{"id":37956,"date":"2026-06-24T17:30:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37956"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:30:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:30:53","slug":"zimbabwe-exploring-minerals-backed-deals-with-china-to-fund-infrastructure-minister","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-exploring-minerals-backed-deals-with-china-to-fund-infrastructure-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe exploring minerals-backed deals with China to fund infrastructure: Minister\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Zimbabwe is considering using its vast natural resources \u200cto fund road and railway construction projects with China, finance minister Mthuli Ncube said this Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe southern African nation, Africa\u2019s top lithium producer, has significant mineral resources. But years of economic mismanagement and political turmoil \u200bhave left its infrastructure severely underdeveloped. The African Development Bank estimates Zimbabwe needs about $34 \u200bbillion to modernise its transport and logistics networks.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ncube said Harare has begun \u2060discussions with China Railway on resource-backed financing arrangements on the sidelines of the World Economic \u200bForum in Dalian.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We spoke to them about resource-linked debt instruments that we want to explore \u200bgoing forward to support our infrastructure development, especially roads and rail,&#8221; Ncube told reporters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Under such arrangements, Zimbabwe would pledge future revenues from natural resources to repay loans tied to specific projects.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It&#8217;s now up to us to \u200bdecide which roads we want to develop, how much these roads will cost, how much \u200bwe will raise in terms of toll fees, and how much still remains to be filled by \u200cinvestment in \u2060a natural resource, how much return it will generate towards extinguishing the loan,&#8221; Ncube said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Zimbabwe&#8217;s dilapidated rail system is critical for moving minerals and its revival is in the interests of Chinese mining firms which have gained a dominant position in the country&#8217;s extractive sector.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe approach \u200bechoes a mineral-linked $7 billion \u200binfrastructure agreement the \u2060Democratic Republic of Congo has with Chinese companies as part of the Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13586,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-37956","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The southern African nation, Africa\u2019s top lithium producer, has significant mineral resources.","published_date":"","news_description":"The southern African nation, Africa\u2019s top lithium producer, has significant mineral resources.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37957,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37956\/revisions\/37957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}