Initiatives
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI)

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI)

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Mineral Unit World Production (2010)10 Average price per unit (2010, in dollars)11 Manganese (gross weight) 1 metric ton 13,000,000 8 Bauxite, Alumina 1 metric ton 211,000,000 27 Phosphate Rock 1 metric ton 176,000,000 50 Iron Ore (usable) 1 metric ton 2,400,000,000 90 Coal 1 metric ton 7,243,779,43012 16513 Chromium (gross weight) 1 metric ton 22,000,000 230 Graphite (crude) 1 metric ton 1,100,000 667 Lead (contained) 1 metric ton 4,100,000 2,337 Copper (contained) 1 metric ton 16,200,000 7,694 Cobalt (contained) 1 metric ton 88,000 46,297 Diamond (natural industrial) 1 metric ton 11 1,050,000 Gold (contained) 1 metric ton 2,500 38,580,896 Platinum 1 metric ton 183 51,441,195 1 Vale Columbia Center for Sustainable International Investment, Zambezi Valley Development Study, available at: http://www.vcc.columbia.edu/content/zambezi-valley-development-study. 2 C. Briceño-Garmendia, K. Smits, V. Foster, “Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa: Patterns, Issues, and Options,” Africa Infrastructure Sector Diagnostic Background Paper No. 15 (Washington D.C.: The World Bank, 2008). 3 V. Foster, C. Briceño-Garmendia, eds., Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2010). 4 See H. Singer, “The distribution of gains from trade and investment—revisited,” 11(4) Journal of Development Studies 376 (1975), pp. 376–382. COLU 5 World Bank, “Leveraging investments by natural resource concessionaires,” Infrastructure Policy Notes, World Bank for the Republic of Liberia (Washington D.C.: The World Bank, 2011). 6 See Masuma Farooki, “The infrastructure and commodities interface in Africa: Time for cautious optimism?,” 24 Journal of International Development (2012), p. 216. 7 The user of the services being then either the services provider or a customer of the services provider. 8 “The Geography of Transport Systems,” available at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/valuetonusshipments.html 9 U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, based on data from the preliminary 2002 Commodity Flow Survey data, January 2004. 10 2010 world production figures for all commodities except coal, generally based on Platts Metal Week North American prices, see source for more pricing details, from U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodities Summaries, annual, January 2011, available at: http://minerals.er.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/ 11 2010 average price per unit figures for all commodities except coal from U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012, Table 905, available at: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0905.pdf 12 “Total Primary Coal Production” from U.S. Energy Information Administration, “International Energy Statistics,” available at: http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=1&pid=7&aid=1&cid=regions&syid=2010&eyid=2010& unit=TST 13 Coal price information from “Global coking coal prices to rise sharply,” available at: http://www.constructionweekonline.in/article-6329-global_coking_coal_prices_to_rise_sharply_crisil/