“I’m done with being insulted by power-hungry officials in the [department of mineral resources],” was the terse response I got from a SA mining entrepreneur who has found it easier operating in Eritrea, a region in North Africa notable for being pulled into the Tigray war in neighbouring Ethiopia.

“You have to want to fix what’s wrong,” he followed up, “and in Eritrea you deal with qualified bureaucrats who understand what mining is about and actually want the industry to grow and succeed, not someone with a diploma in teaching.”..

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