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Africa Mining

Barrick Gold asks judge to dismiss Ontario lawsuits for alleged killings and abuses at Tanzanian mine – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is asking an Ontario judge to dismiss lawsuits alleging that its subsidiary in East Africa committed human-rights atrocities in the vicinity of its North Mara mine, arguing that the matter should be litigated overseas.

Barrick is defending two civil cases in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, one from November, 2022, and another from February of this year. The plaintiffs are Indigenous Kurya from villages around the mine in Tanzania who were injured in 2021 and 2022 when mine security police allegedly shot at them, as well as family members of victims who were killed during this period allegedly by the police.

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Saudi’s Manara in advanced talks to buy stake in First Quantum’s Zambian mines – by Divya Rajagopal, Clara Denina and Felix Njini (Reuters – October 16, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals is closing in on a deal to buy a minority stake in Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian copper and nickel assets, three people familiar with the details told Reuters.

Manara, a joint venture between Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden and its $925 billion Public Investment Fund, is in advanced talks to acquire between 15% and 20% equity in the Zambian assets, the sources said.

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Mali seeks $500 million in outstanding taxes and dividends from Barrick – report – by Staff (Mining.com – October 8, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Mali’s military government is seeking at least 300 billion CFA ($512 million) in outstanding taxes and dividends from Barrick Gold, according to a Reuters report.

Authorities in Mali briefly detained four Malian staff members working for Barrick last month.On Sept. 30, Barrick stated it had agreed with the government to resolve existing claims and disputes.

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Four Barrick employees arrested in Mali by Russia-backed military regime – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – September 30, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Four senior employees of Barrick Gold Corp. have reportedly been arrested in Mali in the latest sign of rising tensions between the Toronto-based mining company and the authoritarian military regime that runs the West African country.

The four Malian employees of Barrick were arrested for alleged financial crimes, according to a report by Reuters, but no details have emerged.

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‘Nobody alive has ever seen something like this’: Inside the plan to sell the biggest gems on Earth – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 28, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Vancouver-based miner Lucara found a 2,492-carat diamond in August. Since then, the company’s CEO has urged patience in the hunt for a buyer as the sector looks to dig itself out of a price slump

The morning of Aug. 19 started off much like any other at Lucara Diamond Corp.’s Karowe mine in Botswana, a roughly 270-metre deep open pit on the edge of the Kalahari desert that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But on that day, a 2,492-carat diamond — believed to be the second largest ever held by a human — completed a journey from hundreds of kilometres inside the Earth’s mantle up to the planet’s surface.

After billions of years of travel, its fate upon arrival fell into the hands of William Lamb, chief executive of Lucara, whose sector has been going through its own upheaval amid a collapse in the price of diamonds in recent years.

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Chinese Illegal miners deprive government of revenue, exploit child labour in Nasarawa – by Ijeoma Opara (International Centre For Investigative Reporting – September 24, 2024)

https://www.icirnigeria.org/

Ten-year-old Celestina Geremiyah tugged at the long rope fastened to a stained 20-litre plastic container. The gallon had been cut horizontally to create a wider opening and was filled with sand dug out of a mining pit in Paseli, a community in Nasarawa local government area in central Nigeria.

This is where unlicensed miners extract the critical mineral, lithium, used in producing batteries, for electric vehicles, power storage, and phones. Geremiyah struggled with the weight of the sand as she pulled it a short distance away from the hole, emptied the container onto the ground, and returned it to the pit to be refilled.

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Diamonds aren’t forever: Botswana looks beyond mining – by Ben Payton (African Business – September 24, 2024)

https://african.business/

President Mokgweetsi Masisi basked in a moment of triumph on 22 August, as he unveiled the largest diamond discovered anywhere in the world for more than a century to an excited crowd of journalists and officials in Gaborone. “What?!” he exclaimed, his eyes popping with delight as he felt the weight of the stone. “I am lucky to have seen it in my time.”

The presentation of the second-largest diamond ever wrenched from the Earth appears to be the latest glittering chapter in Botswana’s success story. The stone, extracted from the Karowe mine by Canadian company Lucara, provides seemingly irrefutable evidence that the southern African nation remains a diamond superpower.

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Coloured gemstones: Historic emerald mine returns to life – by Arthur Tassell (Mining Review – September 20, 2024)

Mining Review (Home)

The Gravelotte emerald mine, which was in operation from 1929 to 2002 and was reportedly the world’s biggest emerald mine in its heyday, is once again in production, albeit initially on a very small scale. The company behind the revival of the mine is LSE-listed junior GEM Resources (previously URA Holdings). ARTHUR TASSELL recently spoke to its CEO, DR BERNARD OLIVIER, to learn more about the operation, which is South Africa’s only producing emerald mine.

The mine is located near the town of Gravelotte in Limpopo Province, approximately 50 km west of Phalaborwa and close to the well-known Consolidated Murchison antimony/gold mine. The emeralds are primarily found in biotite schist, which is part of the Gravelotte formation.

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Western nations join forces to break China’s grip on critical minerals – by Jamie Smyth, Myles McCormick and Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – September 22, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Coalition of 14 governments announces financing network for projects to provide raw materials required by tech industry

Western nations are directing their development finance and export credit agencies to work with private industry to support critical minerals projects, in a drive to break China’s chokehold over a sector that is essential for high-tech industries.

The Minerals Security Partnership, a coalition of 14 nations and the European Commission, will unveil a new financing network at an event in New York on Monday as they try to ramp up international collaboration and pledge financial support for a huge nickel project in Tanzania, backed by mining company BHP.

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A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads – by Sam Mednick (Associated Press – September 19, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

KAMITUGA, Congo (AP) — Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21, was too traumatized to attend the funeral.

In her first visit to the cemetery, she wept into her shirt for the child she lost and worried about the rest of her family. “When she was born, it was as if God had answered our prayers — we wanted a girl,” Wisoba said of little Maombi Katengey. “But our biggest joy was transformed into devastation.”

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South African company Sibaneye-Stillwater eyes New Caledonia nickel mining plant – by Patrick Decloitre (Radio New Zealand – September 17, 2024)

https://www.rnz.co.nz/

A South African company is reported to be the most probable bidder for shares in New Caledonia’s Prony Resources. As part of an already advanced takeover of the ailing southern plant of Prony Resources, the most probable bidder is reported to be South African group Sibaneye-Stillwater, local media reported on Monday.

Just like the other two major mining plants and smelters in New Caledonia, Prony Resources is facing acute hardships due to the emergence of Indonesia as a major player on the world market, compounded with New Caledonia’s violent unrest that broke out in May.

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AngloGold Ashanti to buy Centamin for $2.5 billion – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 10, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

AngloGold Ashanti (JSE: ANG) (NYSE: AU) (ASX: AGG) is buying Egypt-focused smaller rival Centamin (LON: CEY) in a $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) stock and cash deal that would see the South African gold miner become the world’s fourth largest producer of the precious metal.

The acquisition hands AngloGold the key Sukari mine in Egypt, which is the country’s largest and first modern gold operation, as well as one of the world’s largest producing mines.

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Premium Nickel eyes 2025 prefeasibility at Selebi mine in Botswana – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – September 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Results from infill drilling at Premium Nickel Resources’ (TSXV: PNRL) past-producing Selebi North mine in Botswana continues to build confidence, less than a month after the company posted an initial resource for the project.

Hole SNUG-24-106 in the South Limb target returned 26.3 metres of 1.09% copper, 1.56% nickel, and 0.08% cobalt from 515.7 metres depth, including 16.1 metres of 1.54% copper, 2.1% nickel and 0.11% cobalt, the company reported Thursday. The infill drilling is aimed at upgrading inferred resources, part of a 20,000-metre underground drill program whose assays weren’t included in the new resource.

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Do the Chinese come to Zimbabwe to invest or to pillage our resources? – by Tendai Ruben Mbofana (The Zimbabwean – September 7, 2024)

https://www.thezimbabwean.co/

President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has returned from China, where he attended the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). During the visit, Mnangagwa visited quite a number of companies, including Huawei, as well as giving a speech at the FOCAC, and later addressed the 8th Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs.

In a statement, the president declared: This is the best time to invest in Zimbabwe. Oh really, Mr. President! What a bold thing to say! However, has there been any genuine investments by the Chinese in Zimbabwe?

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The South African who inherited a R170 billion diamond legacy – by Kirsten Minnaar (Daily Invester – September 1, 2024)

https://dailyinvestor.com/

Nicky Oppenheimer was born into one of South Africa’s most formidable diamond-mining families, but when hard times hit, he had to leave the family business.

Despite being the second-richest man in South Africa with a net worth of $9.5 billion (R171 billion) and being part of one of the country’s most influential families, Oppenheimer is incredibly reserved and humble. Nicholas Frank Oppenheimer was born in 1945 in Johannesburg into a diamond dynasty.

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