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Sitting on a Gold Mine

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?

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 14 Jul 2013 20:30GMT

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