THERE have been many beautiful headlines about Zimbabwe’s mining sector but one pertinent question remains: How will the country get full value from its vast mineral resources?
Zimbabwe is among countries with some of the best mineral deposits in the world.
The country’s vast mineral wealth includes the second largest platinum and chrome deposits in the world.
It is also the fifth largest producer of lithium in the world.
For what does it profit a nation to gain the attention of ‘huge this’, ‘huge that’ but forfeit benefits from its finite mineral wealth?
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the world gathered in Harare at Meikles Hotel for the historic Zimbabwe Mining Investment Conference for a reason.
The country is a relatively untapped brownfield.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando told delegates at the conference on Wednesday that the country intends to become a competitive global player by contributing 10 percent of the world’s lithium production within the next four years.
“We are looking at achieving production of at least 10 percent in the next four years of world lithium and certainly it should go to plus or minus 20 percent (in future),” said Minister Chitando.
“We do have, probably, one of the latest minerals – the new kid on the block – lithium.
“We now, as a country, have witnessed phenomenal interest in the extraction of lithium.
“There is a huge dump in the Kamativi area, which will generate about US$1,7 billion.
“But besides that dump, there is in-situ material in the Kamativi area, which Government would want exploited. “At the moment, ZMDC, which holds some other assets in the Kamativi area, is entering into a US$10 million resource quantification exercise of the assets in Kamativi.”
This comes on the back of the Mining Report which states that Zimbabwe could easily generate US$18 billion per annum if it fully exploited its mines.
“Zimbabwe offers a truly once-in-a lifetime opportunity. The country’s 800 mines have capacity to earn US$18 billion per annum, but were only turning out about US$2 billion annually since 2009. This represents about a 10th of the sector’s full potential and translates to an incredible opportunity for investors, and the Government is fully committed to creating an enabling environment for investors,” Mining Report said.
Mining Report helped organise the Zimbabwe Mining Investment Conference.
Vice-President General (Rtd) Constantino Dominic Nyikadzino Guveya Chiwenga told delegates at the conference that while the mining sector had great potential to revive the country’s economy, there was need to prioritise value addition and beneficiation.
“The mining sector remains critical to the economic development of Zimbabwe, the sector continues to be a major foreign currency earner and has a potential to become a pillar of economic growth through value addition and beneficiation,” said VP Chiwenga.
“Zimbabwe has a huge and diversified mineral base characterised by over 40 different minerals.
“Opportunities exist in the entire mining value chain from exploration to beneficiation.
“The mining sector, therefore, remains pivotal to our economic recovery and growth as it contributes significantly to the GDP and by nature, mining is labour-intensive and empowering given that there are backward and forward linkages between mining and the rest of the manufacturing sector.”
A 1997 paper by John Hollaway titled Resources Policy. Vol. 23, No. 1/2, pp. 27-32 shows that mining was one of the biggest contributors to the country’s GDP.
Says the paper: “In all, mining contributed about eight percent of the GDP in 1995, with a total output of about Z$6,3 billion (US$800 million); Table 1 gives the principal production figures.
Typically, the value of the gold output represents about 40 percent of the total of mineral production from the country. The industry employs about 55 000 persons in the formal sector, with perhaps 300 000 others engaged in seasonal alluvial gold minning (‘artisanal’ or informal miners.”
Interestingly, Zimbabwe has a rich history in value addition and beneficiation which started as far back as the medieval Great Zimbabwe.
The Munhumutapa Empire had command over and exploited not less than 4 000 gold and 500 copper mines spread across the country.
The milling and purification of gold and copper was carried out close to the extraction sites.
The gold processing and purification standards achieved then were extremely high.
As part of a value addition process, gold was made into articles of jewellery and used to decorate articles such as knife handles, ceremonial axe handles and other ceremonial articles.
In his book, The Shona and Zimbabwe 900 to 1850: An Outline of Shona History, historian David Beach asserts that:
“They (Zimbabweans) mined iron, built furnaces and forges, and made iron hoes and axes as their predecessors had done, and like them they cleared fields and sowed their crops.
They hunted and kept goats and sheep and, in general, life must have been much like that of the early iron trade.”
Beach adds that the locals exhibited sophistication in their mining through the systematic location of the mines.
“Few places were more than 50 miles from an iron ore mine,” says Beach.
The Beach assessment is buttressed by yet another historian, Stanlake Samkange, who states besides mining, blacks had methods of washing and preserving the minerals.
Samkange, in his 1968 book, The Origins of Rhodesia, says:
“After the settlement of the Shona, ‘trade with the East Coast developed steadily.
By the 12th Century, reef mining was in progress, and it continued up to the 19th Century’, with gold constituting ‘the most important single export from the Plateau’, gradually being overtaken by ivory.
There were also other exports such as copper.
On the whole, ‘the Shona achievement (in the mining and other industries) was remarkable’ as it was carried out by village communities ‘which mined, washed and milled the gold and reduced it to a condition suitable for export’.
Hence, it is believed that ‘all possible advances in mining technology were made relatively early in the Shona period’.
It is estimated that gold production before 1500 approximated 1,5 million ounces a year; 53 125-to-25 571 ounces a year for the 16th and 17th centuries.
This wealth was evident in such states as the Zimbabwe and Kilwa states.”
It is imperative that value addition and beneficiation be given the prominence they deserve.
Lithium mining in the country began some 50 years ago, but to date, we do not see a single benefit from those yesteryear operations.
We have an opportunity to redress this through emphasising beneficiation. Let us not wake up 50 years from today with nothing to show for this second round of lithium mining.