Hi, I completely disagree, the mining sector is an extremely physical-capital intensive, and very low human-capital intensive, unlike the technology sector and other high-value added sectors (biotech....), which are always extremely high human-capital intensive (recquire highly qualified labor from the best universities and research centers in the world), yet could or could not be physical-capital intensive.
That is why the most successful industry in poor countries is generally the mining sector industry (even more than agriculture). Investors from developed countries do extremely well mining resources from poorer countries (gold, oil, copper, cobalt....). However you would be highly pressed to find any highly value added industries in these poor countries (as you said the infrastructure, qualified labor, protection of intellectual/industrial property rights....etc is just not on par).
That is why you rarely hear anyone talking about building a coated spherical graphite plant in africa or in poor asian countries. Look at Syrah, they want to build their SPG plant in the USA instead of Zimbabwe.
Once Bass Metals completes refurbishing its mine, it wont take much of labor qualification to achieve higher throughbut/quality/ price per tonne. its not rocket science, its just mining ! yes a trial and error process is recquired (it takes years), but once you do it, you will get a profitable mine for a lifetime!
