Mining in Africa

Africa is home to about 30 percent of the world’s total mineral reserves and a significant share of the global production of economically important minerals and metals. In many sub-Saharan African countries, the mining sector makes an important contribution to foreign exchange earnings, government revenues, employment, and gross domestic product.

However, many of the mineral-rich economies of Africa risk continuing to be dependent on mining.

The key measure for assessing the dependency of a national economy on extractive resources is the mining contribution index (MCI), developed by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). It is a composite index comprised of four indicators, each capturing different aspects of mining’s contribution to the national economy. According to the latest (2016) edition of the ICMM ranking of 183 national economies by their MCI score, five African countries – DR Congo, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and Botswana – are at the top of the list.