Mining to profit Africa’s people

Mineral-rich countries in Africa enjoyed a mining boom between 2002 and 2007 as metal and oil prices nearly tripled. Companies competed furiously for new mines to meet growing world demand. As a result, a number of African nations found themselves in a much stronger bargaining position with foreign investors, who previously were able to demand—and get—huge breaks before they would invest. Now governments could strike better deals with new investors, and even renegotiate old mining contracts. “We just want to make sure that we are getting the best [deal] for our deposits,” Alhaji Abubakarr Jalloh, Sierra Leone’s minister of mines, said in September 2007.