This Bureau of Mines paper investigates the current status of the mineral industry of zimbabwe, formerly the British colony of southern rhodesia. It also forecasts the expected future position of the country's chromium industry, which is of strategic interest to the United States and the other industrialized countries of the west. In analyzing the capabilities of the mineral industry, the influences of government policy, current economic conditions, labor supply, energy supply, and transport system are evaluated. Zimbabwe produces over 40 different minerals, the most valuable of which are gold and asbestos. The most important mineral to the west from a strategic point of view is chromite. Zimbabwe has almost one-third of the world's chromite resources but produces less than 10 percent of the total world output. The competitive position of the chromium industry in zimbabwe has been weakened since the widespread adoption by western countries of the argon-oxygen-decarburization process for making stainless steel.