Nations roll up for another era of plunder and exploitation in Africa

Padraig Carmody

WHEN is a nation’s wealth not its wealth? When are its natural resources the subject of a looting order issued in some boardroom halfway across the world? Just ask Zambia.

In 2004 the country’s most important copper mine, Konkola, was sold to an Ango-Indian company Vedanta Resources. As part of this marvellous deal, for an asset producing 65% of the country’s mineral wealth, the Zambian government received a 0.6% royalty rate. This is normally in the region of 10%. The Zambians thus received $12m from the $2bn worth of copper ore extracted in 2006. But — in Africa there has to be a but — when tax write-offs for new investment were calculated, the effective taxation rate on copper production in Zambia was nil. And the unseen hand in this transaction that would make Beelzebub gnash his teeth in envy? The World Bank.