Kolwezi to Host DRC Critical Minerals & Industrialization Forum in October 2026
DRC Launches Critical Minerals & Industrialization Forum in Kolwezi to Drive Local Value Creation in Cobalt and Lithium
Kolwezi is set to become the strategic hub for critical minerals stakeholders from 7 to 9 October 2026, as organizers announce the launch of the new DRC Critical Minerals & Industrialization Forum.
Co-hosted alongside the DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum, this initiative seeks to transform the Democratic Republic of Congo’s abundant mineral resources into local industrial value.
Following a successful 2025 edition, Samukelo Madlabane, Event Director at VUKA Group, stressed that industrialization is essential to convert the DRC’s mineral wealth into sustainable prosperity.
“The ambition is clear: to move from raw extraction to processing, refining, and downstream manufacturing,” Madlabane said.
The forum will convene mining companies, refiners, manufacturers, investors, energy firms, logistics providers, digital solutions companies, and public authorities. Its goal is to structure an integrated value chain for critical minerals, with a particular focus on cobalt and lithium, both vital to the global energy transition.
“The previous forum concluded with a call to transform dialogue into action. We are responding by launching the DRC Critical Minerals & Industrialisation Forum,” Madlabane emphasized.
The event signals a strategic shift for the DRC: moving beyond exporting raw minerals to participating fully in the global supply chain. Key objectives include creating local jobs, attracting industrial investment, and strengthening national technical capacities.
By hosting the forum in Kolwezi at the heart of the country’s mining basin organizers ensure that discussions take place close to extraction sites and future industrial hubs, aligning dialogue with on-the-ground transformation.
If commitments made at the forum lead to structured projects, the DRC Critical Minerals & Industrialization Forum could become a pivotal platform for turning the country’s mining potential into a sustainable engine of industrialization.
