A natural resources network

Abstract

Transnational corporations are increasingly powerful actors in the world economy.

Although systematically collected by international institutions like the World Bank and the UN, mining contracts between TNCs and developing countries are normally treated as Confidential. This policy is a severe hindrance to the negotiationg ability of the developing countries.

In a series of articles RMR will therefore publish mineral contracts of special interest. The contracts have been selected from an archive set up by the Raw Materials Group as part of a project to establish an international network for natural resource information.

The first article in our series proposes a legal framework, within which contracts can be analyzed and developed.