mining

Sanctions Stay – All Signs Point to Mugabe

Lifting the many sanctions burdening Zimbabwe is clearly essential for the nation’s growth. Importers would be able to re-develop their once bountiful export market, private enterprise would be promoted to flourish, the agricultural and mining sectors can regroup and work diligently without threat of corruption and communities can be given the resources to fight the [...]

China Makes Play for Felix Resources

Mining Daily’s Paul Hayes has issued a report on China making its presence felt in the Australian coal market with state-owned Yanzhou Coal Mining making a $3.5 billion takeover bid for Felix Resources.
Both Felix and Yanzhou have announced trading halts as the companies await the outcome of the potential change of control transaction.
If approved, the deal would represent one [...]

Corporate Foreign Policy Speech in Helsinki

Robert Amsterdam’s speech on corporate foreign policy in Helsinki, Finland.

Angola-’One Vast Building Site’

Foreign Policy magazine has recently published an advertising supplement which I’ve found to be fairly factual amidst the odd tidbit of propaganda. I’ve decided to omit the portions I felt weren’t entirely factual, but include the majority of the piece, as I truly believe Angola will be a developing nation to watch, given the overwhelming [...]

Africa Inc.

The economic climate in South Africa was jostled to an even further degree as last week’s Presidential election lurched in to the midnight hour. With the failing to achieve a two-thirds majority victory, the opposition (and indeed foreign investors) may claim some small triumph, but in fact, this could adversely affect domestic spending due to [...]

Rock Bottom

Illegal gold miners in Zimbabwe are also victims of the Cholera epidemic that has claimed the lives of thousands in Zimbabwe, and although perchance curbing in its severity, is by no means, as Mr. Mugabe so eloquently put it, ‘arrested‘. The political risks for investment are more than clear, and reflect the lies continuing to [...]

Tangible Aid to Africa

Its become common practice and a rather dynamically growing belief that foreign aid to Africa should be met with skepticism. In certain instances (concessional loans and grants from foreign governments lacking transparency), this is of course true. However, there are those initiatives, certain not-for-profit organizations that not only have a direct benefit to those on [...]

Lessons from Chile

CFP Contributor David Harris offers a unique perspective on a Chilean example - here, he offers a precedence of what not to do in anticipation of an economic downturn regarding mining exploration.
Although Chile has immense geological potential, lower political risk, and is among the more promising emerging markets in Latin America, its mining industry suffers [...]

Mongolian Potential

Slowly but surely there has been a pattern of documented growing investment in Mongolia. Just this morning, China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, the nation’s top coal producer, stated it was negotiating with the Mongolian government to purchase a coal mine in the country. Shenhua is among several miners including BHP Billiton and Peabody Energy that have expressed [...]

Trade Barriers and Global Mining

With a background in mining exploration, Corporate Foreign Policy contributor David Harris discusses government intervention in commodity markets to maintain economic competitiveness and speaks out on the need for a privatized mining sector to have an opportunity to thrive in a fair and healthy environment:
As the world’s developing nations continue to industrialize, global consumption of raw [...]