PUBLICATION

Global Business Reports

AUTHORS

Catherine Howe, Lindsay Davis, Lina Jafari, Emma Johannes, Carl-Johan Karlsson

THE OFFICIAL MINING IN AFRICA COUNTRY INVESTMENT GUIDE (MACIG) 2019

February 05, 2019

Overwhelmingly, the research conducted throughout 2018 to produce this year’s Mining in Africa Country Investment Guide (MACIG) suggests an air of cautious optimism among the continent’s mining community heading into 2019. Paradoxically, that stability has been driven by a broad trend across Africa towards diversification away from the mining industry; after years of struggling in the face of poor commodity prices and a drought in mining investment, miners are finally experiencing a serendipitous collision of continental cohesion and favorable global conditions. Within this context, observable trends in different regions beg particular attention. Southern Africa’s maturing jurisdictions are largely focused on the task of achieving local content and beneficiation. Despite ongoing conflict and political instability, Central and East African nations remain important in investment discussions, and in West Africa, the region’s gleaming gold potential makes it an attractive proposition for investors across the globe. Notwithstanding an uptick in activity — which is particularly evident among the continent’s long-suffering service providers — ongoing public debates between mining companies and governments continue to center on how best to balance national development objectives and investor interests. 

RELATED INTERVIEWS MORE INTERVIEWS

SOJUFISC is a Senegalese law firm focused on supporting business in natural resources.
WorleyParsons is an engineering company that provides project delivery and consulting services to the resources and energy sectors, and complex process industries.
Petrosen is a state-run hydrocarbons firm in Senegal.
LABOSOL- AGTS is a Senegalese law firm focused on business in the geotechnical engineering space.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

MACIG 2025 - Mining in Africa Country Investment Guide

It is said that mining is a patient industry. Current demand projections are not. Demand for minerals deemed ‘critical’ is set to increase almost fourfold by 2030, according to the UN. Demand for nickel, cobalt and lithium is predicted to double, triple and rise ten-fold, respectively, between 2022 and 2050. The world will need to mine more copper between 2018 and 2050 than it has mined throughout history. 2050 is also the deadline to curb emissions before reaching a point of ‘no return.’ The pace of mineral demand and the consequences of not meeting it force the industry to act fast and take more risks. Mining cannot afford to be a patient industry anymore. The scramble for supply drives miners back to geological credentials, and therefore to places like the African Central Copperbelt.

MORE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

MACIG

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