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

establishment of sovereignty over their natural resources, for the
right to independently develop and utilize them in their own interests
is becoming ever more resolute and effective. It is waged in
various forms and at various levels: national, regional and international.
This struggle is facilitated by the changes in the character of external
economic relations of the developing countries caused by the
collapse of the world colonial system and the establishment of economic
relations various countries of the multipolar world. These
processes were accelerated recently by the hardest global economic
crisis since the Great Depression of 1930s. The crisis significantly
reduced the financial basis for prospecting and investment in African
and Russian mining. On the other hand the global demand for
many types of mineral resources remained relatively high due to two
factors: emergence of new consumers (primarily China, India, Brazil
and other) and continued search for safer investment by the operators
on financial markets.
During the crisis, the emerging big economies, first of all
China turned into locomotives of foreign investment into African
and Russian extractive industries. After the most acute phase of the
crisis was over the old transnational mining corporations gradually
resumed investing in some areas (off-shore oil and gas production,
rare metals etc). The other major sources of exploration financing
in Africa are governments, multi-lateral agencies (such as UNDP
and EEC), bilateral agencies (based in France, UK, Germany and
Sweden).
The government sector in most African countries is poorlyequipped
both technically and financially to carry out effective exploration,
and prospectors and small-workers have limited capabilities.
Only in a handful of instances (for example Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Ethiopia and Mali) has multi-national and bilateral assistance
been effective in finding important new reserves or ore bodies. To
achieve a significant upturn in exploration, the region will need to
encourage private investment from major international mining companies,
a growing group of technically competent "juniors", venture
capitalists, and joint-ventures between these groups. 35
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