Mineral Ownership
By Tshepo Magagane
Minerals Ownership – it is at a state, community and individual level.
We have been conditioned as Africans to believe that 1. Our minerals are not worth anything 2. We dont deserve to be participants in the ecosystem 3. We should be grateful for any crumbs that are throw our way!
Steve Biko once said “when you have conditioned the mind, you dont need a military to control them”!
I worked with so many entrepreneurs in mining – especially Aussie ones – it made me fully appreciate how transformational mining is when you bring the locals – what Australia achieved with just Bulks is truly legendary – and just in the 00s with Chinese Steel Production.
At a community level – we have seen what Royal Bafokeng achieved – I still have the Implats Royalty-to-Equity conversion model somewhere in my files – with that, when the World Cup happened in 2010, they had already achieved 80% of their plans (some of the games were played in their stadium) – they now control one of the largest financial institutions in Africa (they also exited their own mining company – with their only exposure being a 10% stake in Northam – exited for mostly cash to put in other sectors).
And at the state level, think about what Chile has achieved ie SEurope living standards – and when Chile was starting out, Zambia was the top copper producer – I like to say to Zambias – “it is actually criminal that you dont have a multitudes Zambian USD billionaires that have been created through Copper mining”!
We need a transformational mindset shift, from local capital to regional capital – we need to be leading in creating new MRE projects – then when international capital comes; we can negotiate at a TABLE “we have created”.
My biggest fear is that we are going to continue sitting on the sidelines – literally – by the side of the road and seeing the trucks / trains take the minerals to port!
Even when you talk about beneficiation / local addition – how can you do that when you dont control the ore?
Time to WAKE UP AFRICA, no one is coming to save us – what we can just achieve by regional players such as GEPF/PIC/Pula/Angola SWF coming to the party RESOLUTELY!
Think about this – everyone is talking about Khoemacau in Botswana – that asset was bought for USD35m and then sold for USD2bn…can you imagine how transformative that could have been for private capital (or even MDCB ie state – Pula has cUSD12bn in Blackrock ETFs – and then the “circulating capital” impact) in Botswana?
Or South Africa, playing marbles at the moment – why is GEPF or PIC not blitzing Zambia / DRC tenements?
Come on Africa…
