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Africa Mining

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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The World Got Diamonds. A Mining Town Got Buried in Sludge. – by John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel (New York Times – September 23, 2022)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Waste from a diamond mine in South Africa grew ever higher as the ownership changed from De Beers to a billionaire to a Dubai-based retailer. The mining town paid the price.

JAGERSFONTEIN, South Africa — The dirt wall holding in mucky waste from diamond mining grew over the years to resemble a wide, towering plateau. Suspended like a frozen tsunami over neat tracts of Monopoly-like homes in the rural South African mining town of Jagersfontein, the dam alarmed residents who feared it may collapse.

“We saw it long time, that one day this thing will burst,” said Memane Paulus, a machine operator at the dam for the past decade. The worst fears of residents came true this month when a section of the dam crumbled, sending a thunderous rush of gray sludge through the community that killed at least one person, destroyed 164 houses, and turned a six-mile stretch of neighborhoods and grassy fields into an ashen wasteland.

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Residents blame billionaire for Jagersfontein disaster – by Manyane Manyane (Sunday Independent – September 18, 2022)

https://www.iol.co.za/

Johannesburg – Billionaire Johann Rupert has been accused of intimidating and bribing residents and employees after they raised concerns regarding the dam wall which collapsed at Jagersfontein Development. At least four people were killed and more than 70 others injured following the collapse of the dam last Sunday, leaving scores of people homeless.

Jagersfontein Development employees and residents said Rupert could have stabilised the dam long before it collapsed, but opted to do nothing. Instead, he allegedly bribed community leaders who raised concerns regarding the potential danger to the community. They said the dam had been leaking for years.

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Coal rush! Energy crisis fires global hunt for polluting fuel – by Sudarshan Varadhan, Helen Reid, Nuzulack Dausen, Jonathan Saul and Nina Chestney (Reuters – September 20, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 20 (Reuters) – The sleepy Tanzanian port of Mtwara mainly dealt in cashew nuts until late last year. Now it bustles with vessels loading up with coal, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives a worldwide race for the polluting fuel.

Tanzania traditionally exports thermal coal only to neighbouring countries in east Africa; sending it further afield was out of the question, as it required trucking the material more than 600 km from mines in its southwest to Mtwara, the nearest Indian Ocean port.

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Canadian-owned mining company and executives found guilty of involuntary homicide after Burkina Faso flood disaster – by Geoffrey York and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 14, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A Canadian-owned mining company and two executives at its zinc mine in Burkina Faso have been convicted of involuntary homicide in connection with a flooding disaster that killed eight mine workers.

The flooding, which followed a sudden torrential rainfall at the site in April, trapped the workers underground and led to a 66-day search that eventually found them dead, several hundred metres below ground, after 165 million litres of water had been pumped out of the mine.

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Burst mining dam in South Africa: what must be done to prevent another disaster – by Charles MacRobert (The Conversation – September 14, 2022)

https://theconversation.com/

Jagersfontien, a small town in the middle of South Africa with over a century of mining history, awoke to a tragic failure of responsibility on 11 September 2022 when torrents of muddy water cascaded over the embankments that were meant to hold it back. The flood killed one person and devastated many homes.

The muddy water was the residue left over from the extraction of diamonds. The Jagersfontein mine traces its origins to a 50-carat diamond discovery in 1870. Mining began in earnest shortly after that and continued until 1971. Notable diamonds uncovered included the Excelsior and Reitz diamonds.

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Ivanhoe, Gecamines kick off construction at Kipushi zinc mine in DRC – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 12, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) and Congo’s state mining company Gécamines have begun construction activities at the historic Kipushi underground zinc-copper mine, which they plan returning to production by late 2024.

In a breaking-ground ceremony, the companies’ joint venture, Kipushi Corporation, said pre-production capital cost, including contingency, was estimated in $382 million.

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Troubled Trevali idles Canada mine, suspends Namibia expansion – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – August 22, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Financially troubled Trevali Mining has suspended operations at its Caribou mine, in Canada, and placed the expansion of its Rosh Pinah mine, in Namibia, on hold, as the miner filed for protection from its creditors.

Trevali was on Friday granted an initial order for protection from the British Columbia Supreme Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). The zinc miner last week defaulted on a $7.5-million debt payment, having suffered several setbacks lately, including a flooding event that shuttered its Perkoa mine, in Burkina Faso, and low productivity rates and equipment availability at Caribou.

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Niger government increases stake in Dasa uranium project (World Nuclear News – August 12, 2022)

https://world-nuclear-news.org/

SOMIDA will be 80%-owned by Global Atomic, with the government holding the remainder which includes the 10% of shares mandated for government ownership by Niger’s Mining Code.

The government will be obligated to contribute 10% of all capital and operating costs over the life of the mine. Moussa Souley has been appointed as SOMIDA’s managing director and Robert Parr as Dasa project director.

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Barrick adds to its Tier One gold portfolio through Tanzanian transformation – by Brendan Ryan (MiningMX.com – August 8, 2022)

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Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow believes the group’s two mines in Tanzania have the potential to achieve “combined Tier One status in Barrick’s portfolio” which explains the lengths the group has gone to in protecting its position in Tanzania following the debacle with former subsidiary Acacia Mining.

According to Bristow – reporting on the group’s June quarterly results – “when we took over these mines they were a moribund burden on the government and their investors. “In a very short time we redesigned and re-engineered them creating what are in effect two new mines.

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Lithium projects in Africa increasing, but Americas will still dominate – Fitch Solutions – by Tasneem Bulbulia (MiningWeekly.com – August 8, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research expects to see an increase in lithium development projects in Africa, particularly from Chinese firms, with investment buoyed by expectations for lithium to resist the downwards trend of most nonferrous metals in the second half of the year amid strong demand.

Fitch Solutions estimates that, currently, there are nine lithium mining projects in development in Africa – in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mali, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – which is still small relative to the number of projects being developed in the Americas, Australia and Europe.

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Madagascar: Four Illegal Gold Mines Suspended – by Josef Skrdlik (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – July 25, 2022)

https://www.occrp.org/en/

Madagascar authorities have suspended four illegal gold mining operations that were run by Chinese nationals on the Kamoro river in the northwest of the country – according to a statement by the Ministry of Mines and Strategic Resources released this week.

During the intervention, the police arrested individuals guarding the mines and confiscated a number of heavy machines, including dredgers, excavators and loaders. The organizers of the mining operations managed to flee the site.

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Gold Fields sweetens dividend pledge in pursuit of Canadian miner Yamana – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

South African mining company Gold Fields Ltd. is sweetening its dividend policy and seeking a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange as it tries to placate shareholders who have been skeptical of its planned US$6.7-billion takeover of Toronto-based Yamana Gold Inc.

The merger, which would create the world’s fourth-biggest gold producer, has been poorly received by many investors, with the share price of Gold Fields plummeting by 23 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange on May 31 when the deal was announced.

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Zimbabwe: Uber-Wealthy Oppenheimers Win Case to Block Mineral Exploration at Zimbabwe Cattle Ranch – by Jerry Chifamba (All Africa – July 4, 2022)

https://allafrica.com/

Harare — A Zimbabwean court has barred a miner from exploring for gold on a huge Matabeleland South ranch owned by the Oppenheimer family, the super-rich former proprietors of De Beers Diamond Corporation and Anglo American.

The Oppenheimers, through their company Shangani Holistic, turned to the courts after a South African firm Pearline Mineral Exploration conducted an aerial geophysical survey of their Shangani Ranch on June 2.

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Lawless South Africa has bulk commodity chrome pirates stripping its wealth – by Schalk Burger (MiningWeekly.com – June 22, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of chrome ore and it is estimated that about 10% of South Africa’s yearly production of chrome is lost to illegal mining. There has been an emergence of a bulk commodity illegal industry in South African chrome mining, said global law enforcement network organisation the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) in its latest Risk Bulletin report.

According to the report, soldiers, police and security guards in April descended on a mine in North West to disrupt a large illegal mining operation. The miners had been excavating chrome ore, which is an essential mineral for manufacturing stainless steel.

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