...
I do not think that many stockholders appreciate the wide extent to
which private enterprise has contributed to the general development of
the Rhodesias. In a new territory mining operations and industrial
development, often in remote areas, require the participation of the
companies themselves in the provision of communications and services
which in older countries are already available or are provided by the
State or appropriate authority. .. .
The
copper-mining companies operating in Northern Rhodesia had to
establish, from their inception, their own towns with the communal and
domestic amenities required for the well-being of their employees.57
They had to provide their own water schemes and their own power
stations, and many other essential services which, in a developed
country, would have been the obligation of the Government or local
authorities.
The
mining companies and their ancillary units, for which we and our parent
company, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Limited, are
responsible in Northern Rhodesia, not only found the capital funds of
over £35,000,000 required to open up the mines and to provide the
necessary services, but have since then retained about £45,000,000
from profits for the expansion of the industry and the development of
services and amenities for their employees.
Our
copper-mining companies and those of the Rhodcsian Selection Trust
group formed the Rhodesia Congo Border Power Corporation Limited to
take over the distribution of electric power on the Coppcrbclt. The
total cost of the installations required to provide power is to date
£16,000,000 and more has to be expended to complete the work in hand. .
. .
♦ XXIV ♦
The
characteristic of modern industrial organization, so far as the
relations between employer and employed are concerned, is that the
latter have banded themselves together into unions for the protection
of their interests, or whatever are considered to be such by the workers
57
The copper-mining companies have not been unheedful of the
intellectual, as well as the material needs of the new communities
springing up. In the same statement Ernest Oppenheimer could tell the
shareholders that 'the copper-mining companies have, for some time,
been concerned at the lack of adequate technical education facilities
on the Copperbelt, and they are aware of the need to train the youth
growing up there. With the mines of the Rhodesian Selection Trust
group, they have established the Copperbelt Technical Foundation with
the object of operating a series of technical institutions in the
leading towns at an initial cost of ^400,000.' (For further details vide the 1955 Year Book of the Northern Rhodesia Chamber of Mines, p. 51.) On 21 October 1955 the Anglo American Corporation announced the grant of £ 100,000
for the establishment of an Institute of African Geology at the
University of Leeds, for the 'stimulation of fundamental research into
the origin of ore deposits generally, and the study of African
geological structure in particular' and 'to provide graduate research
geologists for active field work in Africa'.
