By Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe’s decision to suspend exports of antimony and tungsten has brought renewed attention to two minerals classified by the Government as critical to the country’s mineral development strategy.
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development says the suspension is intended to promote local value addition and beneficiation, ensuring that more value is retained within Zimbabwe before the minerals reach international markets.
Antimony, however, should not be confused with lithium. It is a separate mineral, commonly occurring in the form of stibnite, and Zimbabwe’s known antimony occurrences are largely associated with gold-bearing geological formations.
Antimony has historically been mined or recorded in areas including Kadoma, Kwekwe, Shurugwi, Mberengwa and Bubi. The Kadoma area is particularly notable, with the historic Cam and Motor mine having produced both gold and antimony.
Tungsten has also been associated with several of Zimbabwe’s mineral belts, including areas around Kadoma, Kwekwe, Shurugwi, Mberengwa and Bikita.
While the export suspension could encourage investment in local processing, questions remain over who will be able to participate in the new value chains.
Mining and natural resource governance advocate Hyde Chatyoka cautioned against an approach that could unintentionally exclude small-scale and historically disadvantaged miners from opportunities created by the policy.
“I am against the blanket export bans that lock out the historically disadvantaged persons from leveraging on resource availability in their communities and I support affirmative bans that force those who have the capacity to develop beneficiation industries locally,” said Chatyoka.
His position highlights an important distinction between blanket export bans and targeted beneficiation policies.
A blanket ban could prevent smaller producers from accessing international markets without necessarily giving them access to processing facilities, finance or technology. An affirmative beneficiation policy, on the other hand, could require companies with the financial and technical capacity to process minerals locally while creating opportunities for smaller producers to participate in the domestic value chain.
For Zimbabwe, this distinction is particularly important in communities where mining provides livelihoods but local processing infrastructure remains limited.
The Government therefore faces a challenge beyond simply stopping exports. It must create the conditions for local beneficiation while ensuring that small-scale miners, local businesses, workers and mining communities are not pushed out of the emerging critical-minerals economy.
The success of the antimony and tungsten policy will ultimately depend not only on how much mineral Zimbabwe processes locally, but on who controls, participates in and benefits from the value created.