The African Union’s Africa Mining Vision (AMV) recognises that the key issue for development is the formulation and implementation of workable industrialisation strategies based on the continent’s unique strengths, rather than the emulation of strategies that may have been effective in other contexts beyond. The Vision claims that ‘many states now agree that most of what they wish to achieve through ownership in mining projects can be achieved through the regulatory process or policy and fiscal instruments.

Southern Africa is endowed with lucrative mineral resources – such as diamonds, gold, copper, coal, platinum, and uranium – and some countries possess large mineral reserves. The region also has a legacy of colonial or settler regimes – regimes that often privileged the interests of mining companies over the welfare of local inhabitants and the protection of the environment. A rich mineral endowment can be a major asset in the quest for inclusive and sustainable development. Yet deficiencies in mineral governance have fuelled the criticism that the mining sector is an enclave that at best contributes little to development and at worst does substantial social and environmental harm. Governments in Southern Africa face the challenge of better exploiting the developmental potential of their mineral resources.

Regimes around natural resource governance are of recent vintage, germinating in the inhospitable environments of civil wars, war-lordism, and state collapse. The targets of these regimes have overwhelmingly been African states, as well-intentioned international actors have tried to restrain the behavior of both governments and international actors in extractive industries. Over time, however, regimes of restraint are incrementally transforming into universal, global, and normalized regimes of responsibility. This transformation is still contested and may take decades to take a definitive shape.

To reverse the ‘paradox of plenty’ characteristic of many mineral-rich societies in Africa – whereby countries with the most natural resources are often the poorest and worst governed, two major changes are needed. First, the process of creating tax regimes and mechanisms of tax payment need to become transparent. This transparency requires equal opportunities for citizens to monitor payments, receipts and utilisation of mineral tax revenues.

Conflicts between States are the results of the colonial carving. Many of the conflicts between States in Africa were caused by claims of border limits because of the vagueness of borders due to colonization, the presence of a large ethnic group on both sides of the borders, as well as the presence of natural resources lying along these borders.

Africa needs to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome in its dealings with China, and build local capacity to meet the challenges posed by this burgeoning relationship. As many observers have pointed out, China has a clear strategy for Africa, but Africa has no strategy for China. Greater co-ordination at the African Union (AU) could ensure that African values, interests and developmental objectives are factored into interactions with China.

The Raw Materials Initiative (RMI) is a European Union (EU) project to secure and protect its access to strategic raw materials, which are critical for economic growth, continued development – and modern life in general. The EU must open up the debate and engage African countries on its RMI. The RMI will not succeed without an international consensus on how to deal with export restrictions that serve various objectives of exporting countries.