Current SP and any other thoughts, page-3062

Following on from my previous post, I did a bit more digging (no pun intended) into the mining codes of both the DRC and Mali.

Whilst the brand-new Malian code (announced just last week) reduces the stability period to 10 years and removes VAT-free status during production¹, this is a far cry from the DRC's code revisions last year. The most significant revisions to the DRC code are the abolition of a stability period and higher mining royalty rates charged to foreign-owner miners².

Interestingly, the key figure driving the DRC's reforms was one Albert Yuma. There's a can of worms probably best left alone for now, although it's probably already been opened up over in the AVZ forum.

Given the precarious position of President Tshisekedi insomuch as being forced into a coalition with former President Kabila (another figure responsible for driving the DRC's new code), this really puts Mali's new code into perspective. It may not be as friendly to foreign miners as the previous code, but it's about as friendly as can be expected given the "resource nationalism" movement that's been unfolding across Africa over the last few years³.

Possibly the most relevant (and interesting) takeaway from this is that whilst Mali has also been moving towards resource nationalism, this move has led to better outcomes for Malian people - most notably an increase in wages leading to measurable economic growth⁴. Assuming that the Malian Government is better sorted than some other African governments, one would suspect that the Malians can see that national interest means improving the lot of their citizens, rather than just a tax grab from richer nations.

tl;dr: IMHO if there's anywhere worth going mining in sub-Saharan Africa, it's Mali.

GLTAH

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^{1 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mali-mining-idUSKCN1VD1UJ
2 http://www.drcminingweek.com/New-mining-code-to-rock-DRC
3 https://www.miningweekly.com/article/resource-nationalism-on-the-rise-in-sub-saharan-africa-2018-06-15-1
4 https://globalriskinsights.com/2018/09/resource-nationalism-africa-investors/}