While mining has an important contribution to make, over the past thirty years the growth of African mining production has lagged behind that of other regions. Significant mining growth has taken place in only a handful of African countries. Mining development has been constrained by insufficient mineral exploration and investment. Although Africa accounts for twenty one percent of world land mass and its mineral resources are known to be large, the continent today attracts only about five percent of the exploration and capital expenditures of the world mining industry. This under-performance of Africa's mining sector and consequent loss of economic opportunity prompted this study.
Mining is a global industry.
The paucity of exploration and capital expenditures in Africa is not caused by a worldwide absence of demand for minerals or lack of investment funds. Mining is not a declining industry. Demand projections indicate that future consumption growth rates of most major metals and minerals will continue to be positive and will equal or exceed the growth rates of the past two decades. Mining investments are being made successfully elsewhere in the world. So far, Africa has failed to mobilize the necessary risk capital and development funds to match that progress.