Africa now mines three-quarters of the world's manganese
African share of world manganese mine output, manganese content. Four African producers named by USGS; 2025 is a USGS estimate.
- 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
- 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
- 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
- 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
- 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
- 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
- 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
- 9. Most people in Africa are still offline
- 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
- 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
- 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
- 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
- 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
- 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
- 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
- 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
- 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
- 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 23. Nitrogen dioxide over Khartoum fell 39% after war began
- 24. Countries mostly without electricity fell from 33 to 15
- 25. Seven in ten West African mobile money accounts sit idle
- 26. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
- 27. Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
- 28. DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
- 29. Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE
- 30. Nouakchott's mobile internet sped from Africa's slowest to top 30
- 31. Nigeria now imports more solar panels than generators
- 32. Zimbabwe climbed to fourth among the world's lithium miners
- 33. Services now employ twice as many Ghanaian women as farms
- 34. Sub-Saharan Africa doubled its grain, mostly by farming more land
- 35. Sub-Saharan Africa added more rural people than the whole world
- 36. France fell from first to third among Côte d'Ivoire's suppliers
- 37. China's car sales to Ethiopia are now mostly electric
- 38. Guinea rose from 17th to second for investment in Africa
- 39. Africa now mines three-quarters of the world's manganese
African mines gave about 15 Mt of the 20 Mt world total in 2025 (USGS estimate).
Africa's share was 52% in 2018 and 64% in 2021.
South Africa alone out-mined every producer outside Africa combined in 2025 (estimate).
the numbers & method
| Africa (%) | |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 52 |
| 2021 | 64 |
| 2025 est. | 75 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate
Mine production, metric tons of manganese content, from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries via the progrss vault; each year uses the latest edition that reports it (2018: MCS 2020, 2021: MCS 2023, 2024 and 2025: MCS 2026). 2025 is a USGS estimate and the world total is rounded by USGS. Africa is the derived sum of the African producers USGS lists: South Africa, Gabon, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (2025: 7.6 + 5.0 + 2.0 + 0.35 = 14.95 Mt of 20 Mt; 2018: 9.885 of 18.9 Mt; 2021: 12.842 of 20.1 Mt; 2024: 13.75 of 18.7 Mt). Other African producers sit inside USGS's world total unnamed, so the share is a floor. Outside Africa 2025: Australia 1.6, Brazil 0.8, India 0.79, China 0.7 Mt, rest unlisted. Editions revise earlier years, so years are not strictly like for like. Australia's output fell to 1.6 Mt in 2024-25 in MCS 2026 (3.3 Mt in 2021; MCS 2025 had put 2024 at 2.8 Mt), which lifts Africa's share; with Australia at its 2021 level the 2025 share would be about 69%. Africa's own tonnage rose from 9.9 Mt (2018) to 15.0 Mt (2025e). With the world total rounded, the 2025 share lies roughly between 73% and 77%.
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