The great commodity riches of Africa are legendary. African oil, African diamonds, African gold, African uranium, platinum, chrome, gems such as emeralds, sapphires, rubies, as well as food stuffs such as cocoa, the ever useful cotton plant, edible oils and numerous other commodities, far too many to mention here.
Africa is responsible for given the world some of its most popular and useful foodstuffs. For example did you know that Africa was the home of the watermelon, of okra? Let us not forget delicious seafoods such as lobster, many varieties of fish and shrimp that are plentiful in the waters of Africa.
Did you know that African woods are among the finest in the world. Woods such as ebony and mahogany head the list.
Let us examine a few of these commodities. Take gold for example. Gold can be found in several African areas,Ghana, Zimbabwe... but the largest source of gold is Azania (aka South Africa).
One South African gold dealer boasts (Gold Eagle - South Africa Section) Since 1886 South Africa has been the Gold Producing Mecca of the world. ... Today, South African gold mines supply about 25% of the world's yearly supply...
| Azania (South Africa) is also one the leading sources of diamonds. Everyone knows the importance of diamonds and of course we all know about the recent controversy of "conflict" diamonds, diamonds illegally traded by unscrupulous agencies working out of Europe, the US and Israel. | ||
You have probably heard less about the fact that areas such as Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria are excellent sources of emeralds. (Here is it important to make a distinction between emeralds that are found in Africa and a gem stone called African Emeralds which is a green gem that is not an emerald.)
Did you know that areas such as Tanzania and Kenya are the source of rubies that are among the world's finest stones and in many instances sapphires also. But these riches have not enriched Africans. This essay on the theft of wealth from Tanzania is sufficient to serve the point:
When it came to the endowment of natural resources, nature was not stingy to Tanzania. We are told there is petroleum in Pemba, gold and other precious metals on the Mainland, including a gemstone that is unique to the country - tanzanite.
This is not to mention marine and forestry resources, arable land and water bodies. Tourist attractions are also phenomenal, including the highest peak in Africa, Kilimanjaro.
Historical sites, abundant and varied wildlife ... the list is endless. It is a surprise, therefore, that Tanzania is a virtual basket case in the global context, instead of being a breadbasket.
That, however, is gradually being unravelled through lurid, kaleidoscopic revelations by parties who have the interests of the country at heart. The problem is not lack of resources. It is a question of ineptness, mismanagement, sleaze - or a combination of all three.
Muddy trails extending for hundreds of miles into the subtropical wilderness of the Democratic Republic of the Congo end at shallow, exposed mines full of one of the most valuable mineral deposits on earth: tantalum ore. Crack open your cell phone and you’d find a refined version of it in the thumbnail-size part that helps power the device. In the DRC’s Katanga province, the bush trails also lead to an interesting experiment in coping with government regulation.
Getting minerals out of the country and into your phone has long involved an informal supply chain in which self-employed miners scraped the pits for minerals, then sold them to a network of traders who would take them to the border and sell them to foreign refiners—with warlords and militias extorting the players along the way. Congress wanted the U.S. to quit lining armed groups’ pockets; as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, it mandated that companies certify to the Securities and Exchange Commission that their supply chains for products using tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold are “DRC conflict free,” a standard the SEC has yet to define.
It has been demonstrated consistently that African strategic metals such as the platinum group are absolutely vital to modern state power. The Outline Thesis statement of the US Marine study U.S. Reliance On Africa For Strategic Minerals, reads as follows:
Since World War II the United States has become increasingly dependent on imported strategic minerals. A major source for many of these minerals is Africa, a volatile region in which the possibility of a major disruption of U.S. mineral supplies is distinctly possible.
U.S. Reliance On Africa For Strategic MineralsThe world's appetite for minerals is rapidly growing.
Copper is sought after for use in power transmission and generation, building wiring, telecommunications, and electrical and electronic products. Cobalt is used in super-alloys to make parts for gas turbine aircraft engines and demand is continuing to soar as it is used for rechargeable batteries in globally popular mobile phones and devices.
It is also used to make magnets, tire adhesives and catalysts for the petroleum and chemical industries.
The price of copper has quadrupled since 2001, standing at 7,603 dollars per tonne in May this year.
World production of copper is expected to increase by six percent and total use by five percent in 2006, with the areas on the border between DRC and Zambia playing a major role.
The so-called copperbelt running through Katanga and Zambia contains 34 percent of the world's cobalt and 10 percent of the world's copper. Since 2004, there has been a massive influx of foreign companies pouring into Katanga on the DRC-Zambia border.
The study says operations have been marred by price fixing in contract negotiations in the capital Kinshasa, where politicians have quickly approved several large contracts with multinational companies, leaving only a small share for the state mining company, Gécamines.
The Kamoto copper mine, the Dima-Kamoto Concentrator and the Luilu hydro-metallurgical plant are one example, with Kinross-Forrest inking a deal with Gécamines that gave the former a 75 percent share and Gécamines 25 percent. The main shareholders of Kinross-Forrest are George Forrest International in Britain and the Canadian company, Kinross Gold Corporation. International companies have been returning to the country prompted by high copper and cobalt prices...
Those companies and banks include the Canadian mining firm First Quantum Minerals Ltd, the Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg, and Adastra, a Canadian company with its head office in Britain.
The report also examines the ties between international mining firms and global public lenders such as the World Bank. It says the World Bank is involved in copper and cobalt mining in DRC and in promoting foreign investment despite classifying the country in one of its publications as the worst country in the world in which to do business.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private investment arm, has provided financing for a feasibility study carried out by Adastra, which is hoping to establish a copper and cobalt project in Kolwezi.
The IFC now has a 7.5 percent stake in Adastra's project that was taken over by First Quantum, another Canadian mining company.
The report called on private companies to help reform the sector and declare all mineral exports, pay the appropriate taxes and ensure that the working conditions of the estimated 150,000 miners who supply them meet minimum health and safety standards -- or refuse to buy products originating from those mines.
The average miner in Katanga earns about two or three dollars a day. Most work without protective clothing, equipment or training, and scores die every year in preventable accidents, the report says.
"We know that the Congo is rich. But despite this, we don't even have enough to eat. Only one category of people profits," one miner told Global Witness.
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