Export Controls vs Attracting Industrial Investment

23-3-19 Zimbabwe's Lithium Export Ban Might Enrich Some Africans - EcEx > .

23-9-30 US vs Xina in Race to Secure Lithium | WSJ > .

23-2-18 How Botswana Beat Africa's Mineral Resource Curse - Mining > .

21-11-19 Botswana is Quickly Becoming Africa's Richest Country - CasSch > .

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Comment A: The Zimbabwean government is banning the export of unprocessed lithium by what they call 'artisan miners', basically illegal miners. This ban does not extend to the giant corporations who are exporting raw lithium now and who will continue to export raw lithium. It's basically investors telling that govt to shut down the small operators. The whole video is pointless.

Comment B: 
Companies don't want to build plants in Zimbabwe because they have reasons not to. Endemic corruption is one such reason. Banning the export of a particular raw material (e.g. lithium) does nothing to change that unfavorable business environment. I think the result is pretty darn predictable.

Mining The World: Comment: This video is incredibly over optimistic for the following reasons: 

First, Zimbabwe has only 1.2% of global lithium reserves, 30x less than Chile and 20x less than Australia, really a negligible amount and certainly not enough to move lithium prices as the video claims. 

Second, having a lot of mineral resources might make you a geologic powerhouse, but it doesn't make you an economic powerhouse and certainly not a "superpower" unless you know how to exploit those resources. For Zimbabwe to have any hope of profiting from these resources, it needs to provide proper incentives to mining companies and other foreign investors - not radical policies like export bans that have a high likelihood of backfiring. 

Meanwhile there is little chance of it ever building refining capacity or battery metals production as this requires advanced manufacturing and technical capabilities and stable power generation. 

This is why China, Japan and South Korea, which have all spent decades building up refining and manufacturing expertise, lead at this end of the mineral value chain, while very poor countries with regular power blackouts such as Zimbabwe do not. 

The final point was that for Zimbabwe to generate economic growth (and for a country with a GDP per capita comparable to Yemen and Afghanistan, it should be aiming for incremental growth, not superpower status), it should look no further than its neighbour Botswana for a how-to guide. Botswana is the actual African economic success story ($20,000 gdp per capita - 10x higher than Zimbabwe) and did it by putting in place the right conditions (e.g. a constitution in place at independence, democratic and stable government, security of tenure for foreign investors, low corruption) to profit from its diamond resources. There's a video about Botswana and its diamond industry on my channel if you're keen on learning more.