"I think we're at a turning point," says Bonnie Campbell, political science professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal and author of "Mining in Africa." "There's been a quarter-century where a certain investment-friendly road has been taken.
there is a recognition that there needs to be another focus."
A cartel modeled after OPEC?The capstone of that push, at least for Wade, would be an international alliance of Africa's mineral-rich nations, modeled after OPEC – a pan-African body that could influence the price of metals like the cobalt in Chinese-made laptop and cellphone batteries, 90 percent of which comes from Africa, according to the business watchdog SwedWatch.
"It's an ambitious but feasible idea," says Mazou Yessouph Faudy, geological director for Niger's Mining Ministry. "Our economy is falling. As a producer of uranium, it would be good to involve ourselves in a union of producers that could set the price."
Already, according to estimates by gold mining company Randgold Resources, the continent produces 30 percent of the minerals required by the US and China.
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