经济学人:非洲金矿开采:金手铐(上)-英语课

时间：2018-12-05 作者：英语课 分类：经济学人商业系列

英语课

　　Business 商业

　　Gold Mining in Africa: Golden handcuffs 非洲金矿开采：金手铐
　　Tanzania's firebrand leader takes on its largest foreign investor 1. 坦桑尼亚反对派领导人接手其最大的国外投资商。
　　“If they accept that they stole from us and seek forgiveness in front of God and the angels and all Tanzanians and enter into negotiations 2, we are ready to do business.” “如果他们能够承认他们偷了我们的东西，而且希望得到上帝和桑尼亚人民的宽恕，并且愿意进行谈判协商，那我们准备好做生意了。”
　　As conciliatory gestures go, that one by John Magufuli, Tanzania's president, to Acacia Mining, the country's largest foreign investor, could hardly have been more fork-tongued. 坦桑尼亚总统john magufuli对Acacia（本国最大的境外投资商）的讲话是一种妥协姿态，根本是自欺欺人。
　　Nonetheless, two days later John Thornton, head of Barrick Gold, Acacia's largest shareholder 3, 不过两天后，约翰·桑顿，巴里克黄金公司（Barrick Gold）负责人，阿加西亚斯的最大股东与Magufuli会面，
　　met Mr Magufuli to start talks on ending a dispute that has halved 4 Acacia's market value since the government in March imposed a ban on the export of gold- and copper-concentrates. 就结束一场自3月政府颁布关于黄金和铜精矿的出口禁令进行谈判，这一禁令使得Acacia的市场价值减少一半。
　　It is a mark of the seriousness of the stand-off that he is ready to negotiate on all points of contention 5 between the two sides. 这是双方对峙的严重性的一个标志，他准备就双方的所有争论点进行谈判。
　　The context of the row is increasingly typical of Africa's mining industry. 这一争端的背景是非洲矿业的典型特征。
　　The Tanzanian government is seeking more tax revenue from a foreign mining firm that was initially 6 wooed into the country by generous tax concessions 7. 坦桑尼亚政府正从外国矿业公司收取更多的税收，但这些公司最初是被巨大的的税收优惠吸引过来的。
　　The state also wants to generate more value and jobs by smelting 8 Acacia's concentrates domestically, rather than abroad. 该国还希望通过Acacia公司冶炼精矿在国内创造更多价值及就业机会，而不是在国外。
　　That may seem reasonable, but Mr Magufuli's firebrand populism, as well as his unpredictability, have made it a particularly worrying test case for mining firms across the region. 这似乎是合理的，但是Magufuli的民粹主义，以及他的不可预测性，使得整个地区的矿业公司来特别担心这一测试案例。
　　In April Tanzania announced a new presidential committee to look into its gold exports. 4月，坦桑尼亚宣布成立新的总统委员会来调查其黄金出口。
　　In late May the committee accused Acacia of under-reporting its gold exports by a factor of ten, an accusation 9 Mr Magufuli repeated. 在5月底，委员会指责Acacia漏报了黄金出口的十分之一，Magufuli也指责Acacia的这种行为。
　　Acacia says the charges of tax evasion 10 are absurd. Acacia公司表示，对他们逃税的指控是荒谬的。