Expert Policy Briefs on Incentives for Local Beneficiation and Green Industrialisation for selected SADC Countries

1. Background and Rationale

African mineral-producing countries are seeking to move beyond raw-mineral export towards local beneficiation, fabrication and downstream industrial development. As a result, across Africa, governments are increasingly using export restrictions to pursue strategic objectives, including industrialisation and domestic value addition.

So far, about 13 African countries have introduced export restrictions, bans or beneficiation requirements. These include leading critical mineral producers such as Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi and the DRC.

There is a reasonable economic argument behind some of these measures where it is expected that restricting exports could push companies to set up facilities for smelting, refining and processing raw materials, or make raw materials more readily available to domestic processors and, under certain circumstances, provide an indirect cost advantage to downstream industries.

However, beneficiation is not automatically viable or developmentally beneficial. It depends on feedstock, energy, water, chemicals, technology, skills, finance, markets, logistics, standards and environmental and social safeguards.

Further, research elsewhere shows that beneficiation might not be economically viable for certain countries. For instance, the Natural Resources Governance Institute's 2025 report, Refining the Strategy: The Economics of Lithium Value Addition in Ghana, models the economics of establishing a domestic lithium refinery in Ghana. Its findings revealed that a Ghanaian refinery built in the near term could cost the government at least US$500 million in lost revenue because the refinery would need to purchase Ghanaian lithium concentrate at below-market prices to remain viable. NRGI also estimated that the refinery would create fewer than 200 direct jobs once operational.

Equally important is the OECD 2017 Study on Export Controls and Competitiveness in African Mining and Minerals Processing Industries, which examined four African cases (manganese in Gabon, lead in South Africa, copper in Zambia and chromite in Zimbabwe). The study found that export restrictions generally did not improve the competitiveness of downstream processing industries, and in some cases, they undermined the performance of the mining industry by reducing the export competitiveness of the raw mineral.

Similarly, the International Monetary Fund's 2024 Regional Economic Outlook also noted that previous mineral export bans in Tanzania and Zambia paradoxically contributed to reductions in both processed and raw mineral production.

Against this backdrop, a regional think tank working on natural resource governance is commissioning country-specific, evidence-based policy briefs to identify practical incentives and enabling reforms for local beneficiation in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The briefs will focus primarily on nationally viable beneficiation opportunities, while also taking into account relevant regional market, infrastructure and supply-chain dynamics. The findings will subsequently inform the Hub's broader thinking on regional industrialisation and the proposed SADC Critical Minerals Value Chain Compact.

2. Assignment Objective

To develop an evidence-based policy brief on incentives for local beneficiation in a selected country and value chain.

The brief must identify viable upgrading opportunities beyond raw-mineral export, assess existing incentives and constraints, and recommend a targeted, time-bound and performance-based package of legal, fiscal, infrastructure, skills, market and ESG measures.

The policy brief should assess current country-specific conditions for viable beneficiation along specific mineral value chains.