ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the issues of mineral economics as they relate to Africa. The European conquest of Africa had its historical culmination with the Berlin Conference of 1884 that formalised the scramble for Africa and the establishment of extractive institutions that regarded Africa as a source of raw materials for European industries. Most African exports to the West are raw mineral ores and concentrates whose prices have been kept low by wars since African armies need to sell these minerals for whatever money they can get in order to buy weapons, most of which are also from the West. The European colonial scramble for Africa was primarily for mineral exploitation that has been taking place during the colonial and post-colonial periods. The products from these minerals have been used for the infrastructural development of European cities and industrialisation of their countries. The rates of depletion of their non-replenishable mineral resources should be of great concern to African countries.
