ZIMBABWE must build local capital and forge regional partnerships if it is to escape the resource curse and achieve genuine industrialisation through its vast mineral wealth, a renowned mining economist and policy expert has declared.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
Dr Paul Jourdan, CEO of Amati Global Investors and a former senior official in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, who worked closely with liberation movement comrades during the struggle, delivered a characteristically blunt assessment at the Mining Exploration Symposium in Bulawayo.
“I know of no case where foreign capital developed the linkages in industrialisation. There is no example in the world of resource-based industrialisation with foreign capital,” Jourdan told delegates.
Drawing heavily on the African Union’s Africa Mining Vision – which he described as “about all the linkages” that together form the mining value chain – Jourdan argued that Zimbabwe’s mineral resources must be the foundation for a broader industrialisation strategy that extends far beyond the life of any individual mine.
The Mining Value Chain: Backwards and Forward Linkages
Jourdan, who co-authored the influential Mining Sector Policy Study for Zimbabwe and has decades of experience across Africa, stressed that opportunities lie not in the mine itself but in what surrounds it.
“The opportunities all come out of the industry. The opportunities are developing the mining industry, intermediates industry, manufacturing industry. The backward linkages into imports, the capital goods industry,” he said.
He pointed to the mining equipment and consumables on display outside the conference venue, asking why Zimbabwe could not produce more of them locally.
“You saw the COPs out here, made by Sandvik, made by New Holland. We all want to make COPs. But we can’t have a COP plant in every single country. So we need to work together,” he said, calling for regional collaboration similar to that seen in Europe.
The Case for Local Capital
Jourdan’s central thesis – that local capital is essential for resource-based industrialisation — challenges the prevailing model of foreign direct investment that has dominated African mining for decades.
He cited historical examples from the United States, Scandinavia, and Germany, where industrialisation was driven by domestic capital rather than foreign investment.
“Foreign capital: one, they want to be rewarded. They will take the rent out. Two, they have international supply chains and global purchasing power. They’re not nasty. They just do the best for their shareholders,” he said.
Instead, he urged Zimbabwe to build local capital by using mining laws and tax policies to require value addition, local content, human capital development, research and innovation, and local firm development.
“Experience internationally shows you only get the mining value chain if it’s local capital,” he said.
Price Discovery Through Auctions
Jourdan proposed a novel auction mechanism for mining rights that would allow Zimbabwe to capture more value and ensure that investors deliver tangible benefits.
In his model, bidders would compete not only on price but on local content commitments, value addition targets, research and development spending, and human capital development.
“Then you open the envelope in front of the press, so you don’t get, you know, Liberia where a lot of things happen. You do it in front of the press, you project it, and you start right there, so everyone knows who the winner is,” he said.
This would create a transparent process that encourages competition and ensures that the country benefits beyond the extraction of raw resources.
Spatial Linkages: The Mining Corridor Concept
Jourdan called for a shift from viewing mines as isolated production sites to developing integrated mining corridors that unlock broader development.
He cited a project looking at Moatize, where a double rail corridor was found to be viable at just US$0.02 per tonne-kilometre, potentially opening up agriculture, trade, and regional integration — a cost that would have allowed Zimbabwe to reach the coast with freight rates of just US$8 per tonne.
“Can we work together and then extend that into the main corridor and development zone, use mining to underpin sustainable agriculture? Agriculture can go for thousands of years. Mining is mined out,” he said.
He urged Zimbabwe to work closely with Mozambique, recalling the success of the Maputo Corridor, which attracted US$5 billion in investment between South Africa and Mozambique.
“Can we go back to the struggle days — Chimoio, Tete? Can we work together?” he asked.
A Governance Challenge: Ministers Must Work Together
In characteristically blunt language, Jourdan identified a fundamental barrier to implementing the Africa Mining Vision: ministerial silos.
“Ministers don’t like working together. Ministers are all doing jobs for an audience of one, the President. So they don’t naturally work together very well,” he said.
His solution: either merge the mining and industry ministries, as in Norway and Sweden, or create a ministerial cluster under the President with a dedicated monitoring and evaluation secretariat.
“We need all elements to work together. The leaders must work for the opportunity,” he said.
Lateral Diversification: Beyond the Mine
Jourdan introduced the concept of “lateral migration” — where industries developed for mineral processing can migrate into non-resource sectors when mines close.
“When the mines die, all of these industries don’t die too. Through those technologies, the engineers, the expertise, you get lateral migration, where those industries that were doing mineral processing start doing municipal water. They migrate laterally into non-resource sectors so that we have sustainability when we only have the hole in the ground at the end of the mine,” he said.
This, he argued, is the true measure of sustainability – creating industries that outlast the finite mineral resources that spawned them.
Jourdan’s ties to Zimbabwe run deep. During the liberation struggle, he worked closely with Zimbabwean comrades when the Voice of Zimbabwe radio broadcast into Rhodesia from Francistown, Botswana. Later, he was invited to give talks in the country.
“My background during the struggle, I worked closely with Zimbabwean comrades when we had the Voice of Zimbabwe radio broadcasting into what was then Rhodesia from Francistown, Botswana,” he recounted.
His deep knowledge of the country and its mining sector, combined with his extensive experience across Africa, gives his message particular weight.
The Path Forward
Jourdan’s presentation provided a comprehensive framework for mineral-led industrialisation:
- Phase 1: Use FDI initially, but move to local capital as quickly as possible.
- Phase 2: Move from resource exports to value addition.
- Phase 3: Use resource infrastructure to catalyse broader development, including agriculture.
- Phase 4: Move from unskilled labour to skilled labour and local skills development.
- Phase 5: Move from importing technologies to developing them locally.
- Phase 6: Obligate miners to spend a percentage of sales on local technology development.
“Start with resource transfer to make the tax base, then become independent of resources and move to complex taxes in industry management,” he said.
Conclusion
Jourdan’s message to Zimbabwe’s mining industry and policymakers is clear: mineral wealth is not destiny. Without deliberate policy, local capital development, and regional cooperation, Zimbabwe will remain a raw material exporter while the value is created elsewhere.
But with the right policies, he argued, Zimbabwe can follow the path of successful resource-based industrialisers such as Norway, Sweden, and Germany.
“Ministers don’t like working together,” he said. “But if we don’t start working together on most of these opportunities, we won’t have a free trade economy.”
