Africa’s mining industry should be careful to ensure its future isn’t history
Africa’s mining industry should be careful to ensure its future isn’t history
Mining in Africa has a long, complex and fraught history. It is on the cusp of renewed opportunity – provided it learns from the past.
The first humans lived in Africa, and they were probably scratching in the surface of the earth even before Homo sapiens evolved 300,000 years ago.
Early peoples’ gradual technological advancement led to improvements in tools, and ideation as to what the earth’s resources could be used for. Roughly 8,000 years ago this shifted humankind from the Stone Age into the Chalcolithic Age, otherwise known as…the Copper Age!
So, copper – specifically, its smelting – was the metal that triggered the dawn of civilisation. Remarkably, now, in the 21st century, copper has an irreplaceable role as the world transitions to renewable energy sources. It really has been the metal for the ages.
The Metals Ages
Interestingly, although early human history is generally segmented into the Copper Age (c. 3200–2300 BC), the Bronze Age (2300–700 BC) and then the Iron Age (700–100 BC), in sub-Saharan Africa these are thought to have been one longer progression from the Stone Age. That is, the African Iron Age was an amalgamation of the three metals ages, accelerating during the centuries after around 1,200 BC.
Mining’s African history holds many highlights. In the 2nd century CE the East African kingdom of Aksum, spanning present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Djibouti, was the first African state to produce and mint metal coins. In Phalaborwa, South Africa, archaeologists discovered probably the earliest sub-Saharan mine gallery or shaft, dated to 770 CE. Azurite and malachite copper derivatives were mined then; in 1965 the precise site was opened as an open-pit copper mine, and is still operational – although now underground. For centuries from the late-1200s onwards the economies of Akan states, including the Adanse, Bono Manso, Denkyira and Wassa tribes in what is now Ghana, were based on mining and trading gold. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is still practised by an estimated one million Ghanaians, whose output accounted for an astonishing 35% of the country’s total production in 2020.
At what point did this kind of activity scale? Sadly, the correlation is to colonialism, in particular the “scramble for Africa” – the term for the 19th- and early-20th-century European powers’ unilateral and often hostile acquisition of African lands.
A backdrop of mixed legacy
Until diamond and gold discoveries in 1867 and 1886 respectively, southern Africa was sparsely populated and the subcontinent had an almost entirely agrarian economy. Within 30 years Johannesburg became the centre of the world’s largest mining enterprise. The capitalist quest for further discoveries spawned giant corporations such as De Beers, Anglo American and Gold Fields. Simultaneously, the political quest for empire’s expansion led especially Britain, but also Belgium, France, Germany and Portugal to colonise swathes of territory north of Johannesburg, including North and South Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), Angola, the Congo, Mozambique, South West Africa (now Namibia), and Ubangi-Shari (now Central African Republic).
In more ways than one, mining is in African’s blood. The Witwatersrand gold rush, and then the copper rush in Zambia and the Congo region in the early 20th century, were often brutal in their consequences for indigenous peoples. Lands were stolen; labour was always underpaid – and sometimes coerced. Traditional community structures were often irreparably damaged, and mining operations harmed the surrounding natural environments and habitats.
This background contextualises why many African countries nationalised their mining industries after gaining independence. Zambia, for instance, in 1969 legislated a 51% stake in all mines, enacted through a state entity, the Mining Development Corporation.
These were efforts by African nations to benefit more substantively from their mineral resources – essentially, to compensate for decades of colonial policies that exploited local labour and remitted profits to Europe. However, different kinds of challenges then arose, including an exodus of expertise and capital, instances of mismanagement – especially in times of commodity price falls – and corruption. Continuing with the example of Zambia, the government, realising that thousands of jobs had been lost annually, scrapped nationalisation as a blanket policy in 1996.
There’s an irony to what has been happening in the last few decades. A new scramble for Africa has unfolded. It’s more surreptitious than in the 1800s and early-1900s, but motivated more patently by the potential of mining the continent’s resources. Also ironic is that African political leaders have themselves welcomed, and even courted, this new wave of foreign investments and incursions.
Except some have proven more beneficial than others. China became the world’s largest copper consumer in 2003, and from 2008-9 it became the dominant global purchaser of a range of other base metals. Its geostrategy involves securing access to critical resources by using the leverage of funding, and developing, infrastructure. But this is primarily self-serving: the infrastructure is built using imported Chinese expertise and labour, and the initiatives are designed to expand its new, 21st-century Silk and Belt Road. Dealings are often opaque, giving rise to concerns about the environmental impact of Chinese-owned mining enterprises in the DRC, Guinea, Namibia, Mali, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among others.
Perhaps even more threatening to political and social stability on the continent is Russia’s expanding footprint. Targeting mainly rare earth elements, it adopts an openly aggressive approach. In March last year, for example, Niger announced the termination of military cooperation with the U.S. Shortly thereafter the government invited Russian companies to mine uranium and other resources in Niger. (Russian mining companies are, to all intents and purposes, controlled by the state.)
In contrast, more likely to benefit sub-Saharan economies is the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor project, a U.S.-backed initiative involving Angola, DRC, Tanzania and Zambia to construct logistics links connecting east to west. Although not per se a mining investment, the infrastructure will materially benefit the industry. Its construction requirements will boost domestic demand for mined outputs, and once complete, the corridor will be a more efficient conduit to global markets.
Broadly, the same is true for the Saudi Arabia-led concept of a mining super-region spanning Africa and the Gulf. Saudi, Qatari and UAE investments into African mining have risen sharply in the last 4-5 years, spurred by these nations’ need to participate in the energy transition, thereby diversifying their economies from reliance on oil.
History mustn’t repeat
Mining has been the bedrock for the development of African economies throughout the history of civilisation. It has also, too often, been the scourge of the continent’s people – a driver of colonialist greed, a source of post-independence corruption, and the root of ongoing environmental and social challenges.
History holds lessons for Africa’s leaders, in whatever sphere they work: they should consider the experiences of the past to inform decisions that affect people today, and to define a better future. For community and political leaders, this may mean tightening policies around the granting of exploration or mining licenses by, for example, tying license conditions to specific, measurable community or infrastructure improvements which must be implemented during the early establishment phase of the mining project, and itemised for progression in specified, subsequent phases.
The continent’s relationship with its abundant mineral wealth continues to evolve. Will today’s mining company leaders reflect on the industry’s history in order to embrace new opportunities responsibly, equitably, and sustainably?
Interested in taking your mining company’s operations into a bold new future? To discuss further, contact me at lafras@iafrica.com