Multinational commodities company Trafigura signed an offtake agreement with Ghana's Heath Goldfields for the Bogoso-Prestia gold mine in April 2026, committing to buy approximately 700,000 ounces of gold. The deal provides immediate commercial certainty for the project, as well as improving its financing profile by guaranteeing a long-term buyer, addressing one of the sector's most persistent constraints: access to capital.
The move reflects a broader trend across Africa's minerals sector whereby projects are turning to agreements to secure capital and advance production. As Africa accelerates the development of its estimated $8.5 trillion untapped mineral wealth, offtake agreements are emerging as an effective tool to unlock financing and de-risk projects.
This dual function – market assurance and capital enabling – is becoming increasingly central to Africa's mining financing landscape. By reducing demand risk, offtake agreements help unlock debt and equity financing that would otherwise be difficult to secure at an early stage or to restart projects.
Similar structures are being replicated across the continent. In Sierra Leone, an offtake-backed arrangement involving Trafigura and FG Gold Limited helped unlock financing for the Baomhun Gold Project, a key step in de-risking one of the country's major mining developments and enabling financial closure for large-scale gold production.
In the battery minerals sector, NextSource Materials extended its offtake agreement with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation to March 2026 for the supply of graphite from the Molo project in Madagascar. The arrangement provides an estimated long-term demand of 9,000 tonnes of graphite per year, as well as supporting project financing and expansion plans linked to global battery supply chains.
Similarly, Bannerman Energy has secured offtake agreements with North American utilities for uranium from its Atango project, providing multi-year revenue visibility from 2029 to 2033 and strengthening the project's long-term investment case.
These transactions reflect a broader structural shift in African mining finance: offtake agreements are no longer simply sales contracts, but are the main means of project development, risk allocation and capital mobilization. For finance and other markets looking for long-term buyers, these examples demonstrate the feasibility of offtake contracts – not only for project commissioning phases but as tools for early-stage development.
In particular, in South Africa, where the government is targeting a R2 trillion investment to unlock its significant mineral potential, offtake structures could play a central role in de-risking projects. Similarly, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has an estimated $24 trillion of untapped mineral wealth, offtake agreements could accelerate the monetization of its vast copper, cobalt and strategic mineral reserves.
Against this backdrop, the upcoming African Mining Week (AMW) conference and exhibition – taking place in Cape Town on 14-16 October – will showcase how offtake-driven financing models can be scaled up to accelerate project delivery and strengthen Africa’s position in the global minerals supply chain. Uniting stakeholders across the entire African minerals value chain, the event provides a platform for strategic financing, mechanisms to accelerate production and position the continent at the forefront of global mining investment.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.