Dlamini, who addressed the Nedgroup Securities second African investment con- ference in Johannesburg, says that in the current climate of gloom and doom in global financial markets, Africa is the continent that offers the world immense investment opportunity.

“Just as, in the early seventies, US leaders Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger predicted the rise of China, Africa is a sleeping giant that is yet to rise to take its rightful place in the mainstream spheres of economic and com-mercial affairs,” Dlamini says.

Africa ought to rise, he says, from being a Third World underdeveloped continent to being a First World globally competitive economic giant.

“Africa is the continent that offers the world immense opportunities for investment for attractive returns,” Dlamini emphasised to mining investors.

“What is required is for the right con- versations to take place among all the stake- holders in order to pursue value oppor-tunities on the continent so that we put in place the appropriate regulatory instruments as well as the necessary social and physical infrastructure,” he says.

“We have seen what a country like Botswana has done and we’ve also seen the challenges in other countries like Chad, where there is still a need for stabilisation and the putting in place of the correct systems,” he adds.

Anglo American is the largest employer on the African continent, with a total of 130 000 employees and is involved in eight African countries and is seeking opportunities in five others.

He says Anglo American, one of the world’s top five mining groups, has a “passionate commitment” to Africa and occupies a position in the top ten of the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 200 index.

In 2007, Anglo achieved its highest-ever operating profit of $10,1-billion.

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