from Newsday :-
More than $50 billion will have to be spent
in Africa in the next decade to build more than 4,000 km (2,400 miles) of
additional rail infrastructure to unlock the continent’s bulk mineral
resource potential, Mining Weekly reports.
Financial services firm
Standard Bank said that infrastructure would continue to be the biggest
challenge to exploiting the continent’s vast deposits of bulk
commodities, particularly iron ore, manganese, and coal.
“As
mining activities in key regions expand, mining output is starting to
exceed existing rail capacity despite ongoing efforts to upgrade and
maintain these rail links. Inadequate rail networks are limiting the
economic potential of some of these commodity hot spots on the
continent,” Standard Bank Power & Infrastructure global sector head
David Humphrey said. The bulk commodity-mining sector in West Africa and
Mozambique, in particular, was expected to drive further investment in
railways in the next decade.
An enormous quantity of iron ore has
been discovered in West Africa and could potentially attract $25
billion of infrastructure investment in the next decade, Standard Bank
said. In Mozambique, rail and port infrastructure will likely attract
investment of more than $20 billion in the next ten years. “High-quality
coal reserves of more than 3 billion tons and the area’s proximity to
large markets like India and the Far East will require investment in
high-volume rail links to maximize the economic potential,” Humphrey
noted.
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