Text and picture: Ian Michler. Article from the January 2013 issue of Africa Geographic Magazine.
The political ‘scramble for Africa’ in the 19th and 20th centuries left the continent in tatters. The new scramble, for its mineral riches, has the potential to be equally destructive.
Is Africa in the throes of auctioning off its natural resources to foreign nations in exchange for aid and the benefits of infrastructural developments? More importantly, at what cost to the continent’s environment and its citizens, most of whom are already suffering under the so-called ‘resource curse’?
Given the spate of new and planned projects that are sited within or alongside national parks and wilderness areas, there are legitimate reasons for concern. In East Africa, the debates about the Serengeti Highway and soda ash mining on Lake Natron continue to rage, while tracking in South Africa’s Karoo is still hotly contested. We’ve seen miners – some without waiting for EIA procedures to be completed – move into Mapungubwe, Mana Pools, Lower Zambezi and Hwange national parks, Selous Game Reserve and the forests of Rwanda and Gabon. And what are we to make of the planned massive harbour and rail development of Techobanine in southern Mozambique, and the gas and oil finds all along Africa’s east and west coasts?
These are just some of the high-profile projects. Several are regarded as ill-considered and short-sighted, some as blatantly destructive, and others as simply unwarranted. But for environmentalists the really bad news is that the situation could get much worse.
At the turn of the last century, a mere 13 years ago, Africa was still viewed as a ‘basket case’, an underdeveloped, war-torn continent ravaged by natural disasters. But that was then. Although corruption and weak leadership still prevail in many countries, these disadvantages now seem to be outweighed by a wave of optimism that is based on the exploitation of resources and the opportunities for infrastructural development. According to the IMF, Africa’s GDP averaged 5.5 per cent growth between 2000 and 2010, almost double that of the previous two decades and well above the global average of 4.4 per cent. The organisation predicts that the gap between the continent’s and the world’s growth rates will widen even further in the coming decade.
Indicators on the ground seem to support this forecast. Although agriculture is the largest employer by some margin, the metals and minerals sector, which includes oil and gas, is far ahead in terms of foreign exchange earnings. According to data from the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2011, Africa currently holds just over 30 per cent of the planet’s mineral reserves but receives less than five per cent of global mining budgets. This leaves plenty of scope for further mining activity.
On the infrastructure front, Ralph Olaye, the manager of Regional Integration and Trade at the African Development Bank, has estimated that investment to the tune of US$360-billion is needed across the continent within the next 25 years to put into place the basic requirements for growth demands to be met.
Africa holds 30 per cent of the planet’s mineral reserves but receives less than five per cent |of global mining budgets, leaving plenty of scope for further mining activity
No country is buying into this new scramble for Africa more than China. In a show of commitment, the Chinese recently donated US$200-million to the continent by building the African Union’s new headquarters in Addis Ababa.
Figures emerging from the Fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in Beijing in July 2012, show that the Asian powerhouse has been Africa’s largest trading partner since 2009, with trade values reaching US$166- billion in 2011, a 13-fold increase over the past decade. With more than 2 000 Chinese operations now in Africa, direct investment has reached US$15-billion, and President Hu Jintao committed a further US$20-billion credit to the continent before leaving office.
Given the size of China’s population, as well as its increasing presence at every level on the global stage, it is clear that the country is urgently in need of resources – and is not holding back in the quest for them. Anyone who is familiar with Africa will be aware that its reach into the continent has become highly visible. Much less visible – and thus probably a surprise to some – is that Canada and Australia are even more involved than China in Africa’s mineral wealth. According to Canada’s Ministry of Natural Resources, by 2010 the country was active in 35 African countries with mining assets surpassing US$21-billion.
Canada now ranks second to South Africa in mining activity on the continent, and Australia is not far behind. When addressing the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2011, the latter’s high commissioner to South Africa, Ann Harrap, told delegates that 220 Australian companies are 
operating nearly 600 projects in 42 African countries. She added that ‘Australians will mine anything’ and put current and future investment at ‘well over US$20-billion and prospective investment much higher again’. Of interest here is that almost 70 per cent of the projects have begun since 2005.
And these are only the foreigners – I haven’t even started on the mining record of South Africa, the continent’s largest extractive force.
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