Revisiting the Reform Process of African Mining Regimes

Abstract

This article examines the reform of regulatory frameworks that has taken place in Africa over the last twenty years in light of the findings of a research project on the negotiation of mining regimes in Canada. The argument is that certain elements of the free mining doctrine that animated the nineteenth-century formulation of mining regimes in North America can be seen as having guided the liberalization process of African mining regimes during the 1980s and 1990s. One of the ways this came about was through the strong retrenchment of state authority. In turn, this contributed to the institutionalization of asymmetrical relations of power and influence with important consequences for local political processes, local participation, and community welfare.