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Changing Fortunes: Sitting on a Gold Mine 

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Factual: Money

Sitting on a Gold Mine 

09/02/2013 GMT

Changing Fortunes

Sitting on a Gold Mine

BBC World News - Changing Fortunes, Sitting on a Gold Mine

A new series that challenges assumptions about patterns of wealth in the 21st Century.

We meet the millionaires and billionaires who have benefitted from China's insatiable need for raw materials, and pose the question: can they avoid the commodities curse?

Since the late 1990s the prices of many raw materials have risen exponentially. According to Credit Suisse, despite the 2008-9 downturn, in dollar prices, "Oil, iron ore and gold prices are currently around the highest level seen in the past 110 years, and are well above historical averages". Gold, for example, reached a low of $252 in 1999 before shooting up close to the $2000 mark in recent years.

China's insatiable appetite for resources and the impact this has had on the prices for raw material has produced a boom for commodity rich countries such as Brazil, Russia and Africa. We meet the millionaires and billionaires who have benefitted, and pose the question: can they avoid the commodities curse?

BBC World News

BBC  World News

A series challenging assumptions about patterns of wealth in the 21st Century.

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Sitting on a Gold Mine

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