Social implications – The benefits from the PBMR could have been significant, but the project failed ata cost of $1bn, which a country such as South Africa could ill afford. The knowledge gained during the duration of the project will be of little benefit to the country, particularly as the knowledge context was extremely narrow.
Originality/value – The paper addresses a topic that has not been dealt with before in the academic literature. It highlights a number of shortcomings in the way in which a developing country embarked on an innovative project.