The push for local beneficiation

For too long mining in Africa has been purely extractive leaving local populations impoverished and bearing the environmental brunt of mining practices.

African states are finally waking up to this fact and many are looking to ways in which Africans can benefit more from the minerals being mined in their backyard.

Ghana through its Gold Board plans to build a state-owned gold refinery next to the airport in its capital, Accra. It is the highest-ranking African state in terms gold production and is ranked sixth worldwide. Gold refining takes place on a small scale in the country, but its government is looking to increase refining capacity countrywide.

Botswana has also negotiated better terms for Botswanans in its latest 10-year deal with diamond producer, De Beers. This agreement calls for the establishment of the Diamond Development Fund into which De Beers must invest 10 billion pula over 10 years. The aim of the fund is to promote economic diversification through investment in agriculture, tourism, water and energy. The government is also developing legislation to, in the words of President Duma Boko, ensure that “no diamond leaves this country raw. All will be cut and polished here”.

Zimbabwe’s lithium beneficiation policy, introduced in December 2022, includes among others a ban on the export of raw lithium and incentives for the establishment of local refineries and battery manufacturing plants. The Chinese firms dominating lithium mining in Zimbabwe have not taken well to these policies, which seem to have exacerbated smuggling and corruption.

Greater beneficiation in and of itself will however not bring about the economic transformation so desperately needed on the continent. It must form part of a greater industrialisation that has been long overdue in Africa.

By Nick Barnes, editor of Mining Business Africa