Browsing: Mining

• 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 …

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 …

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 …