Beneficiation of minerals in-country remains an attractive prospect for developing countries. What is necessary is the critical mass of local entrepreneurs taking it upon themselves to formulate workable configurations of "what works, at what scale, how, when and why?" Perhaps it is more telling that there are more scholars who are against African countries conducting local minerals beneficiation and rather discouraging, coaxing and disparaging (bordering on academic/intellectual coercion) the prospects for more local beneficiation. For me personally, what is missing from these discourses (discouraging local minerals beneficiation in producer countries) is the voice of an African scholar whose views are not rooted in the Western intellectual methods. The time may have come for Africans to either locally beneficiate minerals or choose not to mine or export them. This makes sense for future generations who may have the requisite ideas and aptitudes to make it work. It is just not enough to take a Western scholars word for it just because "they say so!" Further, admittedly beneficiation is bringing change to some African countries, Botswana as a case in point. South Africa should lead the way in this matter, for to "those to whom much is given, much is expected."
The following words are instructive: ‘Somewhere here upon the earth, men must come together, think something, do something.’ Alan Paton
No comments:
Post a Comment