ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the importance of the mining industry for the main Third World mineral producers and discusses the adverse impact of trends in mineral prices. The producers are concerned with maximizing the price of the particular mineral they produce. This is particularly true for Third World producers, who also seek stability in prices and security in their markets. The major mining multinationals are economic giants. The largest oil producer, Exxon, is the world’s biggest company and has an annual turnover of tens of billions of dollars, a level of economic activity which is bigger than the economies of all but a handful of the largest Third World countries. Many Third World mineral producers are in effect caught in a trap. By the mid 1980s a significant proportion of minerals mining was in the hands of state corporations. Superficially this seems a success story for the Third World, but in practice many multinational corporations have welcomed this development.
