First Mining Drc-Zambia March -April 2020 digital edition First Mining Drc-Zambia March - April 2020 digital | Page 21

The question remains, however, who
stands to gain the most from this hybrid
legal apparatus?
Foreign involvement and
concentrated wealth
Despite its mineral wealth, Zimbabwe
has historically struggled to turn these
resources into profitable enterprises,
in no small part due to the country’s
occupation by the UK in the mid-20th
century. Throughout the post-war
period, including its lengthy divorce
from the British between the unilateral
declaration of independence in 1965
and the election of Robert Mugabe
as president in 1980, the influence
of overseas, and particularly British,
companies in its mineral sector
hamstrung the mining industry.
In ‘The mining industry in Zimbabwe:
labour, capital and the state’, published
in Africa Development by John Bradbury
and Eric Worby, the writers note that by
1980, up to 95% of the country’s mineral
output was produced and controlled by
foreign companies, a model that led to
a dramatic concentration of the mining
workforce in a few projects. By 1980,
the 14 largest mines in the country, all
of which were owned by foreign firms,
employed 61% of the country’s mining
workforce, leaving much of the country’s
mineral wealth undeveloped despite
these miners possessing licenses for a
number of projects. a select few firms, the total value of the
country’s mineral production fell from
Z$414.8m in 1980 to Z$383m just two
years later.
This impact has been magnified by
the struggles of Zimbabwe’s domestic
miners to compete with these foreign
investors. Warren Beech, head of mining
and infrastructure at law firm Eversheds
Sutherland,
noted
that
“without
significant investment from foreign-
owned mining companies, it is unlikely
that Zimbabwe will be able to unlock its
vast mineral wealth, which is vital not
only to the development of Zimbabwe’s
economy, but also transformation,
growth and development, in general.” President Robert Mugabe introduced a
law requiring that at least 51% of each
of the country’s platinum mines to be
owned by local people, and since the
decriminalisation of artisanal mining in
2013, the country’s total gold production
jumped from under 15,000kg in 2012 to
nearly 25,000kg by 2016.
Yet despite these investments in
mining, there has not been a parallel
growth in the Zimbabwean economy,
with Bradbury and Worby noting that
the goal of much of the investment in
mining has been “the process of capital
accumulation and the inter-regional
transfer of value out of Zimbabwe
mostly into South Africa, the UK and the
USA.” Despite what they call a “gratifying
increase in the value of production” for
Economic stimulation
Since the withdrawal of colonial rule,
Zimbabwe has implemented several
projects to simultaneously improve the
economic performance of the mining
sector, and see its mines and mineral
reserves returned to Zimbabweans.
The government has also implemented
other ‘use it or lose it’ programmes,
aiming to remove inefficiencies in the
mining sector, alongside these attempts
to improve access to mineral deposits.
In 2017, more than 1,000 gold mining
claims were forfeited in the country’s
Matabeleland North province after miners
failed to pay an inspection fee of $100
within six months of starting operations.
Beech noted that, unlike foreign
investments which aimed to benefit the
investors, initiatives such as these are
“to ensure that minerals are extracted, to
benefit the state, and all its citizens.”