Turkey’s Strategic Push for Africa’s Minerals and Potential EU Collaboration

This research paper examines Turkey's strategic efforts to secure critical raw materials (CRMs) in Africa to support its domestic industrial goals in defence, electric vehicles, and renewables. It analyzes Turkey's diverse engagement modalities—ranging from direct extraction to integrated industrial hubs and security-linked partnerships—and proposes a trilateral cooperation framework involving the European Union (EU) and African nations to align standards and enhance supply chain resilience.

• Turkey is pursuing a dual-track strategy to secure critical raw materials (CRMs) by enhancing domestic capacity and expanding international partnerships, particularly in Africa, to reduce import dependence and support strategic autonomy.
• Domestic industrial demand for CRMs is primarily driven by the defence sector's need for rare earth elements (REEs) and specialized alloys, the electric vehicle (EV) sector—specifically the TOGG initiative—which requires lithium and nickel, and the renewable energy sector's need for high-purity silicon and silver.
• Despite possessing 70% of global boron and significant deposits of tungsten, cobalt, and graphite—including REE deposits in Malatya-Kuluncak and Eskişehir-Beylikova claimed to be the world's second largest—Turkey's current production is insufficient to meet industrial needs.
• Turkey employs three distinct modalities for African engagement: direct extraction for domestic supply (e.g., gold in Liberia and Kenya), integrated industrial value chains that provide local development (e.g., steel plants in Algeria and Angola), and security-linked partnerships in high-volatility regions (e.g., Niger, Sudan, and Ethiopia).
• In the Sahel and Horn of Africa, Turkey has leveraged military cooperation and arms deals to secure mining partnerships, notably providing Bayraktar TB2 drones to Niger in 2022 and supplying drones to the Sudanese Armed Forces.
• Turkey's approach to CRMs is characterized as pragmatic and commercially oriented with fewer regulatory constraints compared to the EU's ESG-focused frameworks, having amended its domestic mining legal framework 25 times between 1985 and 2020 to accelerate permits.
• The author proposes a trilateral cooperation model between the EU, Turkey, and African states (such as the DRC, Zambia, and Namibia) using the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) and AU-EU-Turkey working groups to combine EU financing and ESG standards with Turkish operational agility.

APA

Yaşar, N. T. (2025). Turkey’s Strategic Push for Africa’s Minerals and Potential EU Collaboration. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/turkeys-strategic-push-for-africas-minerals-and-potential-eu-collaboration

Chicago

Yaşar, Nebahat Tanrıverdi. Turkey’s Strategic Push for Africa’s Minerals and Potential EU Collaboration. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2025. https://afripoli.org/turkeys-strategic-push-for-africas-minerals-and-potential-eu-collaboration.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Yaşar |first1=Nebahat Tanrıverdi |title=Turkey’s Strategic Push for Africa’s Minerals and Potential EU Collaboration |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=18 June 2025 |url=https://afripoli.org/turkeys-strategic-push-for-africas-minerals-and-potential-eu-collaboration |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaar2025turkeys, author = {Yaşar, Nebahat Tanrıverdi}, title = {{Turkey’s Strategic Push for Africa’s Minerals and Potential EU Collaboration}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://afripoli.org/turkeys-strategic-push-for-africas-minerals-and-potential-eu-collaboration}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }