Faculty of Engineering and Built Enviroment School of Mining Engineering 0405669f Willis.Saungwame@bhpbilliton.com / The Republic of Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, Kariba Dam and Limpopo River. It is surrounded by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west, Zambia to the north and Mozambique to the east. The country is well endowed with mineral wealth and has been a reputable contributor to the region’s gold, coal, nickel and chromium production in the late 90’s, but this has negatively changed for the worse. Since 2000, Zimbabwe has been on economic recession resulting in growing global interest in the country’s economic and social environment. The lucrative mining sector has also been adversely affected by the harsh economic climate hence thwarting flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country which is needed to boost Greenfield and Brownfield competitiveness in the sector. Apart from its lucrative mining sector the country has done very little in harnessing the anticipated FDI that should ensue. Concerns about governance, the rule of law and human rights, and the continued lack of clarity about property rights have severely damaged confidence, discouraged investment, and promoted capital flight and emigration, thus contributing to the economic decline. Its competitiveness in attracting FDI has since declined because of the international perception of the country’s high political risk. The country has failed to live up to expectations with regards to mineral resource development in the region. The research established that, governance issues are at the helm of the current low performance of the economy. It therefore prescribes a complete change in government’s attitude and calls for it to develop a long overdue mineral policy document to map a strategic way forward for the country’s mineral resource development. Interestingly the country has been hailed to have one of the most liberal mineral administration laws through the Mines and Minerals Act of 1996. Its fiscal incentives to the mining sector compare favourably with the rest of the region e.g. a corporate tax of 15% for exporting mining companies and currently most gold operations are royalty exempt among others. There is a growing divergence from iv policies to actions on the ground. The rule of law is under threat and corruption has taken its toll. It is therefore important for this research to analyse the historical performance of the country in the mining sector to formulate policies and recommendations that will improve the country’s competitiveness in the sector. The policy and fiscal incentives should continuously be revisited to be in tandem with global developments. The endowment theory, strongly believed by the country’s mining ministry as illustrated by Tilton in 1992 is not conclusive in attracting FDI especially in this dynamic global economy. More and more developing countries are revising their investment policies to try and improve competitiveness of their investment environments. Zimbabwe should emulate countries like Chile currently leading the pack in attracting FDI in the mining sector. There is now fierce competition in attracting investment into a country because now, the investor has more countries to choose from. Zimbabwe should seriously focus on getting rid of all the negative aspects that have seriously affected its economic performance and quickly develop policies that auger well with regional integration and various other NEPAD, SADC and AU policies that underpin African development. The mining sector is a driver for economic development if properly supported as shown within the research.