Africa Mining – Page 140 – Republic of Mining

Zimbabwe’s desperate gold rush poisons children with mercury – by Andrew Mambondiyani (Reuters U.S. – July 13, 2015)

July 14, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

MUTARE, Zimbabwe, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Cynthia Dzimbati was exhausted. Her three-month-old baby strapped to her back and panning dish in hand, she had spent the whole day working the Mutare River for not one single ounce of gold.

“This is now my life. I lost my job,” said the 31-year old single mother, looking so worn out she could easily have passed for 50. “I have three children to feed.”

Dzimbati poured a few drops of mercury into a bowl of dirty water and stirred it with her bare hands.

The gold in the river is growing more scarce these days, she said, so the illegal artisanal miners are relying on mercury, a highly toxic substance supplied by the smugglers who buy their product, to trap the precious metal from the muddy river waters in the eastern borders of Zimbabwe.

Public health and environmental experts say the consequences are disastrous. Mercury is contaminating drinking water for miles around and causing neurological damage, especially to children.

Swiss Question Witnesses in Guinea in BSG Resources Bribery Probe – by Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – July 10, 2015)

July 13, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Investigators are looking into whether Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s mining arm paid bribes for rights

Swiss investigators said they have questioned several witnesses in the West African nation of Guinea in a broadening criminal probe into whether Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s mining arm paid bribes for the rights to one of the world’s largest iron-ore deposits.

The investigators, led by Geneva prosecutor Claudio Mascotto, left Guinea Friday after spending the week interviewing former government officials with ties to Guinea’s mining ministry and banking system who were involved in decisions related to the deal, according to people familiar with the investigation. The investigators also met with an attorney representing Mr. Steinmetz, the people said.

The interviews were another indication that individuals tied to BSG Resources Ltd., the mining arm of Mr. Steinmetz’s family-owned conglomerate, remains the focus of multiple investigations into allegations that bribes were paid to win mining rights in Guinea’s Simandou mountain range, where the iron-ore deposits are said to be among the world’s biggest.

Australian miners linked to hundreds of deaths, injuries in Africa – by Will Fitzgibbon (Sydney Morning Herald – July 11, 2015)

July 13, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/

Australian mining companies are linked to hundreds of deaths and injuries in Africa, which can go unreported at home. Some of the Australian Securities Exchange-listed companies include state governments as shareholders. One company recorded 38 worker deaths over an eleven-year period.

In Malawi, litigation continues against Paladin Africa Limited, a subsidiary of Perth-based Paladin Energy, and its subcontractor after an explosion disfigured one worker with such heat that his skin shattered when touched by rescuers. Two others died in the same incident.

Other allegations include employees in South Africa hacking a woman with a machete and Malian police killing two protesters after a mine worker reportedly asked authorities to dislodge a barricade on the road to the mine.

An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in collaboration with 13 African reporters, uncovered locally-filed lawsuits, violent protests and community petitions criticising some Australian companies.

Op-Ed: Why South Africa must do better – by Greg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst (SOUTH AFRICA Daily Maverick – July 8, 2015)

July 10, 2015

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/page/home/#.VZ_0N_lViko

While the end of Apartheid in April 1994 brought about political rights for the excluded black majority, their economic enfranchisement over the subsequent two decades has proven to be exceptionally difficult. The fundamental claim of our new book is that the overwhelming challenge that South Africa faces, and has to date failed to address, is unemployment.

As is well known, the current unemployment statistics are appalling and fall especially on young African youths who were promised a better future in 1994. If the unemployment crisis is not addressed, it will be impossible to lift many millions of people out of poverty. Especially in light of the Arab Spring – fuelled in good part by youths who believed that they had no future – the stability of South Africa cannot be assured given compounding issues of insecurity, unemployment and lack of investment.

The prospects of the African National Congress (ANC) will also be challenged if it cannot deliver jobs to the ‘born-free’ generation. Equally, the ANC’s trade union partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), with an ageing cohort of members, requires economic and employment growth to refresh their membership.

Two decades and five ‘new’ strategic economic plans into its democratic transition, South Africa does not have the luxury of too many more chances.

Madagascar to pass mining, petroleum bills in October: minister – by Lovasoa Rabary and Drazen Jorgic (Reuters Africa – July 10, 2015)

July 10, 2015

http://af.reuters.com/

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – Madagascar will pass long-delayed mining and petroleum bills in October when the national assembly returns from a recess, the country’s resources minister said, a step seen as vital to boost flagging exploration in the mineral-rich Indian Ocean island.

One of Africa’s poorest countries, Madagascar hopes to accelerate economic growth by developing natural resources, but has struggled to attract foreign investors in recent years due to political instability and falling commodity prices.

Madagascar’s parliament in May impeached the president, a move later overturned by the constitutional court, and nearly toppled the government in a censure vote earlier this month, ratcheting up tensions on the coup-prone nation.

Mining and Petroleum Minister Joeli Valerien Lalaharisaina told Reuters Madagascar plans to auction 96 offshore blocks in the Mozambique channel after the petroleum bill is passed.

“As soon as the petroleum bill is updated at the parliament, we will make an international bid round,” Lalaharisaina said.

INSIGHT-China’s ‘infrastructure for minerals’ deal gets reality-check in Congo – by Aaron Ross (Reuters U.S. – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 8 (Reuters) – W hen it was signed in 2007, China’s $6 billion ‘minerals for infrastructure’ deal in Congo stirred fears among Western countries that Beijing’s hunger for resources would erode their influence and saddle the vast central African country with unmanageable debt.

Eight years on, as Sicomines prepares to produce its first copper after long delays, the main lesson from the giant project is that investing in one of Africa’s most chaotic countries is a messy and frustrating business, no matter who you are.

While most mining projects in Congo go years before paying significant taxes under the mining code, Sicomines was meant to have an immediate economic impact. The government says the deal has already produced at least $800 million in infrastructure investment.

Chinese firms Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group Limited are building roads and hospitals in exchange for a 68 percent stake in the Sicomines copper and cobalt mine, one of the largest in Africa with about 6.8 million tonnes in proven reserves.

China’s state-run Exim Bank and smaller Chinese banks are stumping up $3 billion for infrastructure plus a further $3 billion to develop Sicomines, with all the loans to be repaid with mining profits.

[South Africa] Govt, private sector working constructively to tackle acid mine drainage in Wits basin – by Ilan Solomons (MiningWeekly.com – July 3, 2015)

July 3, 2015

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Although acid mine drainage (AMD) in the Witwatersrand basin is the result of a legacy of environmental mismanagement of water resources by mines and lax enforcement of regulations by government, these role-players are working to constructively address this problem, says Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) senior manager Marius Keet.

Keet was a speaker during the first day of black-owned training and conferencing company Intelligence Transfer Centre’s two-day EnviroMining conference, held in Johannesburg, in March.

The Witwatersrand basin, a largely underground geological formation that surfaces in the Witwatersrand region of Johannesburg, comprises the Western, Central and Eastern basins.

A current key focus for government is to prevent further decanting of AMD from the basins by pumping underground water to protect the environmental critical level (ECL). The ECL is the level above which the water in the mine voids at critical locations, which is where environmental features that need to be protected are at the lowest elevations.

The Marikana massacre report has brought no justice and no relief – by Jack Shenker (The Guardian – July 3, 2015)

July 3, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/international

Almost three years have passed since 34 men were shot dead on a hillside in South Africa, after asking for a living wage.

All of them had spent their working lives far below the Earth’s surface, blasting rocks in order to extract some of the metals that sit inside whatever computer or mobile phone you’re looking at right now. It’s hot, dangerous and dirty work, which leaves the body cramped and sore. Each of the miners had a name, a family and a story to tell, a past and a future.

Their relatives have waited more than 1,000 days to find out who was responsible for cutting those stories short and why. Last week, the findings of a judicial inquiry into the killings were finally made public. Most of the families missed the start of a speech by the South African president, Jacob Zuma, because the government hadn’t bothered to give them proper notice that a statement was imminent. The rest came through only in fragments, via a single erratic laptop feed in a language that many could not understand.

The inquiry’s report, as one commentator aptly observed, proved to be an exercise in throat-clearing. By the time Zuma’s summation was over, only one thing was clear: the wait for truth and accountability continues.

Tanzania: Alert to End Uranium Mining, Nuclear Weapons – by Deus Ngowi (All Africa.com – July 2, 2015)

July 2, 2015

http://allafrica.com/

Moshi — PEACE and environmental activists from around the world are gathering here in a quest to persuade African governments to slap a ban on uranium mining and nuclear weapons as they are twin threats.

Under the K-Project for Peace, the activists, having gone through scientific studies, have formed an opinion that it is in everybody’s best interest that uranium should remain in the ground, as its extraction is in every way hazardous.

K-Project for Peace started as an appeal by Ms Racheal Chagonja, an environmental and peace activist from Tanzania, when she saw the devastating effects of uranium mining (U-Mining) to the environment, health, and rights of indigenous people in Niger and Mali.

She did not want to see this happen to her country Tanzania, a potential future U-Mining country, and sensed the urgency to halt U-Mining in active sites and stop potential future UMining sites in other African countries Ms Chagonja reached out to like-minded civil society organisations in Africa to join her and the project has since grown from an appeal to an international campaign led by young African activists.

Platinum: Time for a cartel? – by Adrian Saville (Mineweb.com – July 1, 2015)

July 2, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

The chances are slim, and a stabilisation fund might be a better alternative.

An op-ed by Dr Adrian Saville, Professor of Economics at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and Chief Strategist at Citadel.

In spite of the beleaguered platinum sector effectively being an oligopoly, with three suppliers controlling the bulk of new mine supply, the industry is a price taker, vulnerable to wild swings in the prices of platinum group metals (PGMs).

There are several reasons for this, including an increasingly efficient use of metals – meaning that demand doesn’t grow at the same pace as industrial activity – and a rising contribution from recycled platinum. As a consequence, supply consistently exceeds demand, translating into platinum being a “surplus industry”. Producers are thus weaker than consumers, making them price takers.

To add evidence to the above, new mine supply of platinum has slipped steadily to 5.1 million ounces (Moz) in 2014 from a peak of 6.8Moz in 2006.

South Africa’s platinum sector faces crunch time as prices slide – by Ed Stoddard, Jan Harvey and Silvia Antonioli (Reuters Africa – July 1, 2015)

July 2, 2015

http://af.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) – South Africa’s platinum sector is at a crucial juncture as the metal’s price, near six-year lows, maintains a steady decline, with analysts now contemplating a move below $1,000 an ounce.

Platinum has fallen nearly 10 percent so far this year, and at current prices of less than $1,100 an ounce, many shafts in the world’s top producing country are losing money.

“(Platinum is) still firmly in a bear market, with little evidence of a bottom as yet,” independent technical analyst Cliff Green said last week. Its break through recent technical levels is “likely to trigger acceleration closer to $1,000, then $950,” he said.

The outlook could hardly be bleaker for an industry that was hit by a five-month strike last year that resulted in big wage increases it can ill afford in the face of soaring costs.

“Half of the industry, including major producers such as Lonmin, is cash-flow negative and if platinum slides below $1,000/oz nearly two thirds of the industry could be underwater,” said Cape Town-based Investec fund manager Hanré Rossouw.

Thousands of children rescued from dangerous work in Tanzania gold mines – by Kizito Makoye (Reuters U.S. – June 30, 2015)

July 2, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – More than 12,000 children have been rescued in the past three years from gold mines in northern Tanzania, according to children’s rights groups who fear thousands more youngsters are being forced to work in hazardous conditions for a pittance.

Plan International said the children from Geita region in northern Tanzania are being identified and reintegrated back into school as part of a donor-funded initiative to clamp down on child labor involving children as young as eight.

Police, government social welfare officers and NGO workers were all involved in the mission to rescue the children.

The children’s charity Plan said thousands of boys and girls are lured to work in gold mines in northern and western Tanzania every year in the hope of a better life – but many find themselves stuck in a cycle of poverty and despair.

Their health is also put at risk by direct exposure to mercury used to process gold ore and girls often end up selling sex which exposes them to the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

S.Africa’s mine massacre town sees little change three years on – by Zandi Shabalala (Reuters U.K. – June 26, 2015)

June 30, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

MARIKANA, South Africa, June 26 (Reuters) – Almost three years after South African police shot 34 striking miners dead outside platinum producer Lonmin’s Marikana mine, little has changed in this hardscrabble town that has become a symbol of post-apartheid hardship and inequities.

Cows and pigs root through litter-strewn dirt roads that snake past corrugated iron shacks – a picture of grinding poverty atop one of the world’s wealthiest mineral deposits.

A long-awaited probe into the slayings, unveiled on Thursday by President Jacob Zuma, found Lonmin “did not respond appropriately” to the escalating violence during a wildcat strike in August of 2012.

Though the report slammed Lonmin for failing to comply with its social and housing obligations, few in Marikana felt it would make much difference.

Labour tensions in South Africa’s mines continue, stemming in part from squalid living conditions that have persisted two decades after the end of apartheid.

Marikana Miners’ Working Conditions Need Fresh Probe, Vavi Says – by Amogelang Mbatha (Bloomberg News – June 29, 2015)

June 29, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The former general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions said a fresh inquiry into the circumstances of miners in Marikana area, where at least 44 people died in violence in 2012, is needed to prevent a repeat of the killings.

“A new commission must be established to look at living and working conditions of miners to prevent a Marikana massacre from happening again,” Zwelinzima Vavi said during a debate about the findings by a commission investigating the event in Johannesburg on Monday. Vavi, an outspoken critic of the ruling African National Congress’s economic policies and alleged corruption under President Jacob Zuma, was expelled from the labor federation in March for gross misconduct.

Zuma on June 25 released a report that recommended Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega’s competence to hold office be investigated after 34 miners were gunned down by police near Lonmin Plc’s Marikana platinum mines on Aug. 16, 2012.

The workers had been camping out on a rocky outcrop close to the operations demanding that the company increase their pay to 12,500 rand ($1,020) monthly in a country where about one of every four people is unemployed.

Coal worth more to SA than gold – by Sungula Nkabinde (Moneyweb.com – June 26, 2015)

June 26, 2015

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/

A coal sector strike would hurt the economy more.

The gold sector wage negotiations have taken centre stage in mining circles this week, detracting attention from the upcoming coal sector talks scheduled to start on July 2.

According to this StatsSA article, coal has leapfrogged gold as South Africa’s most important resource, contributing more to GDP. As the resource has become critical for electricity generation in SA, a protracted coal mining strike could leave the economy in a worse off state than if the gold sector negotiations had to turn sour.

Xavier Prévost, senior coal analyst at XMP Consulting, shares this sentiment saying that coal was the top contributor to GDP in 2014 with R101.5 billion in revenue. Gold was at R46.8 billion, behind Platinum Group Metals (PGM) and iron ore, which generated R77.5 billion and R58.7 billion in revenue respectively.

“Coal [is the most important commodity for the future of South Africa’s economy] because it is our source of energy. Without it the whole country will be paralysed, including the gold, iron ore and PGM mines,” says Prévost.