Several scholars have recently advocated for natural resource-based industrialisation in sub-Saharan Africa. Many consider local content policies (LCPs) as the most appropriate vehicle for such an endeavour. However, the definition of “local” and what type of measures should be employed have been subjected to much debate. There are also several regulatory, political, and industry-specific obstacles to the enactment and enforcement of LCPs. In the case of Zambia, mine suppliers and service providers to the country’s copper mines have sought to ride the recent wave of “resource nationalism” and push for mandatory local procurement, drawing upon measures employed to award public infrastructure contracts. These demands run counter to the designs of traditional donor agencies operating in Zambia, who adopted a depoliticised, technocratic approach and espoused a voluntary, business friendly LCP. This paper criticizes the donor agencies’ recommendations by arguing that: (1) mandatory local content measures are necessary to remedy the damages inflicted on Zambia’s copper mining supply chain by economic liberalisation and the privatisation of the mines; and (2) a developmental state is required to implement such measures and to challenge entrenched political interests and foreign mining investors.