China and the West have taken their competition to secure critical minerals to a new battleground—central and southern Africa, where the race to secure critical routes to move the critical metals to demand markets is in full swing. The United States, Japan, and China are backing three different railway corridors in Africa, where a large part of the global copper and cobalt supply is mined. As the U.S. and its allies look to reduce their reliance on China in critical minerals supply, these three railway corridors – all starting in Zambia…