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Africa Mining

Transform or ship out, Shabangu warns as Zuma praises GlencoreXstrata – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – November 29, 2013)

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

HOTAZEL (miningweekly.com) – Mining companies that refused to transform had no place in South Africa, Minerals Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said on Friday, shortly before President Jacob Zuma, from the same platform, praised the confidence that London-listed GlencoreXstrata had demonstrated in South Africa by listing on the JSE.

Both were speaking at the launch of the integrated manganese mine and sinter plant, in the Northern Cape, and a planned manganese smelter at Coega, in the Eastern Cape. “Beneficiation is the way the whole of Africa has to go,” Zuma said, quipping that he had instructed Shabangu to make it a mining licence condition. The President has just returned from Ghana, which, he said was also striving for maximum local minerals beneficiation.

Earlier Kalagadi Manganese chairperson and co-founder Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, the woman who led the project in the teeth of the world’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, said of the final leg of the project: “The smelter must be constructed. Forward we go, backwards, never”, to cheers from her team.

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Analysis: Madagascar faces struggle to restore mining industry – by Alain Iloniaina and Richard Lough (Reuters India – December 2, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

ANTANANARIVO – (Reuters) – Madagascar’s next president will struggle with low metals prices and distrustful companies as he seeks to revive a mining industry that was the main source of foreign investment until a 2009 coup cut flows to a trickle.

The primary risk is that neither of the two candidates clearly wins a mandate on December 20, prolonging political turmoil. But both say they aim to restore mining, which five years ago attracted $8 out of every $10 in foreign direct investment to the Indian Ocean island.

“The mining sector is sick,” Mines Minister Rajo Daniella Randriafeno told Reuters. “It’s like a person who is slowly losing the blood that keeps him alive.”

Madagascar’s deposits of nickel, titanium, cobalt, iron, coal and uranium as well as its hydrocarbon prospects had previously encouraged foreign firms to queue for deals. Among them, Rio Tinto (RIO.L) began mining ilmenite, an ingredient used as pigment in paints, paper and plastics.

The political turmoil that has followed the 2009 power grab by President Andry Rajoelina, however, has choked off the issuance of all but a handful of new mining permits.

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Platinum and copper the metals for the end of the decade – Friedland – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – December 2, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Robert Friedland’s presentation at MineAfrica in London avows that the supercycle is not dead and sees huge value ahead for his Ivanhoe company’s new Pt, Cu and Zn projects in South Africa and the DRC.

LONDON – There are two mining related events on in London today – Mines and Money’s first day (of three) – and MineAfrica (just today) – luckily they are not being held so far apart as to make attending some of both impossible. So, so far today I have taken in talks from Frank Holmes and John Meyer at the former event – both presenting a relatively optimistic picture for mining over the next few years – Holmes looking at what he terms the E7 countries – for the most part those with the largest populations and enormous growth potential as witnessed by China’s huge urbanisation programmes which have totally transformed the country’s economy – and the feeling that this process could be underway in the others too. Holmes also felt that gold and gold stocks have been hugely oversold and is looking for a turnaround here.

From Mines and Money a quick journey to MineAfrica and to hear Robert Friedland’s take on the industry over the next few years. Obviously Friedland was talking his Ivanhoe book with his very positive views on Africa in general and on his Platreef, Kamoa and Kipushi Projects – the first in South Africa and the next two in the Democratic Republic of Congo – in particular. As expected he was hugely positive on all three – Platreef as a game-changer for the platinum sector, Kamoa as one of THE copper projects of the future as a far higher grade option than most, if not all, other major known new copper projects and Kipushi as having huge high grade zinc mining potential, but with copper, gold and silver also.

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South Africa’s mining sector a ‘sunrise industry’ – Motlanthe – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – November 27, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Despite some of South Africa’s mining sector critics pointing out the negatives, South Africa’s Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is on an official State visit to Canada, on Tuesday conversely endeavoured to lift out the positives, saying a lot of progress had been made in transforming the sector from a “sunset business” into a “sunrise industry”.

Flanked by South Africa’s Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant and Deputy Minerals Resources Minister Godfrey Oliphant, Motlanthe – in an intimate interview in Toronto – said South Africa was indeed ready and open for business, citing the achievements of almost 20 years of democracy having helped to transform archaic industry practices, designed to benefit employers at the expense of the poor.

“While some people would want to say that South Africa’s mining industry is a sunset industry, its in fact a sunrise industry,” he said.

Mining remained central to the SA economy. Motlanthe affirmed that the industry was still the country’s most significant currency earner and despite more than a century of intensive exploitation, the industry was but turning a leaf and was indeed poised for significant growth, boosted by newly overhauled mining legislation, dealing with inefficiencies, and by lifting domestic beneficiation levels.

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In Africa, Canada’s ‘economic diplomacy’ is nothing new – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 27, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JOHANNESBURG — The Conservative government’s new strategy of “economic diplomacy” is largely just a formalization of what its diplomats have already been quietly doing on the ground in places like Africa.

While the government complains that its diplomats in “tweed jackets” should be buying “business suits” and devoting themselves to trade deals, the reality is that Canadian diplomats have been focusing on business and trade for years already, under heavy pressure from Stephen Harper’s government.

A good example is Madagascar, where the biggest priority for Canadian diplomats is to protect a mammoth $5.5-billion nickel-cobalt mine, which is 40-per-cent owned by Sherritt International Corp. of Toronto.

Diplomats from other countries have been fighting hard to restore democracy to the politically turbulent country, which was rocked by a coup in 2009. But for Canada, the battle for democracy has taken a back seat to the business interests of the Toronto-based mining company.

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Tin miners getting twice price for certified DRC ore – US State Department – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – November 26, 2013)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Tin-mining companies that certified their ore against conflict were receiving prices double those of noncertified participants, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Peter Harrell said on Tuesday.

“Miners participating in that scheme are earning $4/kg for tin ore compared to $2/kg for noncertified tin ore,” Harrell said, referring to a tin-led initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) South Kivu region to tag and certify tin ore from conflict-free mines.

Harrell was speaking from Washington in a telephonic press conference call on compliance with the conflict minerals provisions of Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires companies listed on US stock exchanges to assure that tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold sourced from Africa’s Great Lakes region have not funded conflict.

USAID DRC mission director Diana Putman, who joined the discussion from Kinshasa, said 150 mine sites in the DRC were currently in the traceability system and being accepted as conflict free by smelters in Asia, Europe and the US.

“But that is only 10% or less of the mine sites in the east, so there’s still a lot more work to do,” Putman said.

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Zimbabwe Wealth Fund to Get Share of State Mining Revenue – by Godfrey Marawanyika & Franz Wild (Bloomberg News – November 24, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Zimbabwe’s planned sovereign wealth fund may get as much as a quarter of mining royalties and the same share of “special dividends” on state mineral and metal sales. Parliament will also be able to appropriate money to benefit the fund.

A 16-member board will decide on the fund’s activities, allowing it to make withdrawals, primarily to pay for infrastructure developments, according to a draft of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe Act obtained by Bloomberg News.

“That document will be taken to parliament sometime early next year,” Fred Moyo, the country’s deputy mines minister, said in a Nov. 22 interview by phone. “It’s critical for us to have a sovereign wealth fund, and that’s what every nation should do to address vulnerable situations.”

President Robert Mugabe, who extended his 33-year rule in July elections, is considering a range of options to finance the recovery of Zimbabwe’s economy, which shrank by 40 percent between 2000 and 2008. The country suffered from inflation estimated at 500 billion percent by the International Monetary Fund after the seizure of white-owned commercial farms slashed exports of crops including tobacco and roses.

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Church seeks answers over South African mine massacre – by Maeve McClenaghan (The Guardian – November 23, 2013)

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

British shareholders, including union Unison, express concern over handling of strike that left 34 dead

British shareholders in the platinum mine company, Lonmin, including trade union Unison and the Church of England, have expressed concern about its handling of a strike that ended in a massacre in South Africa.

Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found close co-operation between the London-listed company, the South African police and the African National Congress in the events leading up to, and during, violence in August 2012, when 34 striking miners were shot dead by police. The events at the Marikana mine were the worst violence in South Africa since apartheid. There is no suggestion that the company or the police planned the shootings.

Unison, Britain’s biggest trade union, holds Lonmin shares through its pension scheme. Trustees of the scheme said they would bring up the findings at a meeting with fund managers this week and challenge the Lonmin board about the events at Marikana.

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OPINION: Congo-Kinshasa: Blood Coltan – Remote-Controlled Warfare and the Demand for Strategic Minerals – by Giunta Carrie (All Africa.com – November 21, 2013)

http://allafrica.com/

The atrocious war in Congo is tied to the huge appetite in the west for strategic minerals essential to the electronics and military industries. The criminal regimes in Uganda and Rwanda sponsor proxy militias whose violence facilitates the smuggling of these minerals through the two African nations.

The Congolese war, which has killed over six million people since 1996, is the deadliest conflict in the world since the Second World War. If you add the number of deaths in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Rwanda over the same period, it would still not equal the millions who have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Part of a solution to this is for western governments to hold Rwanda and Uganda accountable for funding proxy armies in the DRC. The retreat of M23 rebels from the Eastern DRC in recent days shows international pressure to stop Rwanda from supporting the rebels is working. The DRC insurgency is far from over, as other rebel groups are still to be defeated. There is a long way to go before stabilization in the region will be possible.

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South Africa’s role in shaping the platinum market wanes – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day – November 20, 2013)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ [South Africa]

SOUTH Africa, the world’s largest source of primary platinum, does not exert the influence it once did over the platinum market as alternative supplies become more available, and the country needs to address cost reductions for its production as a matter of urgency.

Speaking at a recent mining conference, Stephen Forrest, a director and chairman of SFA Oxford, warned of growing metal supply from recycling and countries with excess inventory.

Johnson Matthey said South African platinum supplies would rise less than 1% to 4.12-million ounces this year because of industrial action and safety stoppages. Zimbabwe, while a long way behind South Africa, was showing rapid growth, with output shooting up 15% this year to 400,000oz, a record high, it said.

South Africa provides three-quarters of the world’s platinum, but its role in shaping the market is diminishing, Mr Forrest said. “You’d think such concentrated supply would be enough to secure a significant influence on price, but look closer and it’s clear that South Africa’s mighty market grasp is slipping.”

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Copper-Rich Congo Province Sees More Cash After Rebel Defeat – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – November 18, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s provincial governments expect a windfall of reconstruction and development funds after an insurgency by M23 rebels ended, said Moise Katumbi, governor of the copper-rich Katanga province.

Congo’s government diverted cash meant for the provinces to pay for its fight against the M23 insurgents in the east of the country, Katumbi, 48, said in an interview in Lubumbashi, Katanga’s capital. The rebels ended their 20-month rebellion on Nov. 5 after Congo’s army seized key positions, including the rebel stronghold of Bunagana.

“Our budget for reconstruction has been blocked by the central government because of the war,” Katumbi said on Nov. 11. “Without this war, there will be more money.” Congo’s provinces have complained that the central government in Kinshasa keeps too much of their revenue. The state is required by law to send 40 percent of a province’s revenue back to the provincial government in a process called retrocession.

Last year, when M23 began its rebellion, the government provided only 43 percent of $1.06 billion it budgeted for retrocession to Congo’s 11 provinces, according to documents on the Budget Ministry’s website.

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Rwanda: People Too Have a Right to Minerals Trade – by Felly Kimenyi (All Africa.com – November 15, 2013)

http://allafrica.com/

The writer is an editor at The New Times.

OPINION

Kigali is playing host to a summit of stakeholders in the mining sector from across the world, and Rwandan businesses are keenly involved as players in this global business.

Local traders say they have for years been treated unfairly in the global minerals chain, with unfounded suspicion, and were determined to make their case at the conference.

The Sixth Responsible Mineral Supply Chains summit is seeking solutions to the perpetual problem of the so-called ‘conflict minerals’ to ensure that dealers and end-users do not end up financing bloody conflicts in the region – knowingly or otherwise.

Reports, year in, year out, by such groups as the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have previously alleged that Rwanda was a major transit for illicit minerals from the Congo.

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As Kinross revamps, profit plunges 80 per cent – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – November 14, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Kinross Gold Corp.’s third-quarter profit sank 80 per cent as a result of lower bullion prices, but the company further slashed costs and said it would produce more gold than previously expected from its mines in the Americas, West Africa and Russia.

The improved outlook for Kinross is good news for a company that has seen its share price plummet after it spent a year writing down much of its expensive acquisition of Red Back Mining Inc. and its Tasiast gold project in the Mauritanian desert.

The company cut its total capital expenditures for the year to $1.4-billion (U.S.) from $1.45-billion and said it expects its expenses to fall even further in 2014 to between $800-million and $900-million.

“We continue our focus on reducing capital and other costs in a lower gold price environment,” Kinross chief executive officer J. Paul Rollinson said in a statement announcing the company’s third-quarter results.

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Zimbabwe: Platinum Sector On Alert As Mugabe Threatens ‘Absurd’ Export Freeze – by Alex Bell (AllAfrica.com – November 12, 2013)

http://allafrica.com/

Platinum mining firms in Zimbabwe are said to be on alert, following threats by Robert Mugabe that all exports of the metal will be halted.

Mugabe was speaking at a ZANU PF meeting over the weekend, where he accused platinum firms of ignoring a government ‘directive’ two years ago to set up a Zim based refinery.

“Let us close our doors immediately and say no raw platinum will go to South Africa. The former minister gave them two years and we must see them now arranging to build a refinery,” the state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying.

“If they have not started, after that warning, building a refinery then when the time comes for us to demand that all refining has to be done here, they should not blame us.”

While Zimbabwe has the second largest platinum reserves in the world, raw product is exported to South Africa for refining.

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CORRECTED-INSIGHT-Rebel defeat boosts Kabila but peace in Congo distant – by Pete Jones (Reuters India – November 13, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

KINSHASA, Nov 11 (Reuters) – The defeat of Democratic Republic of Congo’s most important rebel group has strengthened President Joseph Kabila’s grip on political power, but bringing peace to his vast central African nation remains a remote prospect.

“Thank you, Kabila,” sang thousands of women dressed in white who marched through the centre of the sprawling riverside capital Kinshasa last week, celebrating the army offensive that routed the M23 rebels in Congo’s distant east.

A peace deal to be signed on Monday in Entebbe, Uganda, aims to draw a line under the 20-month rebellion, the most serious conflict in Congo since a major war ended in 2003.

It caps a dramatic turnaround for the 42-year-old president, whose reputation was in tatters just a year ago, accused by the opposition of rigging a 2011 election and humiliated by M23’s capture of Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo.

“It is historic. It’s hard to exaggerate this moment,” said Jason Stearns, project director at the Rift Valley Institute. “This is the first time this Congolese army has defeated a serious armed group militarily … Kabila is riding high.”

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