Africas Mineral Fortune

For too long Africa's mineral fortune has been lamented as a resource curse that has led to conflict rather than development for much of the continent. Yet times are changing and the opportunities to bring technical expertise on modern mining alongside appropriate governance mechanisms for social development are becoming more accessible in Africa. This book synthesizes perspectives from multiple disciplines to address Africa’s development goals in relation to its mineral resources. The authors cover ways of addressing a range of policy challenges, environmental concerns, and public health impacts and also consider the role of globalization within the extractive industries. Academic research is coupled with key field vignettes from practitioners exemplifying case studies throughout. The book summarizes the challenges of natural resource governance, suggesting ways in which mining can be more effectively managed in Africa. By providing an analytical framework it highlights the essential intersection between natural and social sciences, central to efficient and effective harnessing of the potential for minerals and mining to be a contributor to positive development in Africa. It will be of interest to policy makers, industry professionals, and researchers in the extractive industries, as well as to the broader development community.

For too long Africa's mineral fortune has been lamented as a resource curse that has led to conflict rather than development for much of the continent. Yet times are changing and the opportunities to bring technical expertise on modern mining alongside appropriate governance mechanisms for social development are becoming more accessible in Africa. This book synthesizes perspectives from multiple disciplines to address Africa’s development goals in relation to its mineral resources. The authors cover ways of addressing a range of policy challenges, environmental concerns, and public health impacts and also consider the role of globalization within the extractive industries. Academic research is coupled with key field vignettes from practitioners exemplifying case studies throughout. The book summarizes the challenges of natural resource governance, suggesting ways in which mining can be more effectively managed in Africa. By providing an analytical framework it highlights the essential intersection between natural and social sciences, central to efficient and effective harnessing of the potential for minerals and mining to be a contributor to positive development in Africa. It will be of interest to policy makers, industry professionals, and researchers in the extractive industries, as well as to the broader development community.

Africa has been coveted for its riches ever since the era of the Pharaohs. In past centuries, it was the lure of gold, ivory, and slaves that drew fortune-seekers, merchant-adventurers, and conquerors from afar. In modern times, the focus of attention is on oil, diamonds, and other valuable minerals. Land was another prize. The Romans relied on their colonies in northern Africa for vital grain shipments to feed the population of Rome. Arab invaders followed in their wake, eventually colonizing the entire region. More recently, foreign corporations have acquired huge tracts of land to secure food supplies needed abroad, just as the Romans did. In this vast and vivid panorama of history, Martin Meredith follows the fortunes of Africa over a period of 5,000 years. With compelling narrative, he traces the rise and fall of ancient kingdoms and empires; the spread of Christianity and Islam; the enduring quest for gold and other riches; the exploits of explorers and missionaries; and the impact of European colonization. He examines, too, the fate of modern African states and concludes with a glimpse of their future. His cast of characters includes religious leaders, mining magnates, warlords, dictators, and many other legendary figures—among them Mansa Musa, ruler of the medieval Mali empire, said to be the richest man the world has ever known. “I speak of Africa,” Shakespeare wrote, “and of golden joys.” This is history on an epic scale.

This study focuses on the local and regional impact of large-scale gold mining in Africa in the context of a mineral boom in the region since 2000. It contributes to filling a gap in the literature on the welfare effects of mineral resources, which, until now, has concentrated more on the national or macroeconomic impacts. Economists have long been intrigued by the paradox that a rich endowment of natural resources may retard economic performance, particularly in the case of mineral-exporting developing countries. Studies of this phenomenon, known as the “resource curse,†? examine the economy-wide consequences of mineral exports.1 Africa’s resource boom has lifted growth, but has been less successful in improving people’s welfare. Yet much of the focus in academic and policy circles has been on appropriate management of the macro-fiscal and governance risks that have historically undermined development outcomes. This study focuses instead on the fortune of local communities where resources are located. It aims to better inform public policy and corporate behavior on the welfare of communities in Africa in which the extraction of resources takes place.

Africa is endowed with commercially viable quantities of several minerals and metals, and, more than ever before, African countries wish to harness their mineral resources for their economic development. The African mining sector has witnessed a revolution in terms of new mining codes and amendments to extant mining codes, which are designed to achieve a multitude of objectives, including the assertion of greater control over exploitation of mineral resources; optimization of resource royalties and taxes; promotion of equity participation in mining projects; enhancement of indigenization in the form of domestic participation in mineral production and local content requirements; value addition and beneficiation in terms of domestic processing of raw mineral ores and metals in Africa; and the promotion of sustainable practices in the mining sector. This book analyzes the legal and fiscal frameworks for hard-rock mining in several African countries including Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Liberia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with reference to other resource-rich countries. It engages in a comparative analysis of mining statutes in Africa with regard to topics such as the acquisition of mineral rights; types of mineral rights; the nature of mineral rights; the rights and obligations of mineral right holders; security of mineral tenure; surface rights; fiscal regimes including royalty and tax regimes; resource nationalism in the mining sector; management and utilization of mining revenues including benefit-sharing arrangements between mining companies and host communities; environmental stewardship; and sustainable exploitation of mineral resources.