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Africa Mining

Arrests and attacks: tracking China’s illegal mining in African countries – by Smruthi Nadig (Mining Technology – December 6, 2023)

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

While Africa makes billions from Chinese investment in its mineral-rich countries, exploitation and illegal mining activities have become part of the deal.

China’s massive metals industry can only maintain its size using imported minerals, frequently from limited suppliers. As part of its Belt and Road Initiative, the country has actively invested in mining assets in Africa and Latin America, and is beginning to engage in overseas refining and downstream facilities.

Many countries have welcomed this with open arms. Africa’s mining and mineral extraction industries, especially in countries like Nigeria, Namibia and Ghana, have attracted billions of dollars from China, one of the continent’s biggest participants. The vast reserves of cobalt, lithium, copper, and other minerals essential to modern technology production have attracted investment and operations in several African countries.

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New high-grade copper find in DRC similar to Kakula, Ivanhoe says – by Staff (Mining.com – November 28, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) announced on Tuesday that geologists made a significant high-grade copper discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) similar to the massive orebody it is mining at the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex.

The discovery, named Kitoko — meaning “beautiful” or “gift” in several local languages — was made on Ivanhoe’s recently acquired joint venture licences in the Western Foreland, about 25 km west of the ultra-high-grade to Kamoa-Kakula mine.

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Ivanhoe to start copper exploration in Angola – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 27, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) said on Monday it planned to kick off exploration activities in Angola next year as it has secured rights over an area the size of Switzerland for an initial period of five years.

The Canadian miner has been granted 22,195 square kilometres of prospecting rights for exploration in the country’s Moxico and Cuando Cubango provinces, covering what Ivanhoe calls “highly prospective”, greenfield copper exploration ground. Activities are expected to commence following team mobilization in early 2024, the company said.

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Battle for Influence Rages in Heart of Wagner’s Operations in Africa – by Elian Peltier (New York Times – November 26, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The death of the mercenary group’s leader has created a window of opportunity in the Central African Republic for Western powers to offer an alternative.

In palmier times, the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, appeared at a Russian cultural center in the capital of the Central African Republic, sitting with schoolchildren and promising them free laptops.

But Mr. Prigozhin’s death in August has rattled the mercenary group’s once-cozy relations with the Central African Republic, which is now weighing offers from Russia and Western countries, including the United States, to replace Wagner as its primary security guarantor.

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Giant Lithium Deposit in Democratic Republic of Congo Sparks Boardroom Battle – by William Clowes, Annie Lee and Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – November 22, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A battle over control of a massive untapped lithium deposit shifted gear as AVZ Minerals Ltd.’s biggest shareholder signaled it will support the ouster of the Australian miner’s board.

The Manono project in the Democratic Republic of Congo has the potential to be one of the world’s largest sources of the battery metal but, after acquiring exploration rights seven years ago, AVZ has found itself locked in lawsuits and arbitration against its partners and the Congolese government.

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Low Platinum Prices Show How Banking on Miners Could Threaten the Energy Transition – by Yusuf Khan (Wall Street Journal – November 15, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

South Africa’s platinum-sector woes show how quickly fortunes can change in mining

Plunging prices for platinum and other critical metals could derail mining investment needed to develop new supplies, posing a significant threat to decarbonization targets set by countries around the world.

Platinum is used to make the electrolyzers that produce hydrogen and the sharp down cycle in South Africa’s platinum mining sector demonstrates how low prices and a lack of investment could slow the energy transition.

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China’s lithium plants generate jobs in Zimbabwe, but expansion is pushing some locals out of their homes – by Jeffrey Moyo and Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 16, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A thunderous explosion echoes through the Nora Valley, and a thick cloud of white and grey dust rises from the blast site at a lithium plant. At a nearby school, two students scream with shock and bolt for cover. At a teacher’s house, dust wafts from a widening crack above the entrance door.

Welcome to the Zimbabwean lithium boom. Lithium, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles, has become the fastest-growing industry in Zimbabwe, with Chinese companies investing billions of dollars in the mining and processing of what is sometimes called “white gold.” But along with the surging investment, there is growing controversy over the impact of the Chinese projects on communities and the environment.

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Is Botswana Getting a Raw Deal From De Beers Diamonds? – by John Eligon (New York Times – June 29, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Botswana, in southern Africa, has partnered with the London-based diamond giant De Beers for decades. Many in the country are pushing to get a better deal from the industry.

Botswana produces more of the world’s diamonds than any country but Russia. But Botswana, a small landlocked nation in southern Africa, keeps only 25 percent of the rough stones extracted in its agreement with De Beers, an international diamond conglomerate. De Beers takes 75 percent.

That disparity has been at the heart of an argument by the president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, that his country is getting a raw deal from De Beers, a London-based company. Mr. Masisi has said that if Botswana does not get more, it might walk away from the half-century-old partnership when the current agreement expires on Friday.

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More than half of illegal mining suspects are foreign nationals, Justice Cluster finds – by Marleny Arnoldi (MiningWeekly.com – November 10, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Ateam comprising representatives of many government departments and State entities has made progress in curbing the scourge of illegal mining in South Africa, with 4 067 suspects having been arrested on illegal mining-related charges.

Police Minister Bheki Cele, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise and Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola on November 10 hosted a media briefing to provide an update on the progress made in combatting illegal mining and associated crimes.

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China is winning Africa’s “white-gold” rush for lithium (The Economist – November 9, 2023)

https://www.economist.com/

Its grip on clean-energy minerals is a challenge for the West

Avisit to the district of Goromonzi, in north-east Zimbabwe, is a lesson in economic history. Its fallow fields hint at the decay that followed the government’s seizure of white-owned farms more than two decades ago. In the surrounding hills ad hoc campsites reveal the sites of artisanal gold-miners, digging for the same yellow metal that led British colonists to cross the Limpopo river in the 19th century.

Today the rush is on for “white gold”. Every day scores of lorries rumble through Goromonzi, carrying lithium bound for China, where most of the metal is refined for use in batteries for electric vehicles and electronics.

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World will stop without copper but price not reflecting upcoming needs – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – November 6, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Copper and zinc mine development company Orion Minerals is well placed to take advantage of the projected copper shortfall in the second half of this decade with its portfolio of short lead-time, quality assets and exploration potential, S2Research analyst Simon Hudson-Peacock stated on Monday.

Globally, there are very few copper projects of similar quality that are as advanced along the value curve with secured funding, as is the ASX- and JSE-listed Orion, with its 750 000 t of declared compliant copper equivalent mineralisation, Hudson-Peacock pointed out in the October 6 analysis.

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Book Excerpt: The Future of Mining Is Deeper, Darker, and Riskier – by Christopher Pollon (Undark.org – October 20, 2023)

Truth, Beauty, Science.

As mining companies delve ever deeper into the Earth, new tools — from AI to metal-eating microbes — will guide the way.

IN THE DECADES TO COME, as the easiest-to-mine metal deposits are tapped out, the quest for metals to supply the clean energy transition will force us ever further afield. To more remote and politically unstable places on land and further underground, to the deepest seabed, and perhaps even beyond the limits of the Earth altogether — to the moon, and near-Earth asteroids and comets.

And unless business as usual can change, our future over the shorter term will be to venture into ever deeper, darker, and riskier places, creating new sacrifice zones in the Global South, where most of the best earthly deposits remain.

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Barrick CEO Bristow reaffirms vow to improve safety record amid rise in work fatalities – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 3, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T chief executive officer Mark Bristow is vowing once again to improve the company’s poor safety record after the Canadian miner reported two more fatalities at its sites this year – bringing the total under his tenure at the company to 13.

Mr. Bristow said in an interview Thursday that an electrician was killed at its Loulo-Gounkoto mine in Mali after the worker opened up a live electrical box after walking in water to fix a pump. In Nevada, a contractor died after losing control of a vehicle driving down a steep road.

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China’s Grip on Africa’s Minerals Sparks a US Response – by Matthew Hill (Bloomberg News – November 2, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The US is going full steam ahead in its effort to catch up with China in a part of the world that’s become central to the green transition: Africa’s “Copperbelt.” Loaded with minerals critical to the production of batteries and other renewable energy components, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have become the latest venue in the struggle for advantage between Washington and Beijing.

As part of its stated ambition to challenge China’s dominance, the Biden administration saw an opportunity to revitalize a century-old rail line linking key African mines to an Atlantic Ocean port. Called the Lobito corridor, the US is investing hundreds of millions of dollars on the project.

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Police say miners from a rival union are holding hundreds of colleagues underground in South Africa – by Gerald Imray and Mogomotsi Magome (Associated Press – October 24, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A group of miners from an unregistered, rival union are holding hundreds of their colleagues underground for a second day at a gold mine in South Africa over a union dispute, police and mine officials said Tuesday. Some 15 miners have been injured in scuffles, the head of the mine said.

Details were sketchy and there were conflicting statements over what happened, with the unregistered union asserting it represents the majority of employees at the mine and it wants to be formally recognized. It said the workers underground were staging a protest and there was no hostage situation.

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