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Sands in time?
Could a new mine be the making of a modern Madagascar? Anthony Bannister takes the temperature...

This is my third visit to Madagascar, and as we drive from the airport to the capital Antananarivo (Tana to the locals) our driver chats away in French.

"Does Monsieur know Madagascar has a new President – for the first time in thirty years! And a new government also? C'est très bon," he bubbles on optimistically.

"In Marc Ravalomanana we have great hope. He's a business man from Tana. My brother knows him well. He's a good man…"

But as he talks my attention is caught by something else: the superb standard of his driving, thanks to the Rio Tinto driver safety training programme, which takes us smoothly through the surrounding chaos of speeding, curb-riding, hooting and gesturing. Dropping us off at our hotel in the late afternoon he shakes our hands and wishes us "Bonne journée" with typical quiet Malagasy charm.

As islands go, Madagascar is huge, almost 1,600km long, with a surface area greater than France. The island was born some 200 million years ago when a chunk of east Africa split off from the mainland and drifted southwards. In a few hundred million years' time the process looks like being repeated once the Great Rift Valley has widened sufficiently for the ocean to rush in. This next island will comprise most of present day East Africa and Somalia, and will probably be a lot larger than Madagascar.



Sands in time? Could a new mine be the making of a modern Madagascar? Anthony Bannister takes the temperature... This is my third visit to Madagascar, and as we drive from the airport to the capital Antananarivo (Tana to the locals) our driver chats away in French. "Does Monsieur know Madagascar has a new President – for the first time in thirty years! And a new government also? C'est très bon," he bubbles on optimistically. "In Marc Ravalomanana we have great hope. He's a business man from Tana. My brother knows him well. He's a good man…" But as he talks my attention is caught by something else: the superb standard of his driving, thanks to the Rio Tinto driver safety training programme, which takes us smoothly through the surrounding chaos of speeding, curb-riding, hooting and gesturing. Dropping us off at our hotel in the late afternoon he shakes our hands and wishes us "Bonne journée" with typical quiet Malagasy charm. As islands go, Madagascar is huge, almost 1,600km long, with a surface area greater than France. The island was born some 200 million years ago when a chunk of east Africa split off from the mainland and drifted southwards. In a few hundred million years' time the process looks like being repeated once the Great Rift Valley has widened sufficiently for the ocean to rush in. This next island will comprise most of present day East Africa and Somalia, and will probably be a lot larger than Madagascar.
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer