This year's African Mining Indaba in Cape Town reflects a global race for mineral deals and supply chains.

This is reflected through conversations at the summit geared towards leveraging Africa's vast mineral wealth to secure a stronger foothold in global supply chains.

Australian miner Canyon Resources is one of the players seeking make strides. The company is preparing to ship its first consignment of bauxite from Cameroon.

"At the moment, our current project is raw material bauxite, but we are looking at downstream," Canyon Resources Chief Financial Officer, Kudzai Mtsambiwa, says. "So, we're doing a feasibility study on a refinery in the country as well."

That shift, from extraction to processing, is central to Africa's new minerals strategy.

"You manage it when you create all the environment in all spheres of the activities to enable companies to invest in transformation and value addition of that mineral," Angola's Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo said, stressing that creating the right investment environment is critical to unlocking transformation.

He further pointed to infrastructure development in energy, water, rail, and roads as key enablers for this.

Industry leaders say public–private partnerships will determine whether these ambitions translate into tangible outcomes.