Editorial Note
Welcome to The Weekly 5th, CNRG’s platform for sharp, grounded analysis on Zimbabwe’s extractive economy and the communities who live with its consequences.
This week captures a country at an inflection point. Zimbabwe’s abrupt lithium export ban has sent tremors through global markets and reignited debate over beneficiation, industrial policy and investor confidence. The ambition to climb the value chain is legitimate. The question is whether policy shocks can evolve into coherent strategy.
Beyond the markets, another story is unfolding. In Hwange, communities have launched the Just and Fair Share Campaign, asserting their constitutional rights to transparency, participation and equitable benefit sharing. As the campaign moves to Mutare, it signals a broader shift: communities are no longer content to watch wealth leave their land without accountability.
We also spotlight young women stepping into climate justice leadership, the persistent paradox of mineral wealth amid energy poverty, and the urgent need to centre child rights in mining governance.
The Weekly 5th exists to connect these threads, economics, law, power and people. Because resource governance is not only about production and prices. It is about justice, voice and the future being shaped in Zimbabwe’s mining districts today.
Stay informed. Stay engaged. Stand for #PeopleOverProfit.