Introduction

This edited volume brings together some of the papers that were presented
at a conference organised in Accra, Ghana by Third World Network-Africa
(TWN-Africa) and the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) in
November 2008, on the theme: ‘Beyond Foreign Direct Investment in
Africa’s Mining Sector’. The conference brought together activists from
community groups and NGOs, officials from African government institutions
as well as intergovernmental bodies and academics to discuss the state
of mining on the continent and the experience of two decades of mining sector
policy dominated by strategies for attracting foreign direct investment.
The event provided a good opportunity to share mining experiences and
perspectives from across Africa as well as from outside on the impact a
reformed mining economy has had on Africa over the past two decades.
There was significant consensus among delegates inter alia that large-scale
mining is contributing minimally to African economies, indigenous artisanal
miners needed to be empowered, and that mining contracts – and perhaps
more specifically, royalty agreements – are in need of renegotiation.
Delegates critically reflected upon the terms under which multinationals had
gained access to, and were operating in Africa’s mining sector; what the perpetual
expansion of the large-scale mining economy has meant for the continent’s
inhabitants; and, with the benefit of hindsight, which paths the continent’s
newly reformed mining economies – Mozambique, The Democratic
Republic of Congo and Liberia – should embark upon. The range of participants,
drawn from many different organizations, ensured rich and engaging
debates.

The conference took place against the backdrop of the then fast developing
global financial and economic crisis and the resultant downturn in the
prices of most of Africa’s mineral and metal exports. The decline in prices
did not only signal the end of the longest price boom in recent memory but
also intensified debates across Africa about the balance sheet of two decades of mining sector liberalisation and the consequent huge inflow of foreign
direct investment into the continent’s mining sector. A month before the
Accra conference, the first African Union Conference of African Ministers
responsible for mineral resources development, held in Addis Ababa, adopted
a Declaration which summarised some of the concerns governments had
about the limited contributions of the mining sector to the continent’s development.
The Declaration, among other points, underscored “the need for
greater local beneficiation and value addition of Africa’s mineral resources
and the enhancement of its industrial base through mineral sector upstream,
downstream and side-stream linkages”.

In total, eight papers are contained in this volume. The first four papers
explore various financial aspects of mining sector reform in sub-Saharan
Africa. In the first paper, Bonnie Campbell provides a detailed historical
overview of the mining sector reform experience in the region. She examines
the impacts of the earliest mining sector reforms implemented, whether
different actions have been taken in later reforms, and what options exist for
the future. The author argues that reforms made in the past have had little
positive effect on Africa’s populace, and that it is imperative that other
countries also looking to reform their mining economies learn from these
experiences.

The second paper, by John Lungu and Sumbye Kapena, offers a glimpse
of the conditions which led so many African countries to reform their mining
sectors. The paper focuses on the case of Zambia, providing a historical
overview of mining policies in three periods of the country’s history:
1928-1967, when all the country’s mining companies were privatelyowned;
a second period, 1968-2000, during which mines were state-owned;
and a third period, 2001-present, during which mines have been re-privatized.
Abdulai Darimani builds upon this analysis in the third paper,
describing the mining regime in place in Africa, and revisiting how liberalization
has triggered a rapid proliferation of transnational mining companies
on the continent. The author furthermore – and importantly – investigates
how this activity has impacted rural communities, concluding that liberalization
has inflicted more harm than good. Sarah Bracking concludes this
section by critiquing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
(EITI), an intervention which aims to bring together stakeholders to defeat
the ‘resource curse’ perceived by some to be plaguing African and other
developing countries. She concludes, however, that the rewards are too
small for inviting extractive MNCs to assist ‘development’ – that it is perhaps
better to explore alternatives.