Estimating the impact of large-scale mining on local communities in sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT The impact of large-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa on local livelihoods is controversial. Little consensus exists about whether mining is a ‘blessing’ or a ‘curse’ for affected communities. This article estimates the impact of mine proximity on local socioeconomic outcomes. It does so by linking georeferenced survey data to mine locations, to determine whether living near a mine results in systematically better or worse scores on measures of lived poverty, development infrastructure and access to basic household services. The data (from Afrobarometer Round 6) spans 19 countries, 148 large-scale mines, and 4,796 households. The analysis shows that the average effects of proximity to a mine are modest compared with cross-national and urban-rural differences in living conditions. Mining is not consistently a ‘blessing’ or a ‘curse’ for affected local communities in sub-Saharan Africa.