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Africa Mining

Chinese Mining Deals Under Review as Congo Targets Windfall Profits – by David Malingha (Bloomberg News – Novemeber 22, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Democratic Republic of Congo wants a mining deal it signed with China more than a decade ago to be reworked, with a view to securing all the funding that was pledged for infrastructure projects and a share of windfall profits.

A review of the 2008 minerals-for-infrastructure contract that includes the Sicomines copper-cobalt mining project should ideally be concluded by year-end, Congolese Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said in an interview in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, during the COP27 climate summit. Additional payments were warranted because the project was making super-profits due to a surge in commodity prices, he said.

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Barrick Gold faces Ontario lawsuit for alleged killings and abuses at Tanzanian mine – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 24, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Two law firms have filed suit against Barrick Gold Corp. in Ontario Superior Court on behalf of 21 Tanzanians who allege that they or their family members were killed, injured or tortured by police guarding a Barrick gold mine.

The case, filed on Wednesday morning, is the first to be pursued against Barrick in Canadian courts for alleged human rights violations at its mines abroad. It follows a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2020 that allowed a Vancouver-based mining company to be sued in British Columbia for alleged abuses in Eritrea.

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Gold Fields refuses to make new offer for Yamana, despite competing bid from Canadian miners – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – November 7, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

South Africa’s Gold Fields Ltd. will not make a new bid to buy Toronto-based Yamana Gold Inc. after Canadian miners Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Pan American Silver Corp. on Friday made a combined US$4.8-billion offer that includes stock and cash.

Yamana on Friday said the new proposal is superior to the one it inked with Gold Fields on May 31 and that the South African miner had five days to match it. But Gold Fields’ chief executive Chris Griffith said the company’s board unanimously voted not to propose a new offer.

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Gold Fields target Yamana catches eyes of Agnico Eagle, Pan American – by Helen Reid and Mrinalika Roy (Reuters – November 4, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

Nov 4 (Reuters) – Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (AEM.TO) and Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO) swooped in with a joint bid for Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) on Friday, in an attempt to scupper Gold Fields’ (GFIJ.J) planned acquisition of the Canada-listed gold miner.

The cash and stock offer, valuing Yamana at around $4.8 billion, would see Agnico and Pan American split Yamana’s mines between them. Yamana shareholders would receive $1.0406 in cash, 0.0376 of an Agnico Share and 0.1598 of a Pan American Share for each share held.

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China Looks to Africa in Race for Lithium – by Kate Bartlett (Voice of America – June 4, 2022)

https://www.voanews.com/

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — It is the new gold rush, and China is leading the hunt as prices surge. Only it’s not gold everyone’s looking for, it’s lithium. Many say the future of electric vehicle production and, more broadly, combatting climate change, depend on the rare metal.

Prices for the “green metal” have seen an almost 500% increase in the past year, according to Bloomberg. Sung Choi, a metals analyst at BloombergNEF, told VOA, “The cost of lithium has risen because virtually all automakers have jumped onto producing electric vehicles.”

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Minerals and China’s Military Assistance in the DR Congo – by Robert Bociaga (The Diplomat – October 31, 2022)

https://thediplomat.com/

Beijing’s growing investments in strategic resources in the DRC go hand in hand with increased military assistance intended to secure those assets.

GOMA, DRC — China’s growing investments in the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) allow it to demand special treatment.

The Congolese army has been deployed several times to protect Chinese mining interests in the volatile east of the country. In line with this cooperation, China has also offered training to the Congolese military personnel, as well as security assistance to Chinese companies.

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AVZ vs Zijin: the fight for the world’s biggest lithium deposit – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – October 30, 2022)

https://www.scmp.com/

The discovery of a gigantic deposit of lithium had raised hopes for the sleepy town of Manono in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after a tin boom went bust years earlier.

Australia-based AVZ Minerals announced in 2019 that the Manono lithium-tin project in the DRC probably had the world’s largest untapped lithium deposit, with estimates of 400 million tonnes of lithium ore. Lithium is essential in making rechargeable batteries for phones and electric vehicles, and is in high demand as countries around the world make the shift to green energy.

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Manono Lithium-Tin Project (Mining Technology – March 9, 2021)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The Manono Lithium-Tin Project is an open-pit mining development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in central Africa. It is estimated to be one of the largest lithium-rich LCT (lithium, caesium, tantalum) pegmatite deposits in the world.

AVZ Minerals currently holds a 65% interest in the property while the remaining stake is held by Dathcom Mining, a joint venture between AVZ Minerals and La Congolaise D’Exploitation Miniere of the DRC Government. AVZ Minerals reached an agreement to acquire an additional 10% equity in the project for $15.5m in September 2020.

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Will Africa’s metals boom suffer the same curse as oil? (The Citizen/AFP – October 26, 2022)

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/

Mechanical diggers are hard at work in the bleak landscape of the Moanda open-cast mine in Gabon, using giant jaws to rip out manganese and then dump the ore into trucks with a crash.

“We’re lucky here in Moanda. We find it about five to six metres (about 18 feet) below the surface,” said manager Olivier Kassibi, whose mine yields 36 tonnes of manganese each day.

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How the DRC became the battleground of a proxy war over precious resources – by Andres Schipani (Financial Times – October 27, 2022)

https://www.ft.com/

Local and foreign-backed forces are waging a deadly offensive in the mineral-rich heart of Africa

Some residents of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo simply call it la guerre sans fin — the war without end. One morning in August, Abigael Bahati felt it in her skin as she searched for cassava leaves close to the village of Kanombe.

“I was hungry and I had gone to look for food but I was caught,” says the 28-year-old mother of an 18-month-old baby. “They took me away and raped me,” she recalls, adding that others fled in fear of their lives.

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Fund manager denounces Gold Fields’ planned US$6.7-billion acquisition of Yamana – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 27, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The top gold fund manager with the firm that owns the largest amount of shares in South Africa’s Gold Fields Ltd. GFI-N and Toronto’s Yamana Gold Inc. is denouncing the proposed merger of the two companies as Gold Fields struggles to win shareholder support for the deal.

Joe Foster, portfolio manager with New-York-based Van Eck said in an interview the deal is “poorly structured,” received a “horrible market reaction” and he cannot comprehend the rationale for the multibillion-dollar transaction from the viewpoint of either the acquirer or the target.

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Communities in Africa twice as likely to have HIV when mines open nearby – by Edith Magak (Aidsmap.com – October 18, 2022)

https://www.aidsmap.com/

When industrial mines open in sub-Saharan Africa, the local population becomes twice as likely to be HIV positive than before the mines opened. Mining operations also increase the likelihood of multiple sex partners by 70%, high-risk sex partners by 30%, and condomless sex by 70%.

Additionally, mining communities have 20% less knowledge about HIV than non-mining areas. Researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute recently published these findings in the journal AIDS.

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Congolese NGOs decry mining in main refuge of ‘Africa’s unicorn’ – by Erikas Mwisi Kambale (Reuters – October 19, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo Oct 18 (Reuters) – Illegal gold-mining is destroying tracts of pristine rainforest in Congo’s Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site meant to be a haven for the endangered mammal nicknamed Africa’s unicorn, environmental organisations warned on Tuesday.

Industrial activities are supposed to be banned in the 13,000 square kilometers of the reserve in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo. Aerial photo evidence shows mining has persisted, the civil society groups said at a joint news conference to mark the international day of the okapi.

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[South Africa] Business appeals for swift resolution to Transnet strike, as miners lose R815m a day – by Terence Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – October 13, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

As the impasse between Transnet and its two recognised unions – the United National Transport Union (Untu) and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) – continues, organised business has called for a “swift, sustainable resolution”, as mining exporters warned that they were losing R815-million every day the strike continued.

In a joint statement, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) and Business Leadership South Africa rejected short-term solutions, such as temporarily increasing levies, which they said could have unintended consequences.

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Metals for cleaner future being turned to account in minerals-endowed Northern Cape – by Martin Creamer (Mining Weekly – September 28, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s critical minerals potential is being highlighted in an increasingly promising manner by Orion Minerals, the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed company that is showing the way in the minerals-endowed Northern Cape.

Orion, headed by its Boksburg-born CEO Errol Smart, is poised to bestow on South Africa an integrated and far-reaching value chain of future facing metals production in a province which is crying out for more exploration in the new era of enhanced prospecting technology.

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