L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

In this respect African and Russian private owners of extractive
industries have a lot in common. The differences usually lie in the
sphere of cultural, educational or psychological background. But on
the whole, the lack of interest in the consequences of continual depletion
of their nations of necessary natural or financial resources is
characteristic to the majority of African and Russian owners of export-oriented
mining enterprises. Many opinion polls show that they
are more inclined to consider themselves to be World Citizens,
rather than national.
The third component of the Russian and African natural resource
bases is formed of the types of geological resources that
are critical for development but are acutely in deficit. For Russia
these are minerals much needed by industry: bauxites, titanium,
zirconium, and chromium and manganese ore. Consumption of
these minerals strongly depends on their import. Their production
meets only a minor part of the demand for them. At the same
time, Russia exports their derived products: aluminum, titanium
and titanium sponge, and ferrochrome produced mainly from imported
raw materials.
Africa as a whole is in this respect more self-sufficient than Russia,
but the situation changes dramatically as soon as we start analyzing
the situation on the country to country basis. The requirements
of individual national industries there are of course lower than
in Russia. But nearly two thirds of African countries are net importers
of oil and petroleum products.
The mineral resources of Africa have not been fully charted by
prospecting. But even the data available testify to the presence of
great mineral deposits on the continent. Being rich in various mineral
deposits, Africa, however, remains a most insignificant consumer
of these raw materials. The bulk of the mineral raw materials
mined in Africa are exported, satisfying one-third of the requirements
of industrially advanced countries.
Quite naturally, like Russia, the African countries do not want
to reconcile themselves with the role of a raw-material appendage
of industrialized countries, a role which has been assigned them
under the current global economic model. Their struggle for the
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