I agree. As is the case in even the most developed nations, huge mining entities who have relationships with the powers that be are given the green light and sometimes too little oversight. And when it comes to buying out the folks living on top of the deposit, the big boys can drive a hard and educated bargain, paying a tiny sum for the alluvial land. The government gets their concession money, and whatever else, the locals get a few dirty jobs, and the company´s stock skyrockets on the new access. But in all fairness, throughout history and today, mining is a fairly closed sector with little sunshine in their dealings, even though they invariably work with the national governments. A great read on this is a book called the Oppenheimer Empire, which is a history of the South African De Beers saga. Incredible. And today, with the global price of gold even junior companies which couldn´t have hoped to make a profit ten years ago are finding themselves sitting on the proverbial goldmine. Operations in Ecuador of certain juniors have been stalled due to environmental activism. But as in many developing nation scenarios, more is to be seen than meets the eye in the mining sector, and the motives are tipically not what they seem regarding local input and government sanctioning of projects.
Last edited by fightfish; 03-06-2008 at 10:08 PM.
Reason: typos
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