$150 billion, 12+ countries, one Gulf player: Inside the UAE's ports-to-bauxite web across Africa

Stretch a line from the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean all the way to the Atlantic coast, and you'll pass through a decade-old network of ports, long-term concessions, roads, and logistics corridors built by a single Gulf state.

The common thread running through the United Arab Emirates is bauxite mines, the raw ore behind aluminium production, sit alongside renewable energy plants, and data centres.

On 20 September 2026, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, put a number on that footprint sharing that the UAE investment in Africa is approaching USD 150 billion, with annual two-way trade now exceeding USD 107 billion. He framed the expansion as part of Abu Dhabi’s push to build direct ties with the continent, bypassing traditional Western intermediaries.

The corporate boost behind the expansion

A handful of state-linked entities are doing the heavy lifting. DP World runs port and trade-corridor projects. Simultaneously, AD Ports Group combines terminals, industrial zones and logistics services; International Resources Holding (a subsidiary of International Holding Company) is expanding across mining; and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is rolling out renewable energy projects.

In aluminium specifically, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) connects African bauxite reserves to its refining and smelting base back home in the Gulf, while G42 has moved into African data centres and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The scale in East Africa alone is striking. A July 2025 study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a US-based research institution, tracked roughly USD 47.4 billion in UAE projects and investments across the region — broken down into USD 19.3 billion in energy, USD 11.9 billion in agriculture, USD 7.3 billion in ports, USD 5.9 billion in infrastructure, and USD 2.7 billion in mining (a figure that includes some halted or stalled projects).

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Bauxite, copper and the Guinea dispute

The mining side of the ledger is where the most direct relevance is found. In Zambia, International Resources Holding acquired a 51 per cent stake in Mopani Copper Mines in 2024 (the state holds the remaining 49 per cent), backed by an investment and financing commitment of around USD 1.1 billion. It has since partnered with South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation to explore joint mining and clean-energy projects, as well as expanded freight rail and port capacity.

In Guinea, Emirates Global Aluminium invested more than USD 1 billion in Guinea Alumina Corporation, and at peak output the project was exporting roughly 14 million tonnes of bauxite annually — ore suited to feed EGA's refining operations in the UAE.

That relationship hit a wall in July 2025, when Guinea revoked the mining licence following a dispute over the construction of an in-country alumina refinery, and transferred the assets to a state mining company. The standoff echoed a broader tension increasingly visible across resource-rich African states that governments are pushing to retain refining capacity, jobs and tax revenue at home, rather than exporting raw bauxite for downstream processing elsewhere.

On the Atlantic side, AD Ports Group secured a 30-year concession (extendable by 20 years) to develop a terminal at Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo, intended to link into a logistics zone and shipping network. The group also operates in Egypt, Tanzania, Angola and Cameroon, and is building a 20-square-kilometre industrial and logistics zone at East Port Said, right at the entrance to the Suez Canal, positioning Emirati firms at a chain of maritime gateways linking Africa’s interior to global markets.

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The bigger picture

Chatham House frames this pattern as the UAE positioning itself as a ‘middle power’ building strategic independence beyond the Gulf — using capital, ports, commodity markets, security ties and local partnerships, particularly along the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. The formula is consistent with pairing sovereign capital and operating companies with security relationships, which lets Abu Dhabi move fast in countries facing financial stress or political fragmentation.

For an industry watching bauxite flows, aluminium refining capacity and critical-mineral supply chains, the throughline is hard to miss that nearly USD 150 billion has brought the UAE more than port terminals and mining licences. It has bought reach into the raw-material pipelines that feed global industries, from aluminium to gold to copper, and increasingly, a geopolitical and security footprint to match.