As Commodities Roar, Africa Wants Bigger Slice of Mining Pie
- Zambia hits Canada copper producer with $7.9 billion tax bill
- Congo, Tanzania and Mali already seeking more lucrative deals
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
One by one, the biggest names in African mining are getting squeezed. The tactics might be blunt, but the message is clear: the countries where they operate want a bigger share of the proceeds.
The collapse in commodities through 2015 hobbled some of Africa’s biggest resource economies, stunting growth and leaving budgets short. Since then a recovery in prices has sent the continent’s biggest miners soaring, boosted profits and rewarded shareholders with bumper payouts. But a lack of returns to governments is drawing a backlash from Mali in the Sahara to Tanzania on the Indian Ocean.