They're trying to make their mining codes more easy, more accessible - whereas South Africa, because of the political uncertainty here, it's been more difficult to promote their mining investment.

BBC: Investment challenges facing Africa's mining industry

Creating a global mining behemoth is not an easy task, but in the specific case of the proposed merger between Glencore and Xstrata, it has looked more like a promethean task.

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But corruption in Kentucky consists of mining firms leaning on local officials to go easy on environmental regulations, or school boards appointing their members' relatives to sinecures.

ECONOMIST: The poor

For example, Turkish mining law is investment-friendly, as there is little bureaucratic control, an easy permitting process, and lower fees, and allows broader activities for companies involved in mining gold, copper and boron.

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Yet life in a mining group long dominated by conservative South African white men has not always been easy.

ECONOMIST: Face value

The mining of data on how different banknotes move through the economy would make it easy to spot suspicious transactions for example, a large deposit of notes that had been out of circulation for a long time.

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The goal of the Global X Pure Gold Miners ETF is to provide investors with relatively easy access to companies that get the vast majority of their revenues from gold mining.

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