"It will vary according to the mineral group and project life cycle but we are likely to see investors looking elsewhere in the region ... particularly if the South African government doesn't come out quite strongly and say what its plans for the sector are going forward, " says Simiso Velempini, South Africa analyst for global business risk consultancy Control Risks.

CNN: New violence clouds future for South African mines

One of these, which challenges an assumption widely held by experts in the field, is the discovery that in most cases the pattern of interaction does not change significantly during a project's life-cycle, even though the different stages of the project conceptualisation, design, construction and so on would seem to demand such change.

ECONOMIST: Network collaborations: The big picture | The