ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter it was argued that the capital-intensive production function of mining results in a configuration of economic linkages which has proved especially difficult for the governments of most mineral economies to manage. Of the four sets of economic linkages identified by Hirschman (1977), namely backward, forward, final demand and fiscal, the latter has tended to dominate. Historically, this has meant that, prior to the postwar emphasis on global development, mines in developing countries tended to function as economic enclaves. They transmitted a strong growth stimulus to distant metropolitan regions but their local economic impact was only modest.
