Africa has all sorts of interesting minerealogical features - there is that natural nuclear reactor from the high-grade uranium deposits. I think I heard that Africa is also the sole source of certain rare elements like irridium and niobium - apparently asteroidal elements that only crashed there.
Also, since gold was the currency of choice throughout most of history across Asia and Europe, and Asian/European civilization didn't have much overland contact with southern Africa due to the Sahara desert, much of the easy to get gold deposits in Asia and Europe were probably mined out over the course of thousands of years. India had quite a lot of gold stuff. So did China and Korea. Maybe Africa is just unusual in that we hadn't started mining it until recently.
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