WPS No 147 Gold Mining in Africa Maximizing Economic Returns for Countries 120329

How to ensure that mineral resource wealth contributes to sustainable economic development has been a perennial topic concerning many African countries. It is an especially pressing issue in countries that are rich in resources, but perform poorly on a host of development indicators. Too many countries export resources, often through multinational firms, while the citizens enjoy little of the resource endowment. This occurs mainly due to unfair concession agreements and/or the mismanagement of the resources revenues.

This paper focuses on the gold mining sector, and how to ensure that the sector better contributes to development.