Browsing: Mining

• DRC Joins the Organisation of Southern Cooperation after depositing the Instrument of Acceptance
• Secretary-General Manssour Bin Mussallam received the Instrument of Acceptance.
• The OSC, aimed at fostering cooperation and development among Southern Hemisphere countries

The Republic of the Congo has consolidated its full membership status of the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC) by depositing the Instrument of Acceptance by Daniel Owassa, Ambassador of the DRC to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union.

Secretary-General Manssour Bin Mussallam received the Instrument of Acceptance at a handover ceremony yesterday at the OSC Headquarters in Addis Ababa.

The Republic of the Congo is a founding member of the OSC. The depositing of the Instrument of Acceptance signifies the completion of the full membership process by countries in the Global South.

Read Also: SkyPower, AFC, and DRC join forces for $2.3Bn Green Giant project

H.E. Bin Mussallam said the occasion marked the beginning …

• Thungela Resources Limited has been busy with mergers and acquisitions to grow its geographic footprint and diversify from its pure play coal business.
• The JSE listed miner recently made the news when it agreed to purchase an Australian coal miner called Ensham.
• The acquisition of Ensham is an all cash transaction wherein Thungela is taking a 65% interest. 

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed pure play coal mining company which was created from the demerger of Anglo American’s coal assets has been on a mergers and acquisitions spree. Thungela announced earlier this month that it had acquired an Australian coal mine. This move has been read by market analysts as a risk mitigation move by diversifying away from South Africa. It also bought out its Black Empowerment partners in a US$ 60 million transaction.

Green Bonds: A possible solution to the Zimbabwe power crisis

On the M&A front, Thungela bought …

Oil and gas exports from Senegal are scheduled to begin in earnest in 2023, spelling a new dawn for the economy of the West African country, popularly renowned as the ‘Gateway to Africa,’ located in the western most  point of the continent. The Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) LNG gas project, will be a game changer for the country, radically transforming its economy, which  is projected to register robust growth in 2023, outshining other countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the recent World Economic Outlook forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Senegal’s economy will grow by 8.1 per cent in 2023, against the projected Sub-Saharan African growth of 3.7 percent.

In reiteration, the Africa Economic Outlook (AEO) published by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), indicates that Senegal’s economy has decelerated in 2022 to 4.6 percent, but is estimated to accelerate to 8.2 percent, due to public and private investments …

Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 2.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2022 compared with the second quarter of 2022. The largest positive contributors were gold with 9.6 per cent; diamonds with 20.4 per cent; coal 3.2 contributing per cent; and manganese ore with 10.2 per cent and contributing 0.7 of a percentage point according to Stats SA.

Mineral sales at current prices increased by 20.7 per cent year-on-year in September 2022. The largest positive contributors were: coal with 63.1 per cent and contributed 14.1 percentage points; gold contributed 122.4 per cent and contributed 10.0 percentage points; ‘other’ metallic minerals 164.0 per cent and contributed 3.1 percentage points; and manganese ore with 33.0 per cent and contributing 1.7 percentage points.

South Africa produces over 250 million tonnes of coal every year. It is estimated that almost 75 per cent of this coal is used domestically. Nearly 80 per …

The government said several reasons have necessitated the new policy shift. The spike in mineral earnings ensures that there is revenue to support public expenditure while mineral reserves are also built to accumulate savings.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa said a new policy that compels miners to pay half of their royalties in goods and half in cash will start from this month as the country attempts to make precious essence and mineral stashes for the first time.

The southern African nation will hold gold, diamonds, platinum and lithium reserves, Mnangagwa said in his daily column, published in the Sunday Mail review.…

Patrice Thlopane Motsepe has entrepreneurship baked in his bones.

It seems the South African born mining magnate has natural instincts for enterprise.

Looking at his accomplishments in the mining industry and business world its not hard to imagine that he possesses the so called “animal spirits” that renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes said drives entrepreneurs and causes them to see opportunities for value where others cannot.

• Patrice Motsepe is a South African billionaire who has made a fortune estimated by Forbes to be in the region of US$ 2.6 billion.
• His fortune has come from investments in the mining industry through a company he founded in 1997 called African Rainbow Minerals Limited.
• African Rainbow Minerals is involved in the mining of gold, platinum, coal, ferrous and base metals.

According to Forbes, Motsepe’s personal fortune is estimated to be in the region of US$ 2.6 billion. Motsepe founded and …

Mining MX the South African mining industry journal published its 2022 edition of the Mining Yearbook recently.

For many years, this publication produced in conjunction with leading business weeklies is the holy grail for stakeholders in the mining industry with a particular interest in South Africa and the region. This year’s publication is freely available on the Mining MX website.

The 2022 edition ran under the theme “Rock Bottom: Why South African Mining cannot risk more Mantashe blunders”. The theme is a harsh though factual indictment on the effect of government policy on the mining industry personified by the current minister of mines and former communist Gwede Mantashe.

• South Africa owes its existence as a nation to its mining industry which remains one of its largest contributors to its GDP.
• Mining MX published its annual Mining Year Book which shoed that mining investment in South Africa is on the decline.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) joined the East African Community (EAC) in March 2022 in a development that has been largely feted as positive.

This decision was reached by the heads of state of the other member countries. The BBC in a report that covered the development said that although the country had officially become a member of the regional bloc, not much would change right away. This is because at that time in March 2022 Congolese lawmakers still had to ratify the decision.

The report added that Congolese citizens looking to travel to other member countries of the East African Community had to wait a little while longer. The BBC gave the example of South Sudan which took four months to become a fully-fledged member in 2016.

• DRC recently joined the EAC which is a move expected to help the country realize its mineral potential through regional

The answer is in the law and the governance models that these countries approach. The way in which the governments of those countries approach the mining industry is imperative.

In South Africa, the natural resource curse is more pronounced in the sense that while the mining sector has made a few individuals fabulously wealthy, inequality in that country has meant that while the richest of the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

How can governments approach the mining sector to ensure its development leads to broad-based and shared prosperity for all? The answer is the same. The answer is in the respective governments and the legal frameworks for the mining industries of those countries.…

Southern Africa, East and West Africa saw their flows of FDI rise in 2021. It was only in Central and North Africa that flows of foreign direct investment were flat or declined, respectively. Flows to North Africa fell by 5 per cent to $9.3 billion.

Egypt saw its FDI drop by 12% as large investments in exploration and production agreements in extractive industries were not repeated. Despite the decline, Egypt has the second highest flows of FDI in 2021 on the continent.

UNCTAD reports that it expects FDI flows to increase in North Africa owing to pledges of as much as US$ 22 billion to the region from Gulf states. In Egypt, according to the UNCTAD World Investment Report 2022 tripled green field projects of US$ 5.6 billion and real estate projects of US$ 1.5 billion.

In Morocco, FDI flows increased by 52% to US$ 2.2 billion. This was driven …