ABSTRACT
Mining is at the base of the economy, but the fortunes of the industry have inconsistently been fortuitous for the people of the regions and the countries endowed with mineral wealth. Mineral extraction is concentrated in a handful of traditional mining regions. When measured by value, mining is concentrated in Australia (13.3%), China (12.7%), the former Soviet Union (11%), the USA (4.2%), Europe (3.5%) and Canada (2.6%).1 But mining has continued to expand in the developing world. Twenty-two percent of global mineral extraction now occurs in resource rich developing countries (Chile, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo).2 Importantly, from a development perspective, there is a large number of countries where mining plays a significant role in the economy and where the locations of ore bodies correspond with locations of high development need (Table 3).
