Lindiwe Hendricks, SA Minerals and Energy Minister
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$9.2bn of African mineral exports threatened
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 06 Feb 2006

[miningmx.com] -- African mineral exports valued at $9.2bn are under threat by legislation proposed by the European Union governing dangerous chemicals entering the economic bloc, the 28-member African Mining Partnership (AMP) said on Monday.

The EU is formulating its Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) to identify and control dangerous chemicals. AMP chairman and Ghanaian mines minister Dominic Fobih said REACH posed a grave threat to African economies.

“The costs of REACH for the African continent are immense,” he told a press conference at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

“Africa exports $9.2bn worth of minerals to the EU market. If REACH comes into force, we’ll lose all that,” he said.

Fusi Petrus, the general manager of mineral policy at South Africa’s Mintek, said the $9.2bn estimate was based on preliminary figures and that a fuller study would be undertaken this year to fully measure the impact of REACH.
The costs of REACH for the African continent are immense
“We’ve looked at all the metals being exported from Africa into the EU and it appears that $2bn worth is directly under threat,” he said, adding that coal and oil were exempt from the legislation.

“We have to ensure that what is in our products is safe in the EU. The burden of responsibility has shifted away from those importing these products to us,” Petrus said.

AMP understood the desire by the EU to protect its people and environment from harmful chemicals, but there could be unintended consequences for countries that rely heavily on the revenues generated by mineral exports, said South African mines minister Lindiwe Hendricks.

“What we are fighting for and urging for the EU is that the policy must not have the unintended consequences of blocking us out of trade in the EU as far as chemicals and some metals are concerned,” she said.

Not only was the process of having to register and obtain authorisation for the export of chemicals, minerals and metals to the EU as cumbersome and expensive for African countries, but it would lock out a “majority” of its exports of those products to the bloc, she said.

It could lead to the creation of substitute products as well as the loss of jobs and income in Africa, acknowledged to be one of the world’s poorest, least developed areas.

The AMP has decided to embark on an intense lobbying programme, and mobilising the African Union to join in the campaign against REACH.

A number of different groupings have also requested the EU to revise REACH to see if exemptions for certain minerals and metals could be made and to develop capacities in poorer countries to help them comply with stricter EU guidelines.