African Mining at Crossroads, Warns Bristow

Jersey, Channel Islands (FSCwire) - The mining industry’s unique ability to function as a primary driver of economic growth in Africa will be impaired or even destroyed unless mining companies and their host countries work together to address the existential challenges it faces, Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow said today.

Speaking at the Mining Indaba, Bristow said while the industry was at least to some extent dealing with the consequences of its recent excesses, the same could not be said of some of its host governments in Africa, who seemingly expect their revenue streams from mining to continue at supercycle strength and are re-writing the rules to make sure that they harvest more from less.

“How will hard-pressed companies, still struggling to recover, cope with these demands?” he asked.  “By high-grading more and investing less, and that is not good for anyone, let alone the future generations of our great continent.”

Bristow noted that when African countries started liberalising their economies in the mid-Nineties, they immediately attracted foreign investment, and their fledgling mining sectors began to grow to substantial proportions.  This trend was now reversing, and despite its great mineral wealth, Africa last year attracted only 14% of global exploration expenditure, versus 30% to South America and 28% to North America.

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