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The performance of commodity-driven economies is more influenced by policy than the commodity pricing cycle.This was heard during a panel discussion on the repricing of African commodities, at Deloitte’s Africa 2017 Outlook conference, held in Woodmead on Wednesday.Mining industry representatives on the panel discussed the role of policy in shaping the economy’s performance. “You can’t get policy change without regime change,” said Peter Major, head of mining at Cadiz Corporate Solutions.Using the example of Chile, following regime or policy changes, the country went from producing 600,000 tons of copper in the 1970s to 6 million tonnes in production after. “The wrong regime changes happened in the DRC and Zambia and they went from having 600,000 tonnes to less than 100,000 tonnes,” Major said.“We [South Africa] have not had a policy change since 1994. Policy continues to push production down,” he said. The implications of policy must be considered. Given existing legisla...

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock market moved lower Thursday but stayed near its record level as gold, metals and materials stocks incurred losses.The S&P/TSX composite index in Toronto retreated 28.32 points at 15,615.52, a day after it finished just a few points shy of its all-time closing high set in September 2014. The telecom sector was the biggest gainer on the index, helped by a spike from Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B) which reported better-than-expected quarterly results.The Toronto-based company reported that it earned an adjusted profit of $382 million or 74 cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $331 million or 64 cents per diluted share in the same quarter the previous year. The results surpassed analysts’ expectations of a profit of 71 cents per share of earnings, excluding items such as asset impairments, according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue was slightly below the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion.Shares in Ro...