This paper investigates the factors influencing the internationalization of mining firms into Africa and the strategies employed. It focuses on the FDI of South African mining firms because of the dominance of this country in the extractive resources industry for over a century. A semi-structured interview survey process consisting of written questionnaires and one-on-one interviews that incorporated both structured as well as open-ended questions was used. The structured questionnaire attempted to identify the entry-mode characteristics of the mining firms as well as the importance of the factors influencing the internationalization of mining firms. The open-ended questionnaire was designed to be probing in nature, in order to identify how mining companies manage the factors deemed present in an operational context. More than 80% of South African mining firms by market capitalization provided responses to the survey. The research revealed that security of tenure; political stability and the availability of infrastructure were the three most important factors influencing the internationalization of South African mining firms out of the nine factors tested in the survey. The most widespread strategies used to manage these factors were political lobbying, bargaining and negotiation.
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