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Africa Mining

U.S. Apathy Paved the Way for China in Africa – by Howard W. French (Foreign Policy – May 22, 2023)

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Despite a strong foothold during the Cold War, Washington has since fumbled on the continent.

In April 1997, toward the end of the protracted demise of the United States’ longtime Cold War client Mobutu Sese Seko, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, flew to the capital of what was then called Zaire to try to persuade the besieged dictator to step down.

As I stood outside the drawing room of the palace where Mobutu and Richardson met in the morning, an aide to Richardson sidled up to me and whispered an invitation in my ear. If I, as the New York Times bureau chief for the region, would like to fly with them to the southern city of Lubumbashi to meet Laurent Kabila, the rebel leader whose Rwanda-backed forces were taking over Zaire, I should walk toward Richardson’s parked motorcade and stand there and stand by, not saying a word to anyone.

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Sudan Crisis: A Cautionary Tale For Nigeria – by Abachi Ungbo (Independent Nigeria – May 22, 2023)

https://independent.ng/

Sudan is profusely bleeding on the strength of its current painful war. It is such a great country with an interesting history. The country has a huge land mass – third in Africa. And it’s strategically located – close to the Red sea – “….a vital artery for the world economy.” It is a beneficiary of the famous Nile – making it fertile for agriculture so much so that it has attracted investments from the rich Arab countries.

It has abundant crude oil deposit until the secession of the South Sudan in 2011. Also, it’s very rich in natural resources. It has the third largest gold deposit in Africa – aside other minerals like uranium, manganese, chromite. Although it remains impoverished despite being so much blessed.

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S.Africa’s Tharisa driven to truck its chrome as rail fails (Reuters – May 19, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

May 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rail freight problems mean Tharisa Plc (THST.L) has to truck 85% of its chrome export volumes to ports, the diversified miner’s CEO Phoevos Pouroulis said on Friday, adding he saw no prospect of a swift solution.

State-owned logistics utility Transnet is failing to meet demand for freight rail services because of a shortage of locomotives and spare parts, as well as cable theft and vandalism of its infrastructure.

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How Russia’s Wagner Group funds its role in Putin’s Ukraine war by plundering Africa’s resources – by Debora Patta and Sarah Carter (CBS News – May 16, 2023)

https://www.cbsnews.com/

Garoua-Boulaï, Cameroon — Much of the bloodiest fighting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been around the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of ill-equipped Russian forces have died on the front lines since the end of last year. Many of those fighters have not been enlisted Russian soldiers, but mercenaries recruited and paid by the Wagner Group, a private army run by President Vladimir Putin’s long-time associate Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin’s seemingly endless supply of hired guns in Ukraine requires deep pockets, and a CBS News investigation has found that he’s funding his operations in large part by putting his private army to work in Africa.

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Sahel: French uranium miner evacuates expatriate staff from Niger as security threats grow (The North Africa Journal – May 16, 2023)

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French uranium miner Orano said on Friday it had evacuated expatriate staff from northern Niger after being warned of a threat in the jihadist-troubled region. The company late Thursday was advised of a “security event” in a village located halfway between the Malian border and the mining town of Arlit, it said in a statement. “Measures were immediately set in place to protect (Orano) sites,” it said.

Orano’s expatriate personnel and other foreign workers on temporary assignment living in a compound at Akokan near Arlit “were evacuated under escort and flown to Niamey,” Niger’s capital, it said. “The return of all the evacuated staff should take place in the next few days as soon as there is confirmation that any risk can be ruled out,” Orano said.

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Mysterious Killing of Chinese Gold Miners Puts New Pressure on Beijing – by Nicole Hong and Elian Peltier (New York Times – May 15, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The massacre of nine workers in the Central African Republic and other recent attacks raise questions about China’s ability to protect its citizens overseas.

The Chinese embassy in the Central African Republic had a stark warning for its compatriots in the landlocked nation: Do not leave the capital city of Bangui. Kidnappings of foreigners were on the rise, and any Chinese person outside of Bangui was to leave those areas immediately. Less than a week later, on March 19, a group of gunmen stormed a remote gold mine far away from Bangui and killed nine Chinese workers.

The Central African government has said that it investigated the massacre and concluded that a leading rebel group had orchestrated it. The rebels have denied the allegation and blamed a third party that operates in the country — Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which has in turn accused the rebels. None of the sides has presented evidence for its claims.

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The Salt Trade of Ancient West Africa – by Mark Cartwright (Brewninate.com – February 18, 2021)

https://brewminate.com/

Salt from the Sahara desert was one of the major trade goods of ancient West Africa where very little naturally occurring deposits of the mineral could be found. Transported via camel caravans and by boat along such rivers as the Niger and Senegal, salt found its way to trading centres like Koumbi Saleh, Niani, and Timbuktu, where it was either passed further south or exchanged for other goods such as ivory, hides, copper, iron, and cereals.

The most common exchange was salt for gold dust that came from the mines of southern West Africa. Indeed, salt was such a precious commodity that it was quite literally worth its weight in gold in some parts of West Africa.

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Why There Is More to Gold Than Meets the Eye – by Haleema Shah (Smithsonian Magazine – April 10, 2019)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/

The Smithsonian’s Gus Casely-Hayford says the precious metal was both a foundation for massive West African empires and a cultural touchstone

Gus Casely-Hayford grew up hearing stories about gold—the lustrous metal was part of family lore and legacy. Like a number of middle-class Sierra Leoneans, his maternal grandfather found success trading gold and traveled for days, sometimes weeks for work. After a trip, his grandfather would come home, hug his family and pull something out of his pocket for his daughter.

“He would bring from his pocket a little satchel full of gold nuggets and gold dust in tiny bags. And he would give my mother a small nugget that she could have made into a piece of jewelry as a remembrance of that particular journey,” he says.

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The Dystopian Underworld of South Africa’s Illegal Gold Mines – by Kimon de Greef (New Yorker – February 20, 2023)

https://www.newyorker.com/

Afew years ago, a mining company was considering reopening an old mine shaft in Welkom, a city in South Africa’s interior. Welkom was once the center of the world’s richest goldfields. There were close to fifty shafts in an area roughly the size of Brooklyn, but most of these mines had been shut down in the past three decades.

Large deposits of gold remained, though the ore was of poor grade and situated at great depths, making it prohibitively expensive to mine on an industrial scale. The shafts in Welkom were among the deepest that had ever been sunk, plunging vertically for a mile or more and opening, at different levels, onto cavernous horizontal passages that narrowed toward the gold reefs: a labyrinthine network of tunnels far beneath the city.

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Why China Is Investing in Africa’s Green Energy Future – by Kate Bartlett (Voice of America – May 3, 2023)

https://www.voanews.com/

JOHANNESBURG — A wind farm in Namibia and a floating solar farm on Zimbabwe’s massive Kariba Dam are among the new green energy projects Chinese companies are looking at investing in this year after Beijing pledged to help African countries address their energy problems with renewable sources rather than fossil fuels.

“Chinese overseas renewable energy investments aim to deliver China’s international climate commitments of accelerating the energy transition away from fossil fuels in Africa, China’s largest trading partner,” Lei Bian, a policy fellow at the The London School of Economics and Political Science, told VOA.

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Robert Friedland’s bullish predictions on copper and mining in Africa are starting to become reality – by Brendan Ryan MiningMX.com – April 26, 2023)

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DEVELOPMENTS in Chile where the socialist government is looking at nationalising a sector of its mining industry are bearing out the predictions made over the past few years at the Mining Indaba by billionaire mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland.

The fall out is likely to be beneficial for African mining countries – in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia – as investors reduce their exposure to Chile and mining companies start to look elsewhere for new lithium and copper projects.

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As War Rages in Sudan, Countries Angle for Advantage – by Declan Walsh (New York Times – April 22, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Even before its two leading generals went to war last week, “everyone wanted a chunk of Sudan,” an expert said of the strategically located country rich in natural resources.

NAIROBI, Kenya — As war consumes Sudan, nations from around the world have mobilized swiftly. Egypt scrambled to bring home 27 of its soldiers, who had been seized by one of Sudan’s warring parties. A Libyan warlord offered weapons to his favored side, American officials said.

Diplomats from Africa, the Middle East and the West have appealed for a halt to the fighting that has reduced parts of the capital, Khartoum, to a smoking battlefield. Even the leader of Russia’s most notorious private military company, Wagner, has gotten involved. Publicly, he has offered to help mediate between the rival generals fighting for power, but American officials say he has offered weapons, too.

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The View from England: Famous gems being both flaunted and hidden – by Chris Hinde (Northern Miner – April 20, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

By now you should have received your invitation to the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. If you are at Westminster Abbey on May 6 (or watching, having mislaid your invitation) you will see a sparkling parade, but not the Koh-i-noor diamond.

One of the world’s most famous gems, the 106 carat Koh-i-noor (Persian for ‘Mountain of Light’) will not be used by Camilla. Instead, Queen Mary’s crown will be modified using diamonds from Queen Elizabeth II’s personal collection, including three of the stones cut from the largest gem-quality diamond ever found (South Africa’s 3,106 carat Cullinan).

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BLOOD AND GOLD: How the Sudanese are Dying for Putin’s War in Ukraine – by Brian Latham (ByLine Times April 18, 2023)

Digital Edition (12.04.24)

Fighting in Sudan may yet influence the war in Ukraine because Sudanese gold smuggled by Russia’s Wagner mercenaries buys the weapons and munitions Russia needs. Wagner has been in Sudan since 2017, invited there by former dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir had met Putin in Moscow that year and, sensing the Sudanese population was growing restive, offered investment opportunities to Russia in exchange for support. The ‘’investment’’ came in the form of a mining company, Meroe Gold, owned by Russia’s M-Invest. Both companies are sanctioned by the US government and the EU, and both are owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin – who also owns Wagner.

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Russian mercenaries in Sudan: What is the Wagner Group’s role? (Al Jazeera – April 17, 2023)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

The Russian mercenary group has been accused of plundering Sudan’s gold resources to bankroll operations in Ukraine.

After battles have broken out in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), questions have arisen over the involvement of the Wagner Group, a powerful Russian mercenary organisation that has been active in Sudan for years.

Here is what you need to know about the group and its involvement in the African country:

What is the Wagner Group?

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