China has struck gold in Africa — particularly in the eastern nation Eritrea, where Chinese companies control two mines. Those are just a couple among the many assets Chinese interests now directly own across the vast continent to source commodities such as copper, cobalt and bauxite. The mining sector has long been a major component of China’s investment strategy in Africa, which also takes in building traditional infrastructure such as roads, ports and railways, and — more recently — embedding Huawei’s 5G telecoms equipment. Taking direct ownership of mines reduces China’s reliance on other commodity suppliers, particularly the multinationals that dominate global mining. That’s important given China’s still-high demand for metals: The country consumes roughly half of the world’s copper production each year, for example. But China's push into the African mining industry has brought with it problematic side issues, notably the attention drawn towards the impa