The Mining Industry as an Exporter

In looking at the Rhodesian mining industry it is clear that the industry has to export to survive; our own economy has not developed, and will not do so in the foreseeable future, to the stage where it can absorb any but a small proportion of the metals and minerals produced domestically. Thus the industry is export oriented not through choice but through necessity. There are, of course, various mineral products that are used locally in large tonnages such as iron ore, coal, limestone and the like but these are low price commodities and financially are of relative unimportance compared to the total value of mining exports. At the other end of the scale there are the far more valuable products of our mining industry such as gold, copper, tin and nickel that are used locally but these belong to the category where the domestic off-take is so limited as to be of no financial significance. Thus it is, that, as far as the mining industry is concerned, it is not a question of determining how it can develop an export market but a question of how it can survive and prosper in the international markets on which it depends.

A symposium paper on the contribution of the then Rhodesian mining industry to its export trade. Paper Presented at Symposium on: Current economic Problems: Export Development, Day 2, Nov. 03.