Looming Mining ‘Tsunami’ Set to Take Africa by Storm

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John C. Cannon, Mongabay
Waking Times

As nations invest billions in extraction development, forests may suffer big losses.

Many of the minerals that enable our technology, back the value of our economies (or did at one time), and power our cities can be found in Africa. And yet the continent still remains something of an untapped resource, as the vast majority of mineral extraction occurs elsewhere. A new report published by a team of scientists from James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, documents a surging tide of foreign interest in mining in Africa and cautions that the sector’s unchecked development and expansion could devastate the environment. 

In a “call to arms” for conservation biologists, NGOs, and governments to guide this investment to both encourage economic development and safeguard natural habitat, author Bill Laurance and his colleagues catalogue known...

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