Previously considered too risky a place in which to do business, the numerous nations of Africa were grouped together and tossed into the ‘too hard' basket by most companies. But historically high commodity prices are drawing players of all sizes into the Dark Continent in search of riches, and in the process raising the profile of the continent and highlighting what each individual country has to offer.
The West African nation of Mauritania has risen from obscurity in recent years and now ranks amongst the top African countries in terms of mineral wealth in an attractive investment environment.
Applications for exploration permits have primarily centred on copper, gold, diamonds, iron ore, phosphates and oil, and the country enjoys mineral investment from companies across the globe including majors BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, as well as mid-tier and junior players such as First Quantum Minerals, Ashton West Africa, Defiance Mining Corp, Diamet Minerals, Rex Diamond Mining Corp and Baraka Petroleum.
Mauritania's resources policy and subsequent foreign interest would be the envy of many struggling African nations, and possibly even some first-world countries that could be doing more to encourage investment.
Though the former French colony has continually maintained an open-door stance on mining and petroleum investment, 1999 marked a key change to Mauritania's mining system when the World Bank helped the country establish the Project for Institutional Strengthening of the Mining Sector (PRISM).
According to a report published by London's Mining Journal, PRISM was designed to improve Mauritania's mining capacity and its competitiveness for private investment dollars through a two-stage process costing more than $US30 million. The bill is being footed by the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the French Cooperation Agency and the Mauritanian Government.
The first stage - which is now complete - involved institutional reform, development of environmental management capacity and creation and improvement of the geological infrastructure to provide basic geological and geophysical information to potential investors. The second stage is basically a structured plan to build on stage one.
As a result of policy reform, companies operating in Mauritania can look forward to a mining title being granted within 15 days, a three-year tax holiday for new mining operations and royalties ranging from 1.5-5% depending on the mineral, to name but a few of the new system's features.
Mining has long been a major driver of the economy, which is also sustained by fishing and agriculture, with iron ore accounting for 92% of the value of exports in 1966.
But Mauritania hasn't always had the economic assurance currently enjoyed and its relative political stability is a far cry from life not so long ago.
The country gained independence from France in 1960 at a time when 90% of the population was still nomadic. A division grew between those who thought Mauritania was an Arab nation and those who thought the country should be predominantly ruled by sub-Saharan people. The feud erupted in 1989 with widespread violence between communities.
While those days are behind the country there is still tension between the groups, according to the Mining Journal report.
Exploration for commodities appeared to be on the rise in the early nineties until the Gulf War prompted the withdrawal of the major American companies and caused many potential investors to take an arm's-length approach to Arab nations. The iron ore industry has generally remained strong, but successive governments have historically struggled to increase exploration for a range of other resources
However, when some looked at Mauritania and saw an inflated sovereign risk profile, others saw opportunity. A handful of exponents aided the gradual resurgence of the resources industry almost immediately after the Gulf crisis, along with new potential and a fresh system.
Baraka Petroleum managing director and chief executive Max de Vietri had been operating on and off in Africa for almost 30 years and found himself in a unique position.
De Vietri was able to peg himself a huge gold holding in Mauritania because of limited interest in the country and in doing so exposed himself to the government as one ticket to foreign investment.
He went on to spark what he termed a "mini-diamond rush" in 1995 and was then alerted to the petroleum opportunities in the Salt Basin area where he picked up two well proposals abandoned by Texaco and Mobil when the war broke out.
De Vietri took the former Mobil offshore block to Europe and Australia for consideration but found few companies were willing to look at the exploration proposal. Perth-based junior Hardman Resources did have a look and arranged a deal, which subsequently led to a joint venture in 1998 with Woodside [one of the companies that didn't want to speak to de Vietri initially], then to the Chinguetti discovery 2001 that is capable of producing at a rate of 75,000 barrels of oil per day.
That discovery is now one of a number of healthy oil fields that have emerged off the Mauritanian coast.
De Vietri said the Mauritanian Government had always been proactive in seeking foreign investment and he enjoyed dealing with the Francophone governments in general.
"They're good guys - approachable people who will respect you if you show them respect," he said.
De Vietri's connection with Hardman and its chief Alan Burns, leads us to a company that is shaping up as one of Australia's stand out performers in Africa, Sphere Investments.
