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Africa Mining

G5 Sahel West African Countries Bartering Mines for Russia’s Military Equipment – by Kestér Kenn Klomegâh (Business Post NG – January 8, 2023)

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In his series of end-year review reports, Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, told local Russian media that Russia would continue its interaction with G5 Sahel West African countries to fight terrorism as a terrorist threat in the region had not subsided and the West’s military presence was “not so effective” in Africa.

“Moscow will continue its interaction with the G5 Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania) on arms supplies to fight terrorism. Naturally, there will be contacts with the G5 Sahel,” Bogdanov told the Russian media and noted that the group was undergoing “some internal structural changes” currently because problems had arisen over Mali’s participation.

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Climate change action could set off a copper mining boom: how Zambia can make the most of it – by Twivwe Siwale (The Conversation – January 8, 2023)

https://theconversation.com/

At last year’s US Africa leaders summit in Washington the US signed an historic memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to develop an electric vehicle battery supply chain.

At the summit, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema also announced that Kobold metals, an exploration firm backed by billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, will invest US$150 million to develop a new mine in Zambia.

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China looks to Guinea’s vast Simandou iron ore mine to secure supply – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – January 8, 2023)

https://www.scmp.com

China is making a bigger bet on the huge Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea, which it sees as crucial as it tries to reduce reliance on Australian ore amid geopolitical tensions.

The mine – located in the Simandou mountain range of southern Guinea’s Nzérékoré region – is said to have the world’s largest untapped iron ore reserve of high quality, with an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes. The deposits have drawn Chinese multinationals including China Baowu Steel Group, the country’s largest iron and steel producer.

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Podcast Reveals Modern Day Slavery at CCP-Controlled Cobalt Mines in the Congo – by Bryan Jung (The Epoch Times – December 28, 2022)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

A revealing podcast has again brought to light the problem of slavery at Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-owned cobalt mines in the Congo and the hypocrisy of green energy advocates.

Siddharth Kara, author of Cobalt Red: How The Blood of The Congo Powers Our Lives and a visiting Harvard professor, told his host Joe Rogan about his research and findings after his visit to the mines in the Democratic Republic of The Congo (DRC). He explained to Rogan the brutal connection between lithium battery powered devices and their source of origin in the CCP-controlled cobalt mines.

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Export ban means Chinese firms will have to build plants in Zimbabwe to process lithium – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – December 31, 2022)

https://www.scmp.com/

Chinese companies that have made multimillion-dollar acquisitions in Zimbabwe will have to build lithium processing plants after the southern African nation banned the export of the metal in its raw form.

Companies must either set up local processing plants or provide proof of exceptional circumstances – and receive written permission from the government – before lithium can leave the country.

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Africa’s Growing Graphite Mining Potential – by Gareth Taylor (SP Global.com – December 26, 2022)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Electric Vehicle (EV) sales have seen considerable growth in recent years, reaching 9.4% of global passenger vehicle penetration in 2021, and expected to triple by 2026. S&P Global Commodities Insights estimate EV sales to grow by a compounded growth rate of over 28% over this period.

A consequence of this, battery materials have quickly become critical to the automotive supply chain with major companies establishing partnerships with both battery cell manufacturers and miners of the raw material.

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RCMP searches Ivanhoe Mines Vancouver office in hunt for documents on Swiss bank account transfers – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The RCMP has searched the Vancouver office of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. to seek information on $2.7-million in bank transfers from Ivanhoe to a Swiss bank account in connection with contracts for its Congolese mining operations, The Globe and Mail has learned.

The RCMP obtained the search warrant after saying it had reasonable grounds to believe that Ivanhoe violated Canada’s Criminal Code and Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act between 2014 and 2018, according to a brief disclosure by Ivanhoe in an annual information form.

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Billionaire-backed KoBold Metals to invest in Zambia copper mine (Reuters – December 14, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 14 (Reuters) – California-based exploration firm KoBold Metals, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify battery metal deposits, is investing $150 million to develop a copper mine in Zambia, the company announced at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C.

KoBold’s investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund founded by Microsoft’s Bill Gates and backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Virgin’s Richard Branson.

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Extortion ‘mafia’ hits SA’s R947 billion mining sector – by Felix Njini and Antony Sguazzin (Bloomberg News/News 24.com – December 2022)

https://www.news24.com/

A threatening letter, a derailed train, blocked roads, burnt vehicles, workers locked up. That’s what some of the world’s biggest mining companies say they’re battling in South Africa: Extortion.

Covid-19 plunged Africa’s most-industrialised country — home to the biggest deposits of metals ranging from platinum to chrome and manganese — into the deepest economic contraction in more than a quarter century, and its aftermath has left it with soaring inflation, one of the world’s highest unemployment rates and a collapse of local government services.

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Congo: Russian Mercenaries Seek Gold And Diamonds (Strategy Page – December 8, 2022)

https://www.strategypage.com/

In CAR (the Central African Republic) Russian mercenaries appear to have gone into the blood diamond business. Since 2018 Russia has acknowledged it has military trainers and mercenaries in the CAR. The Russian mercenary Wagner Group operates in the country.

A private security company associated with Wagner, Sewa Security Services, is also in the CAR. There is evidence that Sewa Security Services is linked to two companies suspected of exploiting gold and diamond mines in the CAR. Investigators assert that one of the companies, Diamville, is an “alias for Wagner ” in the CAR.

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DR Congo: Miner Glencore pays $180m in latest corruption case – by Daniel Thomas (British Broadcasting Corporation – December 5, 2022)

https://www.bbc.com/

The Swiss-based mining company, Glencore, has said it will pay $180m (£147m) to the Democratic Republic of Congo to settle corruption claims. The agreement covers an 11-year period from 2007 to 2018.

It is the latest in a series of corruption cases which has seen Glencore agree to pay out more than $1.6bn in fines this year. In May it admitted bribing officials in several African nations including DR Congo (DRC). The Congolese government has told the BBC it is not commenting.

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Russian mercenaries accused of using violence to corner diamond trade – by Mary Ilyushina and Francesca Ebel (Washington Post – December 6, 2022)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

A Russian mercenary group that has gained international attention for its role in the war in Ukraine is also active in one of Africa’s poorest countries, using violence and extortion in an effort to corner its extremely lucrative diamond industry, according to a new report issued by European-based researchers.

Individuals linked to the Wagner Group, which is most infamous for its brutal tactics in eastern Ukraine, have set up a shell company in the Central African Republic (CAR) to secure and sell diamonds, say researchers from two groups, France-based All Eyes on Wagner and the London-based Dossier Center, sponsored by exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and European Investigative Collaborations, a network of news organizations.

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UK, South Africa seek deeper cooperation on critical minerals – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 27, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

London and Pretoria announced a partnership to promote the responsible exploration, development, production, and processing of critical minerals in South Africa.

In a media statement, both governments said that this new collaboration will start with the launching of regular ministerial and technical dialogues between South Africa’s Department for Mineral Resources and Energy and the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

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Uranium-rich Niger struggles despite nuclear resurgence (RFI.fr/en- November 29, 2022)

https://www.rfi.fr/en/

Niamey (Niger) (AFP) – Prospects for the world’s nuclear industry have been boosted by the war in Ukraine and mounting hostility towards climate-wrecking fossil fuels — but Niger, one of the world’s biggest sources of uranium, has yet to feel the improvement.

The deeply impoverished landlocked Sahel state is a major supplier of uranium to the European Union, accounting for a fifth of its supplies, and is especially important to France, its former colonial power. But its mining industry is in the doldrums.

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Burkina Faso’s vanishing gold boom puts livelihoods at risk – by Anne Mimault and Helen Reid (Reuters – November 28, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

OUAGADOUGOU, Nov 28 (Reuters) – A gold mining boom in Burkina Faso over the last decade propelled Boukary Diallo from being a vendor on a market stall to running a meat business supplying a mine near Ouahigouya, his home town in the north of the country.

But as the West African country loses territory to Islamist militants and lurches from coup to coup, threatening to turn the boom to bust, Diallo is concerned he will be unable to retain all of his ten employees.

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