• TechMet launches TechMet SCM to trade critical minerals, sourcing partly from Africa.
• The firm already holds stakes in Rwanda’s tin and tungsten mines and rare earths projects in South Africa and Burundi.
• Africa, home to nearly 30% of global critical mineral reserves, remains central to its strategy.

TechMet, an investment company backed by the US government, announced on August 28 the creation of TechMet SCM. The latter will be subsidiary dedicated to trading critical minerals. CEO Quentin Lamarche did not detail specific projects but said the unit will source both from third parties and from companies already in TechMet’s portfolio. This includes tin and tungsten projects in Rwanda, as well as rare earth mines in South Africa and Burundi.

Present in ten companies worldwide, TechMet has steadily expanded in Africa through investments in Trinity Metals and Rainbow Rare Earths. Since 2022, TechMet has been the majority shareholder in Trinity, which owns Rwanda’s two largest tin mines, Rutongo and Musha, along with Nyakabingo, the continent’s biggest tungsten mine.

TechMet is also the second-largest shareholder in Rainbow Rare Earths with 11.7%. Its exposure to rare earths includes the Gakara mine in Burundi, Africa’s first industrial rare earth project, launched in 2017 but now suspended. Rainbow is currently developing the Phalaborwa project in South Africa, where TechMet committed $50 million in November 2023 to acquire a stake. The mine could produce about 1,900 tons of rare earth oxides annually for magnets over 16 years.

In Rwanda, TechMet’s majority stake gives it real influence over the flow of Trinity’s tin and tungsten toward US interests through TechMet SCM. For rare earths, however, the company will still need long-term agreements with Rainbow to secure volumes from Phalaborwa. As for other sources mentioned by Lamarche, the key question is whether TechMet will pursue new African assets, as the continent holds nearly 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves.