Australia has been enjoying the riches of their mineral resources with a massive boom in iron ore, coal, LNG and other mineral exports. With the rise in prices of these mineral resources and Australia being just on the border of Asia, booming big economies like china and India are looking to increase imports and trade deals with this mineral rich neighbor.
Australia currently is enjoying the boom in the mining industry with new mining projects being announced and many expansions and mergers announced in the last two years due to this profitable sector. It attracts investors ands deals from its Asian neighbor’s because it has already got good infrastructure for steady supply of resources a reliable government and governance and reliable supply of the Mineral exports.
Rise of Mongolia and South Africa mining
South Africa and Mongolia have advantages over Australia where mining is concerned, they not only have access to cheap labour but the resources are said to be much richer according to experts and therefore less refining and processing required before export to other countries giving them an advantage in the resource’s price.
Mining in Mongolia
Mongolia is in the middle of a big economic transformation thanks to some really good mineral riches and government giving more access to outside companies to mine their riches thus making it a new investment hotspot. The country is one of the fastest growing economies of the world with a growth rate of 17 % a year and the Mongolian stock exchange was also the best performer in the world in 2010.
The Oyu Tolgoi copper gold deposit that was first explored unsuccessfully and then abandoned by BHP, is now in Canada’s IVANHOE Mining hands with plans underway for them to develop this ,one of the worlds largest copper –Gold deposits, with a big market for them conveniently right next door (CHINA and INDIA) . TAVAN TOLGOI is another estimated six billion tone coal deposit close to OYU TOLGOI and is said to be the largest underdeveloped coking coal project in the world.
There are other factors though where Mongolia has to step up with their infrastructure struggling to keep up with the pace of economic growth. The rapid economic change has also resulted in their mongolian currency the ‘”tugrik” appreciating quickly hurting other industries like tourism and the cashmere trade which has been a traditional earner for the mongolian people. With this rapid economic change creating class divides due to the perception of the mining wealth not distributed fairly, has brought some uncertainty with frequent regime changes happening in recent years.
Projects in Mongolia
- Ivanhoe mining
- East Asia Minerals Corp
- ENTREE GOLD INC.
- AREVA GROUP
- Aspire Mining Limited
- BHP BILLITON
- Haranga Resources Limited
- Aspire Mining Limited
- MERITUS MINERALS LTD.
South Africa Mining projects surge
South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of platinum, and one of the leading producers of gold, diamonds, base metals and coal
Iraj Abedian, a South African economist has advised the mining ministry, saying South Africa isn’t the only mining power trying to determine how best to ensure its natural resources benefit as many south african people as possible, he said similar debates are going on in Latin America and Australia
Only recently , Colin Barnett in one of his speeches on mining commented that Australia should be well aware of its rivals in the mining industry, and south Africa can very soon become a competitor to selling its mineral resources to china and india at much competitive prices. Mining grew by 47% last year, according to the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines, and had been forecast to grow a further 44% in 2011.
Botswana will lift a moratorium on new prospecting licences for coal, coal-bed methane (CBM) and related minerals by the end of September, a government official said on Friday
Projects in South Africa
- Cortec Mining – Kenya
- RioZim – Zimbabwe ( with RIO TINTO)
- Murray & Roberts (M&R) – Zimbabwe
- Lafarge – Zimbabwe
- Anglo American (De Beers) – Botswana
