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Review of African Political EconomyVol. 37, No. 126, December 2010, 547–548Downloaded By: [Bush, Ray][University of Leeds] At: 11:04 14 December 2010BOOK REVIEWMining in Africa: regulation and development,edited by Bonnie Campbell, London,Pluto Books; Ottawa, International DevelopmentResearch Centre; and Uppsala,Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2009, 288 pp.,£25.00 (paperback), ISBN 9780745329390This is a timely and important collection ofessays edited by a foremost commentatoron mining and its consequences in Africa.Bonnie Campbell has assembled a radicalcritique of the strategy of the internationalfinancial institutions regarding the extractivessector, with case studies of Ghana, Guinea,Mali, Madagascar and Democratic Republicof Congo (DRC), providing for an Englishaudience exceptionally rigorous analysis ofsome important Francophone states. Theanalysis goes beyond the usually dominantand rather fatuous characterisations of the‘resource curse’ – the catchphrase used tosummarise economic underachievement ofmineral-rich economies. Instead, the casestudies in this collection highlight theimportance of historical detail, the necessityof characterising relations of power betweenstates, companies and donors without losingsight of miners, mining communities andthe failures of resource availability topromote sustainable and equitable growth.The essays come at what Campbell callsa ‘turning point’ regarding African miningregimes. She and her contributors havepainstakingly and with forensic analysis,explored the transformations that havetaken place, and the gaps that exist betweenmining codes and actual outcomes ofmining, the lack of benefits that accrue toAfrican states and the challenges to stateauthority that emerge from unrealisedexpectations and promises made by internationalfinancial institutions (IFIs) and companies.The book explores the consequencesof the ways in which mining companies andthe World Bank have used codes, regulatoryframeworks, chidings over corruption, theabsence of transparency and ‘weak governance’to challenge the fundamental legitimacyof African states. Campbell and hercontributors argue that the African state haseffectively had its role redefined and its institutionalcapacity reduced. Probably mostimportant of all, the book demonstrateshow any notion that mining promotes developmenthas disappeared. These essays highlightthat donor and mining companyinfatuation with good governance andaccountability ‘run the danger of treatingthe symptoms of a particular “politics ofmining” and not the relations of influenceand power which makes such dysfunctionalprocesses possible’ (p. 3).Mining in Africa uses as its benchmarksthe recommendations of the World BankGroup’s Extractive Industries Review(EIR). The book notes scathingly that therecommendations of that review, not leastthat the World Bank should effectivelyimprove conditions of the poor, protecthuman rights and defend indigenouspeoples and the environment in miningareas, have been ignored by the WorldBank Group (WBG). Campbell is diplomaticat times, indicating that the World Bank’sresponse to the EIR ‘was a pale rejoinder towhat had been proposed’ (p. 4) but she andher collaborators also overwhelmingly documentthat the mining regimes adopted andpromoted by the WBG condition ways inwhich (under)development is sustained andISSN 0305-6244 print/ISSN 1740-1720 onlineDOI: 10.1080/03056244.2010.530956http://www.informaworld.com
Downloaded By: [Bush, Ray][University of Leeds] At: 11:04 14 December 2010548 Book reviewreproduced by the extractives sector as it iscurrently organised.The case studies of Ghana (Akabzaa),Mali (Belem), Madagascar (Sarrasin) andDemocratic Republic of Congo (Mazalto)highlight the detail of mining sectorreforms, promoted and often directed bythe WBG, with the rhetoric of improvingliving conditions, promoting developmentand transparency, yet the outcomes entrencha development model intended to attractforeign direct investment (FDI). And it isFDI which disables development, underminingstate authority and policy space.In exploring the detail of country extractivesector reforms in the diverse mix ofcases, this book is a powerful document ofthe need for a radical and dramatic reformof the extractives sector. It disproves theidea that companies have embracedmeaningful corporate responsibility, anddemonstrates that the development modelof externalisation of African economiesmerely serves the interests of foreigncapital and some local elites, while exacerbatingpoverty and inequality. The bookargues the need for African states andmining communities to create and empowerreform of the extractives sector and therewas certainly an opportunity in thiscollection, not always used, to highlight theimportance of local community strugglesagainst companies and states as locallivelihoods became transformed and peopledispossessed of land and opportunity.The African Union (AU) is in theprocess of embracing its own vision forAfrican mining (AU 2008) but unfortunatelyAfrican governments remain, itseems, too wedded to donor-driven governanceagendas as the panacea for miningsector reform. There seems little energyfor active reformulation of strategies forcontrol and regulation of mining companiesbut the vision document, AU debate and theinternational study group established toexplore policy in the extractives sectormay promote a more radical policy initiative.This is certainly needed.Mining transnational corporations(TNCs) are in many respects ‘outriders’ forcapitalism. There may only be five miningand quarrying TNCs in the top 100 companieslisted in the 2009 World Investment Report,but they held more than US$250 billion inassets and more than US$126 billion in salesin 2008. As a proportion of global FDIflows, investment in extractive industriesmay also be relatively small but miningTNC influence is disproportionate to theirsize. The profitability of extraction and salesof processed metals and precious stones isextremely high. One estimate was that for80% of the world metal mining industry, bycapitalisation, net profits rose from US$4.4billion in 2002 to US$67 billion in 2006 –the increase in profit between 2005 and2006, following the spike in commodityprices was an extraordinary 64% – this translatedinto an increase of 1423% comparedwith 2002 levels with a return on equity of33% compared with 26% in 2005 (PricewaterhouseCoopers2007, pp. 3, 5). Mining inAfrica provides important building blocks toconfront the rhetoric of the WBG, miningTNCs and donors that promote FDI as theonly promoter of capital accumulation inAfrica. African resource-dependent statesneed now to embrace the importance of thecritical analysis to help deepen a vision formining that is a real alternative to the hegemonyof the IFI and TNCs.ReferencesAU, 2008. African mining vision 2050. AfricanUnion Conference of Ministers Responsiblefor Mineral Resources Development, 1stOrdinary Session 13–17 October 2008.Mimeo.PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2007. Metals andmining: review of global trends in themining industry. Available from http://www.pwc.com/za/en/publications/global-trends-inmining-industry-2007.jhtml[Accessed 6 July2010].Ray BushUniversity of Leeds, UKEmail: r.c.bush@leeds.ac.uk# 2010, Ray Bush
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