{"id":7383,"date":"2012-02-22T10:32:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T10:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=7383"},"modified":"2012-02-22T10:32:57","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T10:32:57","slug":"australian-uranium-mining-companies-ripping-off-african-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/22\/australian-uranium-mining-companies-ripping-off-african-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian uranium mining companies ripping off African countries?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Uranium.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Uranium-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Uranium\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7386\" \/><\/a>An international mining industry grouping, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), says it is concerned with contracts between investors and governments especially in developing countries, saying they tend to be skewed in favour the investor.<\/p>\n<p>IGF President Leonard Kalindekafe told the Business Times in Zomba on Friday that there was a concern among members of the grouping that some investors were taking advantage of governments\u2019 lack of expertise to strike deals that bring little profits. \u201dThis is a big concern to the Forum because some bona fide countries are not able to realise full benefits from their minerals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>IGF is a 43-member forum whose objective is to improve, enhance and<br \/>\npromote the contribution of the mining, minerals and metals sector to<br \/>\nsustainable development and poverty reduction.<\/p>\n<p>IGF\u2019s views follow remarks by Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Perks Ligoya last December during which he protested the generous allowances the Malawi government provided to Australia\u2019s Paladin Energy in the Kayelekera uranium mining deal in Karonga.<br \/>\nKalindekafe, who is also director of Geological Survey in Malawi\u2019s<br \/>\nMinistry of Energy and Mining, said many governments do not have<br \/>\nskilled personnel and are hoodwinked into signing contracts they<br \/>\nlittle understand with the results being contracts that are<br \/>\nregrettable.<\/p>\n<p>He said some investors ask for soft conditions such as tax holidays<br \/>\nthat, in some instances, do not make much sense other than benefiting<br \/>\ntheir business interests at the expense of the host country.<\/p>\n<p>Kalindekafe, therefore, called for the training of mining lawyers so<br \/>\nthat governments negotiate deals from a knowledgeable point of view.<\/p>\n<p>He also observed that many mining companies were ring-fencing their<br \/>\nprojects, a move he said was depriving countries of full revenues.<\/p>\n<p>Ring-fencing is a scenario where a company has several projects<br \/>\nusually in more than one country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the year, they calculate their proceeds by combining<br \/>\nall their projects often declaring losses at the expense of the one<br \/>\nthat made profits,\u201d he said\u2026..\u201dGovernments must train its mining lawyers and accountants who understand mining investment who can follow those companies to determine whether the losses they declare are genuine,\u201d Kalindekafe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An international mining industry grouping, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), says it is concerned with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[979,561,258,1025],"class_list":["post-7383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-australia","tag-mining","tag-malawi","tag-uranium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}