One of the largest steel making companies in the world is set to begin a mining project in the country of Senegal. Arcelor Mittal is said to invest $2.2 billion into the project. This money will go into the construction of a brand new mine, a new port, and railway connecting the two. Production is scheduled to begin in 2011.
So what is Senegal getting out of this relationship. Arcelor Mittal has stated that they expect to extract 15 -25 million tons of iron each year which will be shipped primarily to Europe. The details on the project have not been released at this time. This seem to be another case where investors are interested in only stripping African countries of their natural resources and not in investing in the people of the continent. Billions of dollars annually are invested to extract resources from Africa, but when investment is requested for infrastructure such as electricity, phone/internet systems, water/sewage systems, etc, the money always comes up short. You can read more about this new "investment" in Africa here.
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