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Since 2003, demand for mineral resources has been bolstered by growth in emerging countries. In Africa, it opens a «window of opportunity» that can make its growth sustainable. The exploitation of its mineral resources must comply with the principles of good political, social, economic and environmental governance and the involvement of the international community and donors remains essential for this.
In 2008, the global production of mineral resources stood at USD 463 billion -up 100% on 2005 (Figure 1). The recent financial and economic crisis has only caused a slight slow-down in this trend. Indeed, the Raw Materials Group1 (RMG) estimates the total value of global production in 2010 at roughly USD 430 billion -this is a new record, and yet it does not include the spectacular rise in mining raw mate-rial prices. For example, on 12 November 2010, the prices of tin (USD 27,500 a ton), copper (USD 8,966 a ton) and aluminum (USD 2,500 a ton) reached or exceeded the levels of the end of the summer of 2008 (AWPress, 2010).
The sharp rise in demand for mineral raw materials since the early 21st century can be mainly put down to growth and urbanization in emerging countries -particularly in China, which has become a key player in the global mining market. The country is the world’s largest importer of nickel, copper, aluminum, lead, tin, etc. It is also the undisputed leader in the production of 26 mineral substances (Bateman Beijing Axis, 2010; Bureau de Recherche Géologique et Minière – BRGM, 2010).
With prices once again on the rise, global investments for exploration have started to pick up again in 2010 after a sharp fall in 2008-2009 and are back to the record level reached in 2005, USD 8 billion (Figure 2). Major corporates’ exploration budgets are now on a par with levels posted prior to the crisis. China also wants to invest USD 4.2 billion in exploration by 2015 in order to reduce its dependence on imports (Reuters, 2010).
Mining potential under-exploited
Given that the mining sector has extremely favorable development prospects, Africa enjoys a particularly interesting “window of opportunity”. It holds 30% of global reserves of raw mineral materials and is already a major producer of a large number of resources. For example, in 2005, Africa produced 77% of platinum, 56% of cobalt, 46% of diamonds and 21% of gold (Performance Consulting, 2007).
Mining activities are mainly conducted by Western companies – with the notable exception of South African companies –, with private or public capital. Since 2002, and more significantly since 2005, companies from emerging countries have become serious competitors for access to African resources.2 In addition to the major players, a whole host of small independent operators – registered and listed in Australia, Canada or the United Kingdom – are scaling up their exploration campaigns.
And yet in 2009, Africa only accounted for 15% of exploration budgets (excluding uranium) for nonferrous metals. This share is slightly higher than Australia (13%) and lower than Canada (16%) – Metals Economic Group – MEG, 2010.3 Collier and Venables (2008) highlight the fact that the average wealth of Africa’s mineral resources per km² of land is roughly USD 25,000, against USD 125,000 for developed countries where mineral resources have been exploited for much longer. It is consequently highly likely that the value of Africa’s mineral resources is underestimated.
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