China
Africa
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Chinese mining in Africa and its global controversy
Published in Saleem H. Ali, Kathryn Sturman, Nina Collins, Africa’s Mineral Fortune, 2018
Media reports of Chinese mining in Africa since the beginning of the twenty-first century have accused China of many evils, such as plundering the continent’s resources, denying jobs to Africans, harming the environment, and botching infrastructure projects.1 Controversy over Chinese firms has focused especially, but not exclusively, on copper mining in Zambia, the oldest and most developed Chinese investment in African minerals production, which began in the late 1990s.2
Findings, contributions and policy recommendations
Published in Lochner Marais, The Social Impacts of Mine Closure in South Africa, 2023
Chapter 5 looked at the continuation of migrant labour and the mobility associated with mining as a path dependence. Housing programmes that emphasise homeownership and stability ignore continued migrant labour and mobility. The chapter also analysed the international and African literature linking migration patterns, mining development and mine closure. I used the example of copper mining in Zambia to challenge the simplistic linking of mine development, housing, homeownership and modernity. I argued that continued migration and mobility could contribute to development and act as a mitigating factor for households at mine closure. The empirical evidence from the case studies of Emalahleni, Rustenburg and Tsantsabane points to five main findings. First, compared to historical migrant labour patterns, the level of migration is much lower today. This is because of local labour recruitment, the dismantling of the compounds, the promotion of homeownership and the focus on housing choice in government policy. The policy has helped to create place attachment, which reduces migration. Second, despite this policy, migrant labour undeniably continues, most prevalently among the older and less educated mineworkers (Marais et al., 2021c). Consequently, as mines mechanise and the older mineworkers retire, the levels of migrant labour will decrease. However, I believe it will not die out completely. Third, large numbers of people migrate to the mining areas in search of a job or to benefit from the secondary economies around mining. Many of these migrants live in informal or rental housing. Fourth, the evidence shows that migration can contribute to asset-building. When asked to self-rank their wealth, households who had migrated to the mining areas estimated that it had improved substantially over the past 15 years. Finally, homeownership and high levels of housing satisfaction evidently created place attachment, while low levels of housing satisfaction were significantly associated with higher levels of experiencing crime. The question is who is most at risk when a mine closes. I think it is those who are employed on the mine, own a house and are paying off a mortgage. Those who rent may be comparatively unscathed. They will be flexible enough to relocate without risking their asset base.
Land use/cover spatiotemporal dynamics, and implications on environmental and bioclimatic factors in Chingola district, Zambia
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 2022
Jean Moussa Kourouma, Darius Phiri, Andrew T. Hudak, Stephen Syampungani
Chingola district is in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia (Figure 1) and lies between 12°20′ South and 27°50′ East and has an elevation of 1300 m above sea level. The Copperbelt mining area is about 120 km long and 50 km wide, stretching from Konkola in the Northwest to Luanshya in the southeast (Limpitlaw 2001). Since 1928, Copper mining in Zambia has contributed to the economic transformation and has been a major component of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with more than 80% of the country's foreign exchange earnings, over 50% of government revenue, and at least 20% of total employment (Simutanyi 2008; Kabemba 2014). Chingola landscape has been significantly impaired by mining activities, with large areas occupied by overburdened materials, large volumes of waste rocks, and huge open pits, one of the deepest in the world. The climatic condition in Copperbelt Province is characterized by three distinct seasons namely (i) warm a dry season (August to November), (ii) Warm wet season (November to April), and (iii) cold dry season (May to August). The district lies in Region III of the agro-ecological zone, and the average rainfall ranges from 1000 mm to 1200 mm, while the mean temperatures range from 10 °C to 37 °C (DPU 2019). The prevailing winds are mostly south-easterly in the dry season and north-westerly during the rainy season. Soils of Copperbelt province, according to the FAO classification belong to the group of ferrasols (acric, orthic or rhodic ferrasols) (FAO-UNESCO 1997). The principal soil-forming process in the area is rock weathering; hence, climatic factors influence the rate and depth of weathering and soil formation. Chingola mineral ores are hosted by arenites and argillites of the Lower Roan Subgroup with a geological formation belonging to the Phanerozoic Lufilian Fold Belt (LFB). The LFB forms part of a series of linked Pan-African orogenic belts fringing the Congo and Kaapvaal-Zimbabwe craton of Southern Africa (Selley 2005; McGowan 2006). The major vegetation type is miombo woodlands. The dominant species include Brachystegia spp., Isoberlinia angolensis, and Julbernardia paniculata.