Le jeudi 25 avril 2013
6時、薄曇、24℃、60％。12時になっても晴れ間が出ない。寒い。
野村芳太郎監督『五瓣の椿』を昨日、黒澤明監督『悪い奴ほどよく眠る』を一昨日鑑賞。何回見ても面白い作品だ。
RDCコンゴ駐留国連平和維持軍の新しく安保理で承認された戦闘部隊のトップが23日（火）北キヴ州ゴマ市に赴任した。タンザニア軍のムワキボルワJames Mwakibolwa将軍が指揮をとる。南ア軍が部隊の指揮をとるのかとおもったがタンザニアにまかせる。戦闘部隊は3069名。これでいよいよRDCコンゴ東部の武装強盗集団狩りに出るのか。
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| 国連のヘリコプター |
アフリカ大陸で鉱山開発をしている外国勢というと先ず頭に浮かぶのが中国そして米国であろう。中国はアフリカ大陸に戦略的に進出している。資源確保が目的だ。
アフリカのどこの国に行っても中国人の姿を見る。ルブンバシに直接入ってくるエチオピア航空、ケニア航空、南ア航空などの飛行機の乗客の大部分が中国人である。
カタンガ州で最大の鉱山会社は、今やRDCコンゴ国営鉱山会社ジェカミンではなく、米系の「テンケ・フングルーメ社」（フリーポート・マクモラン社）である。
中国、米国と同様にアフリカ大陸をほぼ2分していた旧宗主国英国系とフランス系の鉱山会社も強い。
しかし、見落としているのがカナダの存在である。カナダは鉱業セクターの雄でもある。2011年の数字であるが、カナダはアフリカ39カ国に155企業が進出している。カナダ企業のアフリカにおける総資産は308億ドルに上るのである。特にザンビア、モーリタニア、南ア、マダガスカル、RDCコンゴ、ガーナ、タンザニア、マリ、セネガル、エリトリア等である。
RDCコンゴでは僕のいるキプシ市（ルブンバシから南西に30km、ザンビアとの国境の町）でアイバンホーIvanhoe社がRDCコンゴの子会社キコKico社を通じてジェカミン社から採掘権その他を取得して本格的なアフリカ進出を果たしている。ただ、Ivanhoe社（本社バンクーバー）が去年8月リオ・ティント社（本社ロンドン）の子会社化されてしまっているので純カナダ系とはいえなくなってきているかもしれないが。実際にキプシに来ているのは南ア人のマネイジャーたちである。僕はこのアイバンホー（リオ・ティント）プロジェクトに日本が参加することを期待している。
（フランス語によるカナダのアフリカ進出記事の元の記事は英語、英語の記事を後段に載せる）。
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| キプシの街の入り口にある銅精錬工場 このタワーがキプシの象徴 この工場もジェカミンの手を離れ キコ社（アイバンホー/リオ・ティント）のものになった。 |
Le Canada se paye la
plus grande part des mines en Afrique
Les sociétés
étrangères s'affrontent dans le secteur minier de l'Afrique. Un pays se
démarque et tend à dominer le secteur: le Canada
Dans l'esprit de
beaucoup de gens, les pays présents sur le continent africain sont soit la
Chine, les Etats-unis ou les deux anciennes puissances coloniales la France ou
l'Angleterre. On pense naturellement à
la Chine qui, par sa présence exponentielle, a permis la création d'un nouveau
concept: la Chinafrique. Qui penserait au Canada? Un pays très éloigné de
l'histoire africaine, et dont la population représente un dixième de celle de
la Chine. Détrompez vous! Le Canada est l'un des principaux acteurs dans le
secteur minier en Afrique et peut-être le plus important, relaie le site Think
Africa Press.
«Nous sommes à bien
des égards l'un des plus grands joueurs [en Afrique]», a déclaré Pierre
Gratton, président et chef de la direction de l'Association minière du Canada.
Dans le secteur
minier, d'autres pays sont en concurrence directe avec le Canada: Royaume-Uni,
France, Australie, Chine et Afrique du Sud. Selon l'étude la plus récente (2011),
155 entreprises canadiennes travaillent dans 39 pays africains. Leurs actifs
combinés ont totalisé plus de 30,8 milliards de dollars. Et c'est l'Afrique de
l'est qui concentre la plus grande partie de l'activité minière du Canada.
Par ordre décroissant,
les partenaires miniers les plus importants du Canada sont la Zambie, la
Mauritanie, l'Afrique du Sud, Madagascar, République démocratique du Congo, le
Ghana, la Tanzanie, le Mali, le Sénégal et l'Erythrée.
（以下英語の記事）
How Canada
Dominates African Mining
Foreign companies
from a range of countries compete in Africa's mining sector. But according to a
number of measures, those from one country dominate: Canada.
18 APRIL
2013 - 9:42AM | BY TRAVIS LUPICK
When asked
to think about foreign mining contracts in Africa, many people’s minds will
jump to China, or perhaps one of the former colonial powers such as the UK or
France. China’s construction and agricultural projects in particular are at the
core of the ‘Africa Rising’ narrative, as are the Asian giant’s more than 1.3
billion consumers.
Some
readers might be surprised therefore to learn that Canada – with a population
less than one-tenth that of China’s and geographically about as far from Africa
as one can get – has quietly grown to become one of the largest stakeholders in
Africa’s mining sector – possibly the largest, depending on how you quantify
it.
A grizzly
competitor
“We
certainly are one of the biggest players [in Africa] in several respects”,
Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, told
Think Africa Press. “It’s a largely undeveloped, unexplored continent, which
makes it interesting….A new frontier. Our industry is often one of the first to
go where no-one has gone before.”
Countries
competing with Canada in African mining include the UK, France, Australia,
China, and South Africa, but ranking their relative dominance is all but
impossible; countries measure and declare assets and investments using
different methodologies and with varying levels of transparency. However,
documents provided by Natural Resources Canada seem to portray a relatively
accurate picture of the country’s activities in Africa.
According
to these documents, in 2011 – the most recent year for which statistics are
available – 155 Canadian companies were operating in 39 African countries.
Their combined assets* totalled more than $30.8 billion, up from $26.5 billion
in 2010.
Canadian
firms were most active in East Africa, with $12.7 billion on the ground in
2011. West Africa came next with $9.9 billion invested, followed by Southern
Africa ($4.9 billion), Central Africa ($3.4 billion), and North Africa ($36.7
million).
Ranked in
descending order by value of assets, Canada’s most important mining partners in
2011 were: Zambia, Mauritania, South Africa, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Ghana, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal, and Eritrea.
While
Canada is a major force in African mining, current projects on the continent
actually only comprise a minority of Canadian companies’ operations overseas.
According to Natural Resources Canada, assets in Africa accounted for just
21.5% of Canadian mining companies’ cumulative assets abroad. The majority are
in Latin America.
Taking
stock
However,
those numbers describe just the interests of companies headquartered in Canada.
Expand the picture to take into account other country’s projects financed on
Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the TSX Venture, and Canada’s role in
mining around the world grows even more substantial.
According
to a December 2012 report drafted by the TSX, during the first nine months of
2012, 89% of all global mining equity financings were done on the TSX and TSX
Venture (up one point from 2011). The document states that only 7% of mining
projects traded on the TSX are located in Africa, but that does not diminish
the fact that a lot of money for mining sites in Africa is going through the
exchange in Toronto.
“There are
approximately 315-20 listed [mining] companies that are not African but are
doing business in Africa”, says Bruce Shapiro, president of Mine Africa, a
Canada-based business and marketing company. “Of those, over 50% are Canadian.
So in terms of the companies that we would normally look at, we certainly
dominate that market.”
Shapiro
explains that what sets Canada apart is the level of access to finance
available on the TSX, where there’s a tradition of an appetite for risk.
“Capital, at the moment, is impossible to raise”, he remarks, in reference to
struggling developed economies. “But if it wasn’t, it would be relatively easy
in Canada, compared to some other markets.”
Shapiro
notes that Canada has vast deposits of mineral wealth within its own borders, a
long history mining those deposits, and is now taking this expertise to Africa.
Looking to the future, he continues, prospectors tend to be moving either into
less-explored low-risk areas with stable governments or high-risk regions that
tempt miners with the potential of very high rewards.
Rocky
relations?
But in
addition to a favourable private sector, mining companies are also attracted to
Canada for a less-flattering reason, suggests Jamie Kneen, a coordinator for
advocacy group MiningWatch Canada.
“There are
hardly any Canadian laws of international application”, he says. “If something
goes wrong, people may be able to sue in Canada, but that's not entirely clear
- it hasn’t worked yet.”
Kneen
explains that while countries such as the US have passed domestic laws that
govern corporations' activities abroad, Canada has not done the same. The
current Conservative government has actually voted down several attempts to increase
accountability abroad.
One of
those attempts to regulate the mining sector overseas was initiated by Member
of Parliament John McKay. In April 2009, he proposed a bill that aimed to
increase corporate accountability in developing countries, but to no avail.
“It died a
glorious death”, McKay recalls on the phone from the Canadian capital of
Ottawa. “They [mining lobbyists] don’t play to lose.”
He notes
that without such legislation, international corporations based in Canada are
left to self-regulate their conduct and adhere to the domestic laws of the
countries in which they operate as they see fit.
“We have no
ability to tell any mining company what to do, when to do, where to do, or how
to do it”, McKay emphasises. In much of Africa, that creates potential for
abuse. “Canadian companies are venturing into areas they’ve never ventured
before”, he says. “There doesn’t seem to be any hesitation to go into conflict
zones and areas where you know darn well you’re going to have some difficulties
of some kind.”
Indeed, as
Pierre Gratton from The Mining Association of Canada notes, Africa’s mining
sector is expected to continue to expand, and Canadian interests on the
continent to grow with it.
“There’s a
recognition that this is something that we do well here, that we’re good at
mining”, he says. “It’s one of the exceptions to the Canadian economy – we tend
not to necessarily dominate sectors, but in mining, we do.”
*Natural
Resources Canada defines mining companies’ cumulative “assets” as “calculated at
acquisition, construction or fabricating costs, and includes capitalized
exploration and development costs, non-controlling interest, and excludes
liquid assets, cumulative depreciation [sic], and write-off.”
Think
Africa Press welcomes inquiries regarding the republication of its articles. If
you would like to republish this or any other article for re-print, syndication
or educational purposes, please contact: editor@thinkafricapress.com
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