Conclusion

The development of gold mining in Africa over the last three decades has been a story of change to artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM) away from large scale mining (LSM). This is not to suggest that there has been no expansion of LSM. This sector has certainly grown and spread across the continent. The decrease in sovereign risk of mining production that accompanied the end of the apartheid era wars and the heightened investment security arrangements in the post Structural Adjustment Programs has resulted in gold production being dispersed to virtually all parts of the continent. The most significant change that has occurred has not been geographic but rather has been the direct result of changes in the nature and technology of gold production. Gold production was once the sole purview of large mining transnationals. This was largely true even outside South Africa. Prior to the 1990s, small scale mining was largely illegal throughout most parts of the continent because governments sought to assure that large scale mines provided the desperately needed taxation revenue for the economic transformation that they all sought. Aside from taxation issues, the issue of industrialisation in Africa is never far from the lips of policymakers. It is an area replete with policy pronouncements about the direction of industrial policy but the reality is that African countries have done almost nothing to make use of the mining activities to diversify their economic base away from mining. Irrespective of what direction Africa takes with regard to gold, whether it is the development of backward or forward linkages, certain developments are necessary. These relate to competitiveness and the creation of economic structures that are robustly governed and of such an order of magnitude as to make Africa a continent which is more than a market and a source of raw materials but a potential location for investment. At present, the political and economic conditions do not yet exist for the transformation of the continent from that of a largely impoverished consumer to that of a competitive producer.