The High-Level Conference on Governance, Critical Minerals, and Conflict in Africa has ended with a strong call for African governments to adopt a new governance framework that places transparency, democratic accountability, industrialisation and citizen participation at the centre of the continent's critical minerals agenda. "For me, the conversations we have had over the last three days have not been abstract debates about governance, critical minerals, or conflict. "A strong consensus emerged from our deliberations, namely, that the future of Africa's critical minerals is not fundamentally a question of geology. He also called for stronger enforcement of mining laws, greater citizen participation, protection of civic space and accelerated implementation of the Africa Mining Vision and African Union critical minerals policies. Africa's critical minerals must not become another chapter in the history of extraction.