By Dr. Tony Michel Monda
The African Continent, Zimbabwe included, has an abundance of mineral resources.
Africa is in fact, estimated to hold 90% of the world’s cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold,
98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese, one-third of its uranium and 70% of the world’s coltan, a metal used in the production of electronic devices such as cell phones, is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which also has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves within the bowels of its soil.
Guinea in North Africa, once a major producer of gold, is today the world’s largest exporter of bauxite.
Gold, with silver, copper, lead, tin, mercury and iron were known as “The Seven Metals of Antiquity”.
They were the essential metals upon which civilisation were based. Copper in Munhumutapa’s time, known as ‘Mhangura’ due to its rust-red colouration, was valued for cultural ornamentation.
Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in central southern Africa, is host to an abundance of natural resources that include coal, asbestos, chromium ore, iron ore, gold, silver, nickel, copper, vanadium, lithium, tin, palladium, platinum group metals and diamonds.
Zimbabwe’s main exports include precious stones, precious metals, a variety of mineral ores and tobacco.
The Great Dyke, a 2.5-billion-year-old intrusion in the southern Zimbabwe Craton, is one of the most remarkable rock formations in the world.
It is a strategic economic resource for Zimbabwe and host to vast ore deposits, with significant quantities of gold, silver, nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium, platinum group metals (PGM)– i.e.: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum as well as asbestos.
The first evidence of iron in Africa dates back to the 2nd Millennium BC. Extraordinary diversity originated from iron production creating advanced techniques through tools for farming, weapons for hunting and warfare and valuable items for trade.
The Shona Iron Age craftsman and blacksmith were respected and revered for their skills in the manufacture of agro-industrial and domestic implements needed for improving daily life.
Throughout Zimbabwe there are thousands of pre-colonial mine workings ranging from impermanent surface scrapings to huge open cast pits.
In fact, almost every viable mine established since Anglo colonisation in 1890, was located by colonial prospectors intentionally seeking out these early indigenous workings that marked the exploitable presence of iron, copper, tin and more especially, gold deposits.
With the exception of gold, these minerals formed an invaluable component of the traditional exchange systems in the country.
The vast extend of ancient mine workings recorded in Zimbabwean antiquity is unique on the African subcontinent and has few global equivalents. They are elements of historical heritage of which we should be justly proud.
A mineral is defined as any of a class of naturally occurring solid inorganic substances with a characteristic crystalline or metallic form that occur in a homogenous chemical composition. Solid ores are obtained by mining, especially metal ores.
A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value. In ancient times, precious minerals and metals were referred to as “zvikoshwa”or “chinhu chaka kosheswa” – literally meaning an object deemed to be of great value by the guardians of the land.
Historically, precious metals were important as currency but today are regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities.
Other precious metals include the palladium group of metals of which platinum is the most widely traded.
Throughout history, precious metals have commanded much higher prices than common industrial metals such as aluminium.
The best-known precious metals are the coinage metals – gold and silver, but both have industrial uses besides coinage, and are better known for their uses in art and jewellery.
The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use but also by their role as investment and a store of value. Gold and silver and sometimes other precious metals, are often seen as hedges against both, inflation and economic downturns.
Aluminium, the most abundant metal, and the 3rd most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, was also once considered a precious metal.
The exploitation of the region’s mineral resource dates back to the late Stone Age (c. 41 250 BC.), when populations began quarrying the rich haematite deposits (the mineral form of iron oxide), as a source of red ochre, which they used for cosmetic and ritualistic purposes.
The site of Great Zimbabwe was a particularly rich gold-producing area. The hills were rich in gold and other minerals, It was the mineral epicentre of southern east Africa and commanded the mineral trade routes to the east Indian ocean and the copper mines of Katanga (now Shaba province), in south east Zaire.
Links have also been established between the gold mines of Great Zimbabwe and the Indian goldfields of Kolar and Mysore.
Great Zimbabwe’s sphere of influence covered a wide and expansive area between the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers and extended to areas beyond Mozambique to the ocean, and within Botswana and the Transvaal region in the northern parts of South Africa.
Apart from agriculture and agro-related Iron Age industries, gold mining and metallurgy were integral to the socio-economic activities of Great Zimbabwe and to the development of the Mutapa’s kingdom and its regional territories.
The estimated amount of gold ore mined from the region was a staggering estimate of nearly 700 tonnes of pure gold.
Great Zimbabwe developed as a direct result of the Indo-Arab gold trade. But the highly coveted material wealth of Great Zimbabwe may have been its downfall.
Following colonisation, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), developed its economy narrowly based on the production of a few primary products, notably, chrome and tobacco and was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle. Today Lithium is a key to Zimbabwe’s socio-economic development.
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is founding president of ZAAC. Contact him on 0773 805 700 or email on tonymichelmonda93@gmail.com or tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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