competitive businesses operating in higher-value segments.
The organisation therefore called for deeper continental dialogue involving governments, mining companies, commodity exchanges, financial institutions, laboratories, geological institutions, processors, traders, research organisations, women-led enterprises and regional bodies.
According to WiM-Africa, the objective should be to develop institutions and infrastructure that would enable Africa not only to produce minerals but also to understand, process, trade and influence their value.
It said Dr Asokoro-Ogaji’s participation followed an expansion of strategic cooperation between WiM-Africa and Shanghai Metals Market, providing a framework for engagement between African and Chinese stakeholders in mining, metals, battery minerals, market connectivity, knowledge exchange, technology and industry development.
WiM-Africa said it would continue to advocate greater African participation across the mineral value chain, particularly in data, processing, markets, finance and value creation.
The organisation said Africa’s challenge was no longer simply to demonstrate the size of its mineral endowment but to build the market architecture capable of converting that endowment into greater economic and pricing influence.
