IT`S A MAD, MAD WORLD

The following items are offered for your edification or entertainment. Zaire has long been a major copper producer, first under Belgian colonial rule and, since the 1960s, under independent rule. But Zairean copper output has dropped — from 500,000 tonnes per year, recorded in 1987, to 452,000 tonnes last year. Completely unrelated (?) is the following item from the May 5 issue of The Economist. Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko’s personal fortune continues to blossom. The London-based magazine reported that the value of Mobutu’s personal assets might exceed $5 billion. He is said to have chateaux in Belgium and France, a castle in Spain and a Swiss villa with 32 bedrooms.

Keeping to the theme of profligate spenders, the U.S. government’s monthly interest payment on its $3-trillion debt (that’s $3 X 1012) is $17.5 billion. Our spendthrift government sheds plenty as well on its $298-billion total debt. The perfect business venture? Forget mining. How about supplying government with red ink and, some might add, red tape?

And now to a red of a communist hue. While the People’s Republic of China and our own country differ politically, economically and otherwise, there are similarities. In area, we are virtual equals: China’s vastness covers 9.58 million sq. km., Canada’s sprawls across 9.84 million. What’s more, the inhabitants of both countries tend to congregate in certain areas. For instance, nine-tenths of the people in the People’s Republic crowd into a sixth of the nation’s area; nearly nine-tenths of all Canadians make their homes along the southern border. And we share one other thing: a concern for waning metal reserves. China Features, a Beijing news and feature service, recently noted that the Middle Kingdom would eagerly accelerate mineral prospecting activity “to ease supply shortages and power stable economic growth.” Beyond the obvious hurdles of geography, the lack of infrastructure, and poor mine recoveries, financing is also mentioned as a problem. Noting that the central government is unlikely to give the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources much more money, it states: “As a way out (of the financial difficulty), the ministry is trying other forms of financing. At present, mineral reserves found by the ministry are handed over to state-run developers free of charge. The ministry says developers should give part of their profits back to prospectors for further exploration.”

Novel idea. But don’t gloat. We’ve been mining for better than a century and still can’t get it right every time. Consider this sobering report delivered at the recent meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in Ottawa: Of some 25 advanced Canadian gold projects reviewed over the past few years by mining consultant Strathcona Mineral Services, “only three . . . can be considered successful and have lived up to expectations. The rest, despite some considerable capital outlays, can be considered at best ill-advised investments.”

Editor