A number of factors have been altering the traditional pattern of mine investment and, more contentiously, the traditional role of the multinational mining enterprise. Amongst these factors are a gradually diminishing grade of discovered ore for many minerals; technological advances which ha ve tended to increase initial mine size and to substitute capital for labour in production; very large increases in mine construction costs per ton of metal recovered; very large increases in energy and BOOK REVIEWS • 135 transportation costs; new environmental regulations; greater assertiveness by developing country governments in the exercise of their sovereign rights over natural resources; and greater nervousness by mining companies in their assessment ('overly pessimistic' say Radetzki and Zorn) of the political risk involved in developing country operations. Takeall these factors, add the pressure generated by the world recession, stir in the context of the demand for NIEO, and you have what is widely recognised as 'a new ball game' which is in the process of generating its own new literature of texts andcase studies and commentaries.The Radetzki-Zorn material was originally prepared as background for the meeting of the UN Panel on International Mining Finance held in New York in December 1977. Now updated, the papers provide a first-rate presentation of facts, figures, analyses, assessments and projections which is highly informative and, save fora fewcommendable lapses, almost always objective. The book concentrates on six minerals -iron, copper, nickel, zinc, lead and aluminium -which together contribute about 85 percent of the value of all metallic minerals produced other than gold and silver. The scheme runs as follows. The present geographical spread of current capacity of mining and mineral processing installations is presented along with confirmed expansion programmes. The sources of internal finance available for miningare then listed, and an attempt is made tojudge their likely contribution through the next decade. The authors then review the arrangements involving private foreign capital (traditionally much the most important source for mineral projects in developing countries), survey how these arrangements have evolved through the 1960sand 1970s, and attempt to predict further changes that may occur in the role of private foreign capital in the future. The last papers survey the role of the public international agencies (especially the UN, the World Bank, and the Regional Development Banks) and certain newer and more unorthodox sources of finance, such as the oil companies and the leasors of equipment. The discussion of the implications of what is clearly going to be an increasing involvement by such agencies and companies is particularly illuminating.A number of the conclusions reached by Radetzki and Zorn are, rather surprisingly, similar to those reached by Professor Raymond Mikesell. Mikesell, who most would acknowledge as the doyen of this subject, has generally been rather more sympathetic to the role...

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