His contacts range from the workers in remote mines in countries like Columbia and Sri Lanka, to the leaders of haute joaillerie houses in Paris and London.

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Australia is experiencing a mining boom, with thousands of workers attracted by high salaries to remote Outback mines.

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Bobby Godsell, a former chairman of AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third-biggest gold-mining company, who is a member of Mr Manuel's commission, says the odds of South Africa's mines being nationalised are as remote as America's Federal Reserve Bank being abolished by the Republican Tea Party.

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