Heavy-haul freight


Demand for resources drives African rail boom


In their rush to extract western Africa’s vast mineral wealth, mining companies are


revitalising existing, and building new, heavy-haul rail lines. Paul Ash presents a comprehensive round-up of the latest activities in the region.


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RE MINERS and the business press call it the new frontier. Others see a second scramble


for Africa. Either way, the quest for West Africa’s iron-ore resources is driving a railway and mining boom worth an estimated $US 25bn. According to US bank J P Morgan Chase, ore deposits that may rival those of Australia’s Pilbara region are spurring mining companies to invest in the construction or rehabilitation of some 5100km of railways and nearly a dozen new ports.


China’s apparently unstoppable


growth has been the driving force behind the global resource boom of the last decade. That most of the new projects in West Africa have strong Chinese backing should be no surprise. At a presentation to the Sydney Mining Club in March last year, Mr John Welborn, chief executive officer of Australian miner Equatorial Resources, which is currently developing a mine and railway in Congo, quoted China Iron & Steel Association official Mr Wu Xichun: “By 2015, China wants to


IRJ January 2013


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