The situation of solid mineral exploration in Africa and its influence on China’s “going out”strategy

In the past ten years, Africa has been one of the hotspots for global mineral exploration and development investment, and its solid mineral exploration investment changes usually show strong resistance to cyclicality, which reflects the attraction of resource potential in African region to mining investors.In response to the national “going out”strategy of encouraging domestic companies to invest more overseas, a large number of Chinese-funded mining companies have participated in solid mineral resource development in Africa.However, due to the lack of domestic scholars and industry research on the African solid mineral exploration situation, the enthusiasm of domestic mining investors has been greatly limited.Therefore, this paper systematically sorts out the exploration investment in the past ten years in Africa, summarizes the newly discovered major mineral deposits, and analyzes the impact of the current exploration situation on mining investment, aiming to provide a reference for the investment activities of Chinese mining companies.The results of this study show that in the past ten years, due to the rising trend of “resource nationalism”in Africa and the influence of the world economic situation, the prospecting situation in Africa has undergone major changes.Investment in exploration continues to decrease, gradually focusing on mature projects and politically stable countries.However, hot regions and hot minerals still attract mining companies to enter high-risk countries to carry out mining activities.The exploration target minerals are mainly gold and base metals.This paper recommends that domestic mining investors choose regional advantageous mineral resources to invest in Africa, do a good job in market research and analysis, innovate cooperation methods, actively respond to the national “going out”strategy, participate in global resource restructuring, and seek to establish a long-term stable overseas mineral resource supply base.