While South Africa's once-mighty gold mines struggled with bullion prices at 19-year lows, the mining renaissance in Africa's copperbelt was dented by a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a spluttering privatisation drive in Zambia and slumping metal prices.

In Angola, fresh fighting threatened to plunge the diamond-rich country back into full-scale civil war.

"A year ago, many were proclaiming that mining projects in emerging markets were ready for finance and investment on a scale never before seen," said Thomas Wexler, a London-based lawyer who specialises in mining finance.

"But recent developments in the industry and the world in general proved us over optimistic at best, intoxicated by our own rhetoric at worst," he added.

No one doubts that the continent has mining potential.

Southern Africa holdsnearly 90 per cent of the world's platinum group metals, 85 per cent of the chromium, 75 per cent of the manganese, and 50 per cent of its gold.

The Central African copperbelt, which straddles Zambia and Congo, is one of the planet's great mineral deposits, holding nearly 34 per cent of the planet's cobalt reserves and more than 10 per cent of its copper reserves.

The copperbelt mines once accounted for 20 per cent of the western world's copper and 60 per cent of its cobalt. But corruption and dwindling investment in equipment and exploration left the mines near collapse by the mid-1990s.

In Zambia, the privatisation of the country's money-losing copper giant, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) achieved some success in 1998. But ZCCM's key copper assets, Nkana and Nchanga, remain unsold as the government's December 31 deadline looms.

South Africa's Anglo American Corp is now the sole bidder for these assets, which together account for 65 per cent of ZCCM's output, as well as the promising Konkoladeposit.

"In a sense, Zambia and Anglo American will have come full circle," said one mining analyst, noting that it was the socialist government of former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda who reduced the South African behemoth to a minority shareholding in the copper industry in the late 1960s.

The list of eager investors in ZCCM once included blue-chip players like Phelps Dodge, Canada's Noranda Inc and Falconbridge, Australia's WMC Ltd, and South Africa's Avmin Ltd.

But as copper prices retreated in the face of Asia's economic woes, the buyers fell away. The final blow came in late May when talks to sell the Nkana/Nchanga package to the Kafue consortium for about $1.1 billion collapsed.

In hindsight, the Kafue deal was too complex and both sides did not help by negotiating through the media. The financing was also a sticking point. The cash-strapped Zambian government demanded more up-front money, while Kafue focused on long-term capital needed to refurbish the mines.

"Ironically...the Kafueconsortium's bid would have meant a much greater profit than what seems to be the only alternative, which is a firesale at a depressed price to Anglo American," Wexler said.