Online Reporter
Judith Phiri, [email protected]
THE Minister of Mines and Mining Development Polite Kambamura has said the country is pushing and accelerating mineral beneficiation and value addition to capture local value chain profits.
Delivering a keynote address at the Beneficiation and Value Addition Symposium at Mine Entra 2026, the Minister said when the Government under the leadership President Mnangagwa was leading a determined national drive to move the economy beyond extraction and export of mineral resources that are not beneficiated.
“We are moving towards export of beneficiated minerals, manufactured products and to build industrial capacity. The theme of this year’s Mine Entra “Unearth, Transform, Prosper: Anchoring
Economic Transformation through Mining Value Chains” speaks to beneficiation, nothing else,” he said.
“That is why this symposium is so important and critical to Mine Entra 2026. We recognize that a mineral buried beneath the ground is not yet a wealth, it is potential. When we extract that ore to the surface it is not yet again industrialisation it is an opportunity. Even mineral concentrates exported across our borders cannot be regarded as the final measure of progress.”
He said it confirms that they have unearthed something valuable, but it may also mean that most of the employment, technology and the ultimate value associated with that mineral is going to be created elsewhere at the country’s expense.
Minister Kunambura said the true transformation of mineral wealth occurs when that which has been unearthed is converted into metals, chemicals, components, machinery and finished products.
“True transformation occurs when mining creates demand for Zimbabwean factories, when those factories also create employment for people and when products that they manufacture reach regional and international destinations.
Government policy direction is therefore clear. Zimbabwe will progressively and decisively move away from exporting raw geology towards exporting technology with intensive finished products,” he added.
“Our mineral endowment places us in an invisible position. We possess world-class platinum group metals and chrome deposits of significance. We are Africa’s leading with lithium deposits with a substantial amount of gold, diamonds, nickel and that range of minerals.”
He said the country also possess several minerals required for renewable energy, energy storage, electrification, advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure and the technologies that support artificial intelligence.
The Minister said yet geology on its own cannot industrialise a nation, there was need to understand how much value was being retained.
“What value are we shipping out? Not volumes. So we need to move or to change or to transform towards exporting value, not volumes. Beneficiation must be understood as a ladder.
“We move from raw through concentration, smelting, refining and chemical conversion to component manufacture and ultimately finished products supported by technology, design, certification, branding, and logistics. We must not confuse the first step with the destination. For example, lithium sulphate is an important advance beyond lithium concentrate, but it is not yet a lithium battery or solar panel,” he said.
He said ferrochrome was more valuable than chrome ore, but it would make an input into stainless steel and other steel alloys, while a steel billet was not yet a railway wagon, a machine, or an agricultural implement.
Minister Kambamura said there was need to think beyond and plan accordingly and Government policies must encourage movement along the entire value chain towards the highest commercially sustainable level of value that Zimbabwe can capture.
