CHINA'S INTEREST IN CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS IN AFRICA

China's interest in natural resources is growing like her economy. The aim of this paper is to identify critical natural resources absent from China as well as resources which are abundant in Africa in order to analyse the Chinese interest in them. Platinum-group metals and cobalt are supposedly the most attractive for China because of her planned economic reorientation on highly sophisticated production. In recent years, except for importing these minerals China also strives for investment opportunities in mines of Africa. Her possibilities are substantially limited though by Western mining companies, which have been active in these mines.