经济学人:几内亚人的火星生活(1)

 In the small village of Lasanayah, Mamadou Kalissa looks out over his ancestral home. 在Lasanayah的一个小村庄里，马马杜·卡利萨朝着自己的老家看去。

Last year it was farmland but now bauxite¹ mining has turned it into a Martian landscape that extends as far as the eye can see. 去年，这里还是农田，如今铝土矿开采将这个地方变成了一片一望无际的火星景象。

Guinea's red gold is the main ore used to make aluminium². The Boke region in western Guinea has some of the world's richest reserves. 几内亚的红金是用于制作铝的主要矿石。几内亚西部的博凯大区是世界几处储备最丰富的地区之一。

A mining lorry rolls past, kicking up dust and causing Mr Kalissa to cough and spit saliva³ with a reddish tinge⁴. 采矿卡车从这里驶过，扬起的灰层让卡利萨咳嗽，吐出的唾液也带有一些微红。

Every day hundreds of these lorries tear past the surrounding villages, bearing loads destined⁵ for China. 每天，数百辆卡车飞驰过周围的村庄，载着货物开往中国。

There is nothing new about China's interest in African raw materials. 中国对非洲原材料感兴趣，这并不稀奇。

Both Chinese and Western commodities companies have long looked to the continent's mineral wealth as a way to meet surging demand from China. 长久以来，中国和西方大宗商品企业都依靠这片大陆上的矿物资源满足中国急剧增长的需求。

But difficulties building infrastructure⁶ and negotiating mineral rights have stymied⁷ many projects. 但是基础设施建筑和采矿权谈判中的困难妨碍了很多项目。

As a result of years of squabbling over mining rights, for example, not one tonne of ore has been extracted from Simandou, a vast iron-ore deposit in south-east Guinea. 例如，由于采矿权争端，多年来一处位于几内亚东南部的巨大铁矿床没有提取出过一公吨的矿石。

Extracting Boké's bauxite has met with less resistance. 提炼博凯大区铝土矿所遇到的阻力要小一些。

Bauxite is used in many things from power lines and planes to phones and cooking pots. China is by far the world's largest consumer. 铝土矿被用于很多领域，从输电线和飞机到电话和烹饪锅。目前，中国是世界最大的铝土矿消费国。

But in 2014, the country's aluminium giants ran into a big problem acquiring bauxite. 但在2014年，该国的铝矿巨头在获取铝土矿中遇上了一个大麻烦。

Indonesia, a large producer, stopped exports because of the damage that mining causes— 由于采矿所带来的破坏，铝土矿生产大国印尼停止出口铝土矿—

it requires stripping vast amounts of topsoil and battering⁸ the ground beneath. Two years later, Malaysia ended bauxite mining for the same reason. 采矿需要剥离大量表层土，对地表下层进行猛击。两年后，马来西亚也因同样的原因停止了铝土矿的开采。

Guinea, with the largest untapped iron and bauxite reserves in the world, offered an alternative. 拥有世界最大未开发铁矿和铝土矿储备的几内亚成为了替代。

In 2014 Winning Shipping⁹, a Singaporean maritime¹⁰ firm, and UMS, a Guinean logistics firm, teamed up with Shandong Weiqiao, 2014年，一家新加坡海事公司韦立航运和一家几内亚物流公司UMS与中国领头铝生产商山东魏桥公司合作

China's leading aluminium producer, in a joint¹¹ venture called La Société Minière de Boké (SMB). Guinea's government also holds a 10% stake. 成立一家名为博凯矿业公司（SMB）的合资公司。几内亚政府也拥有该公司10%的股份。

SMB obtained rights to mine two areas in Boke, producing the first bauxite in 2015. SMB拥有博凯大区两处区域的采矿权，并于2015年开采了第一批铝土矿。

SMB alone will produce 35m tonnes in 2018, almost double Guinea's total exports five years earlier. 2018年，仅SMB一家公司就将生产3500百万公吨铝土矿，是几内亚五年前出口总量的近两倍。

Everything goes to China; almost half of its bauxite imports come from Guinea. 出口中国的铝土矿中，有将近一半的进口来自于几内亚。

"The stars were aligned," is how Frederic Bouzigues, SMB's director-general, describes the firm's expansion. “是上天的安排，”SMB的总负责人Frederic Bouzigues这样描述公司的扩张。

Other bauxite miners are based further inland and are constrained¹² by a lack of railway lines to the coast. 其他铝土矿矿主位于内陆腹地，他们缺乏连接海岸的铁路，因而受到限制。

SMB's sites are less than 50km from the sea; the company built two ports and roads and transports everything by land on lorries. SMB的所在地距离大海不足50公里；公司建了两个港口和公路，并使用卡车经由陆路运输所有货物。

 

1 bauxite   

n.铝土矿

参考例句：

• Aluminum is made from bauxite.铝是从铝土矿中提炼出的。
• The United States was vulnerable to shortages of chrome,bauxite,and platinum.美国的弱点是缺少铬、矾土和铂。

2 aluminium   

n.铝 (=aluminum)

参考例句：

• Aluminium looks heavy but actually it is very light.铝看起来很重，实际上却很轻。
• If necessary, we can use aluminium instead of steel.如果必要，我们可用铝代钢。

3 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。

4 tinge   

vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息

参考例句：

• The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。
• There was a tinge of sadness in her voice.她声音中流露出一丝忧伤。

5 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 stymied   

n.被侵袭的v.妨碍，阻挠( stymie的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Relief efforts have been stymied in recent weeks by armed gunmen. 最近几周的救援工作一直受到武装分子的阻挠。 来自辞典例句
• I was completely stymied by her refusal to help. 由于她拒不相助， 我完全陷入了困境。 来自互联网

8 battering   

n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The film took a battering from critics in the US. 该影片在美国遭遇到批评家的猛烈抨击。
• He kept battering away at the door. 他接连不断地砸门。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

10 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

11 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

12 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。