Zambian Coal

D EVELOPMENT of mineral resources is one of the few shortcuts to economic growth available to developing countries. Thus the distribution of minerals and the locational patterns of their utilization are important elements of development geography. Physical and economic factors alone do not determine the pattern of mineral development; frequently, for instance, strategic considerations are decisive. This is well known with respect to the great world powers, which have vast amounts of capital to devote to uneconomic home production of strategic resources, but it is less common in poorer countries. Nevertheless, examples of strategic resource development are to be found there, particularly in areas of international tension such as southern Africa. They often alter expected geographical and chronological patterns of resource development extrapolated from norms of physical and economic criteria and so warrant close attention. The mechanics of this type of development are examined here for one such example, the new Zambian coalfields, and factors common to other projects of this nature in the area are noted

Archaeology · Business · Coal · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Natural resource economics · Resource (disambiguation · Computer Science · Mining and Resource Management · Mining Techniques and Economics

• Mining

  Open Access•Aeron O’connor, A M O'Connor•The geography of tropical African…•1978

  Add to list

• Mining and spoiled land in Zambia

  Open Access•Nishan Perera, N P Perera•GeoJournal•1981

  Add to list