Mineral-rich Countries Research Articles

“Orpaillage pays for everything”: How artisanal mining supported rural institutions following Mali's coup d’état

This paper argues that during the period after the March 2012 coup d’etat in Mali, rural institutions in gold-rich areas of country shifted their revenue dependence away from the state and instead drew upon a local, evolving artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector. The paper discusses the effects of the March 2012 coup and its aftermath on the state and how these changes trickled down to local institutions in the rural commune of Yallankoro-Soloba. During that same period, technological advances in the commune's ASM sector increased local investment and improved profitability in ASM activities. As the state withdrew financial support from the commune government and social services, local government officials, medical services, educational institutions and local populations were able to capitalize on these ASM-generated revenues. The research finds that Mali suffers from the same ASM formalization problems as other mineral rich countries in the region. What makes Mali's situation unique is that ASM has become a critical rural industry which is not only supplying much needed income to rural people, but also serving to informally fund social institutions from the bottom up during a time of national crisis. Local government officials are stuck in limbo between the state which provides them with legitimacy and ASM which supports their communes’ population and institutions. The paper concludes that even as Mali begins its recovery, there are urgent needs to formalize rural ASM. If formalization actions are delayed, technological advances will make formalization even more difficult and enable institutions and local officials to become increasingly detached from the fragile central government.

Concentration levels of potentially harmful elements from gold mining in Lake Victoria Region, Kenya: Environmental and health implications

Second only to the agricultural industry, mining is often considered to be the largest source of pollution in most mineral-rich countries. Mine wastes and tailings commonly generate large concentrations of effluents containing high levels of potentially harmful elements (PHEs) which migrate into various compartments of the ecosystem with obvious undesirable health consequences. In this study, the concentrations of As Cd, Hg and Pb were determined on samples of soil, stream water and fish (Rastrineobola argentea) collected from the Migori Gold Belt (MGB) in Kenya. Maximum total concentrations of Cd, Pb, As and Hg recorded in some samples in the study area were found to be far above the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) maximum allowable concentrations (MAC), respectively, including some from the control site, 150km away from the MGB. The calculated geometric means showed that the PHE concentrations were significantly above MAC levels (p<0.05) in the three sample types.The PHE concentrations were as follows: in water, Cd: 1.5–10.5μgl−1, Pb: 0.4–13.1μgl−1, As: 0.06–23.0μgl−1, and Hg: 0.36–52.1μgl−1; in soil, Cd: 4.5–570mgkg−1, Pb: 5.9–619mgkg−1, As: 0.08–86.0mgkg−1, and Hg: 0.51–1830mgkg−1; and in fish; Cd, 1.9–10.1mgkg−1, Pb: 2.0–13.1mgkg−1, As: 0.02–1.92mgkg−1, and Hg: 0.26–355mgkg−1.Concentrations of PHEs were much higher in the area affected by gold mining than at point S4 which was sampled for comparison and was 70km away from the gold mining area. We conclude that gold mining and other human activities in the MGB have led to the release of toxic levels of Cd, Pb, As and Hg, which may lead to serious environmental health consequences in humans. We recommend that the public health sector addresses in a timely fashion, these sources of contamination (gold mining and associated human activities), in order to obviate impending health problems.

Does a Windfall Lead to a Downfall? A Study of Mineral Rents and Genuine Growth in Selected African Countries

The mining industry helps governments to increase revenues resulting in job creation, infrastructural development and enhancing the standard of living of the local communities. However, it is also a potential source of environmental pollution and rent-seeking. This study examines the relationship between mineral rents and genuine income in a multivariate panel data analysis in Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Zambia at the aggregate and industrial levels. The findings suggest that mineral revenues have been a blessing to these countries at the aggregate level but affected industrial growth negatively. These findings support evidence in the literature that mineral resource abundance slows growth in industrial output. The study also reveals that growth in mineral rich countries is principally driven by investment in capital and energy consumption. It is therefore recommended that mineral revenues should be invested in capital and alternative energy sources to boost aggregate and industrial growth.

The risk of asbestos exposure in South African diamond mine workers

ObjectivesAsbestos is associated with South African diamond mines due to the nature of kimberlite and the location of the diamond mines in relation to asbestos deposits. Very little is known...

The Risk of Asbestos Exposure in South African Diamond Mine Workers

Asbestos is associated with South African diamond mines due to the nature of kimberlite and the location of the diamond mines in relation to asbestos deposits. Very little is known about the health risks in the diamond mining industry. The objective of this study was to explore the possibility of asbestos exposure during the process of diamond mining. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis were used to identify asbestos fibres in the lungs of diamond mine workers who had an autopsy for compensation purposes and in the tailings and soils from three South African diamond mines located close to asbestos deposits. The asbestos lung fibre burdens were calculated. We also documented asbestos-related pathological findings in diamond mine workers at autopsy. Tremolite-actinolite asbestos fibres were identified in the lungs of five men working on diamond mines. Tremolite-actinolite and/or chrysotile asbestos were present in the mine tailings of all three mines. Mesothelioma, asbestosis, and/or pleural plaques were diagnosed in six diamond mine workers at autopsy. These findings indicate that diamond mine workers are at risk of asbestos exposure and, thus, of developing asbestos-related diseases. South Africa is a mineral-rich country and, when mining one commodity, it is likely that other minerals, including asbestos, will be accidentally mined. Even at low concentrations, asbestos has the potential to cause disease, and mining companies should be aware of the health risk of accidentally mining it. Recording of comprehensive work histories should be mandatory to enable the risk to be quantified in future studies.

Soaring Extinction Threats to Endemic Plants in Brazilian Metal-Rich Regions

Environmental degradation due to mining activities is pervasive in most mineral-rich countries and has been given little attention by the authorities. Surface mining frequently targets very specific and evolutionary unique ecosystems, usually on mountaintops, and is characterized by high environmental impact and irreversibility (Jacobi and do Carmo 2008; Gibson et al. 2010). Recently, the negative impacts of coal surface mining were exposed in relation to ecosystem degradation and damages to human health, underlining the need to improve regulatory measures to mitigate them (Palmer et al. 2010). The loss of plant species associated with mineral-rich areas should be added to the list of ecologic and genetic damages recurrently derived from surface-mining activities.

The EUUs Development Assistance to Africa: The China Factor

Africa-Europe relations commenced with the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Europeans some five hundred years ago. Industrialization in the nineteenth century gave birth to colonialism and European rule was imposed on Africa. Most of the African states gained independence as late as the sixties. However, independence, in many cases proved to be illusory, for the former colonial powers continued to wield influence in these countries and giving birth to what is termed as neo-colonialism. In the negotiations leading to the formation of the EEC in 1957, France insisted on establishing a formal relationship between the new organization and France’s African colonies. The Treaty of Rome which founded the European Community granted associated status for non-European countries which had special relations with a member state. The EEC/EU signed a number of conventions with the African and later with the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Notable among these were Yaounde I & II; Lome I, II, III & IV; and in 2000 the Cotonou Agreement for a period of 20 years. Despite all these conventions and agreements, Africa remained poor. The EU’s development policy was initially based on assistance in the form of grants and aid, but over the years it has acknowledged the ineffectiveness of its aid program in general, leading the European Commission to adopt a new strategy for development based on a combination of trade, debt relief and aid. China has paid close attention to promoting its economic cooperation with the mineral-rich African countries and has given them considerable economic assistance. China, in its relations with the developing world concentrates on trade and investment instead of aid. Thus Chinese policy has had a more positive impact on Africa’s development. The China factor is now altering the basic parameters on which the European Union’s relations with Africa were based. In line with China-Africa cooperation forums, the EU too has launched EU-Africa business forums. If the EU is serious about eradicating poverty and promoting stable democracies in Africa, it should facilitate the creation of a fairer trade system in real terms.

Extending internalisation theory: From the multinational enterprise to the knowledge-based empire

Internalisation theory explains how the boundaries of firms are set at the margin where the advantages of internal coordination are just offset by the costs of supplanting external markets. Internalisation is a general principle that can be used to explain the boundaries of any institution in terms of the costs and benefits of alternative methods of coordination. As such, it applies to states as well as to firms. Within this broader context, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have an analogue in the imperial state. This paper develops a new theory of imperialism that is isomorphic to the internalisation theory of the MNE. This theory provides a set of insights which do not appear in any systematic way in earlier theories of imperialism. 1. Some states are more entrepreneurial than others because they provide strong incentives for individual discovery and innovation ( e.g. promoting freedom, of travel, association and expression). 2. Newly discovered knowledge is a global public good; it is therefore efficient to apply it simultaneously in all territories to which it is relevant ( e.g. apply the same mining technology in several different mineral-rich countries). 3. States have a role in supplying local public goods ( e.g. law and order, transport and communications infrastructure, and certain types of health and education); they can also establish property rights and regulations under which private goods are provided by a private sector. Newly discovered knowledge about how to supply public goods can therefore be exploited by a state. 4. Although knowledge is a public good, there are obstacles to transferring it between locations. Foreigners may not accept the superiority of the knowledge; they may pass it on to the supplier's enemies; or they may not be able to absorb it because of limited education. A state may therefore encounter difficulty in exploiting its knowledge abroad through licensing agreements negotiated under treaty arrangements. 5. States possess military knowledge as well as civilian knowledge. The rule of law is weaker between states than it is within states. Superior military knowledge therefore permits a state to take over other territories by force. A knowledge-intensive state frustrated by barriers to knowledge transfer may therefore resort to force and take over (occupy or govern) territories controlled by other states (especially those that refuse to recognise its supremacy). 6. Knowledge obsolesces, and as it does so the strategic case for imperialism declines. These insights suggest that imperialism is a rational response to a specific set of circumstances. They suggest that in a world where opportunities to discover new knowledge arise continuously, imperialism emerges naturally wherever these circumstances prevail. Obsolescence too is a natural process, and this explains why empires decline. The decline of one empire may generate a gap that some other rising empire may be able to fill. The paper concludes by reviewing a panel of fourteen empires on which the theory can be tested using case study analysis.

Mining to profit Africa’s people

Mineral-rich countries in Africa enjoyed a mining boom between 2002 and 2007 as metal and oil prices nearly tripled. Companies competed furiously for new mines to meet growing world demand. As a result, a number of African nations found themselves in a much stronger bargaining position with foreign investors, who previously were able to demand—and get—huge breaks before they would invest. Now governments could strike better deals with new investors, and even renegotiate old mining contracts. “We just want to make sure that we are getting the best [deal] for our deposits,” Alhaji Abubakarr Jalloh, Sierra Leone’s minister of mines, said in September 2007.

Good Governance, Security and Mining in Africa1

Using as a point of departure the observations contained in the document ‘Our Common Interest. Report of the Commission for Africa (March 2005)’, Chapter 5: “Countries with economies dependent on one or a few primary commodities, particularly high‐value resources such as oil and other minerals, are often poor, have weak and less accountable governance systems, and are more vulnerable to violent conflict and economic shocks”, the article sets out to explore the broader trends and specific conditions which might help explain why mining activities in Africa may well be at present and increasingly in the future, linked to issues of security. To this end the paper explores various hypotheses which have been put forward such as the following: • an overly externally driven reform process may well have contributed to undermining the legitimacy of the governments of mineral rich countries concerned. • economic reforms, and mining policies more specifically, have perhaps not sufficiently contributed to building eff...

Combating the Resource Curse: An Alternative Solution to Managing Mineral Wealth

Countless studies document the correlation between abundant mineral resources and a series of negative economic and political outcomes, including poor economic performance, unbalanced growth, weakly institutionalized states, and authoritarian regimes across the developing world. The disappointing experience of mineral-rich countries has generated a large body of scholarship aimed at explaining this empirical correlation and a list of prescriptions for combating the resource curse. The most popular solutions emphasize macroeconomic policies, economic diversification, natural resource funds, transparency and accountability, and direct distribution to the general population. The success of these solutions has been limited because they either presuppose strong state institutions, which are widely absent in the developing world, or assume state ownership over mineral wealth and thus the need for external actors to constrain the state. At the same time, domestic private ownership is rarely proposed and often maligned. Yet, in some countries, it would serve as a more viable way to avoid the resource curse by fostering institutions that more effectively constrain state leaders, encouraging them to invest in institution building, and enabling them to respond more successfully to commodity booms and busts. he race to find new sources of petroleum has been ongoing since commercially viable oil was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. Almost a century and a half later, the discovery of new oil wealth in several parts of the world, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, East Timor, Chad, and Sudan has muffled increasingly popular cries that world oil production would

Transition reform in the mineral-rich Caspian region countries

In the absence of a developmental political state, natural resource abundance may impede the economic transition by diminishing the urgency of reform and by distorting the economy (through Dutch disease effects and also rent-seeking behavior and corruption). These problems tend to be especially acute in mineral-rich economies because the socio-economic linkages from mining concentrate revenues on the government and increase the risk of policy failure. This paper tests these hypotheses through a comparison of mineral-rich and resource-poor countries in transition in the Caspian region, all of which failed to evolve developmental political states. It shows that the mineral-rich countries are slower reformers, despite the fact in three of the four resource-poor countries the reforms were adversely impacted by civil strife. Mineral-rich countries also experience a stronger rebound of the real exchange rate and greater shrinkage of employment in the tradeable sector. These differences are reflected in a reverse J-shape post-transition development trajectory for the mineral-rich countries compared to the V-shaped trajectory of the resource-poor countries. However, rent-seeking and corruption do not appear to vary with the natural resource endowment.

Earth Science Education in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a mineral-rich country with a long history of Earth Science Education. The establishment of a University Geology Department in 1960 allowed the country to produce its own earth science graduates. These graduates are readily absorbed by the mining industry and few are without work. Demand for places at the University is high and entry standards reflect this. Students enter the University after GCE A levels in three science subjects and most go on to graduate. Degree programmes include B.Sc. General in Geology (plus another science), B.Sc. Honours in Geology and M.Sc. in Exploration Geology and in Geophysics. The undergraduate curriculum is broad-based and increasingly vocationally orientated. A well-equipped building caters for relatively large student numbers and also houses analytical facilities used for research and teaching. Computers are used in teaching from the first year onwards. Staff are on average poorly qualified compared to other universities, but there is an impressive research element. The Department has good links with many overseas universities and external funding agencies play a strong supporting role. That said, financial constraints remain the greatest barrier to future development, although increasing links with the mining industry may cushion this.

The Effects of State Taxation on United States Copper Supply

The last half of the 1970s was a period of extreme financial difficulty for United States copper producers. Generally low copper prices and escalating production costs resulted in financial losses for many producers during much of this period. In addition, shifts in the ownership patterns of natural resources,' changes in financing methods for mineral projects, and perceptions that projected future returns are inadequate to warrant new investment in mineral development have led to much concern about the competitive position of the United States copper industry. Government actions, in both developed and developing countries, have been cited as contributing to this adverse competitive environment. Just as frequently, however, government actions are called for as necessary to improve the health of the domestic industry. Taxation is one area in which the government both assists and hinders mineral production. The primary purpose of any tax is to raise revenues; however, taxes are also used to achieve policy goals. For example, some national tax systems include provisions devised to foster mineral development. Such provisions as the U.S. depletion allowance, which permits a rapid recovery of amounts sometimes exceeding actual capital costs, and tax holidays in other countries, which allow tax payments on mining projects to be foregone or postponed, encourage capital investment in mineral development. National tax systems are also used to transfer monies from the developers of mineral projects or the consumers of these minerals to the residents of the c untry in which the resource is located. This works to ensure that the mineralrich countries are compensated for the exploitation of their natural heritage. In addition to national or federal taxes, many mining projects are also subject to provincial, state, and local taxes. Often these taxes are a substantial portion of the total taxes paid by a mine. A recent study by the U. S. General Accounting Office (U.S. G.A.O. 1981) found that in the United States, on the average, 46% of

Economic rents, the distribution of gains from mineral exploitation, and mineral development policy

The ‘once-and-for-all’ character of mineral exploitation introduces a unique element into the analysis of mining and the formulation of mineral policy, making issues of mineral ownership, questions of the interests of producers and consumers, and of the timing of exploitation particularly important. Developing countries account for a considerable, though by no means dominant, proportion of the world's mineral output, but the bulk of consumption is in high-income industrialized countries, and these countries also own the major corporations with mineral exploitation expertise. The high degree of horizontal and vertical integration among these corporations, and their participation in mineral processing, is a further complication. This paper argues that the resource rents inherent in mineral exploitation, and the other monopolistic rents associated with mining and processing, are essential to an understanding of past trends and to the formulation of future policies. The difficulties of measuring these rents adds to the problems of determining their equitable distribution among mineral-rich countries, mineral exploitation companies and mineral consumers. The proper timing of mineral exploitation in relation to national economic development is a further complication. It is thus perhaps not surprising that in high-income, no less than in developing countries, mineral exploitation and use policies are in disarray. The paper concludes with a discussion of the principal mineral development policy options emerging from the debate on the distribution of gains from mining.