As prices rise, frontier markets seek bigger payout

of business in West Africa, which he described as one of the last places where high grade, high volume deposits that have never been explored, can still be discovered.

“I spent the bulk of my career working in North and South America,” Dudeck said from his investor booth at PDAC. “I can find more here (in Africa), for less.”

Indeed, he pointed to other large companies that are already producing in Burkina Faso, including

and

as evidence that it’s possible to flourish there.

“Governments are financial opportunists, too,” said Mark Child, chief executive of U.K.-based

which is hoping to obtain permits in the next several months for what would be one of the largest mines in Nicaragua. tends to increase during a boom cycle.

“We know every time there’s a price boom or a price bust, you see a lot of governments trying to change taxes either up or down,” said Manley, who works for the London-based Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-governmental organization that advocates for policies to benefit the people living in emerging economy countries.

Many countries negotiated deals with mining companies when commodity prices were low, and they were desperate to attract investment.

But as metal prices rise, the balance of power is changing, and the countries have more leverage to demand deals that bring more money in to their coffers, said Manley.

“The miners just don’t have as much as power as they did,” he said.

That may explain why many mining companies with assets in emerging economies are talking about diversifying their risks. Scott Perry,

chief executive, told the Financial Post last week that after running into problems in the Kyrgyz Republic, his company is no longer looking at developing mines in emerging economy countries.

Last September, the Toronto-based company settled arbitration claims it had filed against the Kyrgyz Republic, where it operates a gold mine. The deal included, among other terms, Centerra paying a $57-million lump-sum payment to the country, in exchange for the resolution of environmental claims, and the lifting of a court order which restricted the ability of its subsidiary to transfer cash.

“The market just never ascribes full value to those assets,” said Perry.

Now, Perry said he is focused on a project in Turkey, which will constitute only a small part of that country’s overall economy, and projects in Canada as well.

“I just find in general every single stakeholder in this business they all want a larger slice of the pie,” he said.