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Africa Mining

Madagascar: for better or for sapphire – by Lola Fourmy and Martin Huré (Equal Times – July 12, 2024)

https://www.equaltimes.org/

Madagascar is the fifth poorest country in the world, yet it accounts for almost 40 per cent of global production of one of the most sought-after precious stones: sapphire. Several deposits discovered in 1998 in the south of the country continue to attract miners and buyers. These stones are prized by investors as “safe haven” assets, and the emergence of the middle classes in China and India has sent the prices soaring.

The mines in the south of the island are the scene of outdated working conditions and proven cases of child labour, and violent crime is plaguing the region. French journalists Lola Fourmy and Martin Huré take us on a journey to the heart of dreams of economic emancipation that, for many Malagasy people, has turned into a nightmare.

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OPINION: To stop the violence in Congo, we need to end the black market for the minerals in our phones – by Robert Rotberg (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Robert Rotberg is the founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s program on intrastate conflict, a former senior fellow at CIGI and president emeritus of the World Peace Foundation.

Africa has more than its fair share of horrendous humanitarian emergencies. Today, half of Sudan’s 47 million people are experiencing severe hunger; 755,000 face starvation. Somalis and northern Ethiopians are also food-short, as are many millions of Malawians, Zambians and Zimbabweans. However, after Sudan, the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the neediest region. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), a staggering 23.4 million Congolese suffer from severe hunger.

The peoples of the three eastern Congolese provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu and Ituri are especially endangered. In North Kivu alone, the WFP says that 720,000 people have lost their homes and livelihoods due to regional violence. It estimates that nearly 3 million children in the region are acutely malnourished. Cholera is rife, too, and epidemics of Ebola recur.

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GoviEx Uranium has mining licence in Niger revoked, shares plummet – by Staff (Mining.com – July 4, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

GoviEx Uranium (TSXV: GXU) no longer has rights over the perimeter of the Madaouela mining permit following the Niger government’s decision on Thursday to withdraw its licence, dealing a big blow to the development of one of the world’s largest uranium projects.

The Vancouver-based uranium miner had feared that its licence could be revoked if mining could not start by July 3, 2024, a deadline set by Niger’s military leaders who came into power around this time last year.

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U.S. Nuclear Fears as Iran Targets African Uranium – by Hugh Cameron (Newsweek Magazine – July 2, 2024)

https://www.newsweek.com/

Iran is trying to source uranium from West Africa, signaling a further expansion of the nuclear program that has long rattled states in the West.

Despite continued scrutiny and multiple efforts at curtailment, Iran still hosts one of the most advanced nuclear programs in the world, and reports have emerged that the country’s weapons program is gaining steam. One expert told Newsweek that, while the country has not definitively begun weaponizing its nuclear capabilities, continued attempts to boost its enriched stockpile should raise concern.

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Can Niger’s military junta seize the country’s uranium opportunity? – by Jason Mitchell (BNE Intellinews – July 2, 2024)

https://www.intellinews.com/

Niger — one of the world’s poorest countries — could become considerably wealthier if its uranium resources were fully exploited, but political instability is hampering its development.

The land-locked country’s uranium resources total 311,000 metric tonnes (mt), the third highest in Africa after Namibia (470,000 mt) and South Africa (320,000 mt), according to Statista. It has the continent’s highest-grade uranium ores. In 2022, it produced 2,020 mt of uranium, down from 2,991 mt in 2020, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA).

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Beyond Prince Harry: Securing Botswana’s Diamond Legacy – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – June 27, 2024)

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Tourism could be central to the country’s post-mining plans, says Debswana executive.

What connects Prince Harry and Kim Kardashian? Probably quite a lot of things, but among them is that they have both been to Botswana.

Harry famously vacationed with Meghan Markle in the southern African country, while Kardashian has visited the Jwaneng diamond mine. The latter might not have been the most glamorous place in which the celebrity has set foot: Jwaneng, like most diamond mines, is a massive pit in the ground.

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Up to 4,000 Rwandan troops have entered combat in eastern Congo, UN report says – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As many as 4,000 Rwandan troops with high-tech weaponry have secretly crossed the border into eastern Congo to fight battles that have fuelled a vast humanitarian catastrophe across the region, a new United Nations report says.

The fighting, causing heavy casualties with indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, has forced at least a million people to flee their homes in the past nine months, many of them now surviving in one of the more than 100 overcrowded camps for displaced people around the besieged city of Goma, near the border with Rwanda, the report says.

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Investing in Africa’s Copperbelt – The Race for EV Metals (Gulf Africa Review – June 21, 2024)

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U.S., Japanese, and European companies are investing in Africa’s Copperbelt, employing cutting-edge technology to extract essential electric vehicle metals like copper and cobalt.

The global demand for electric vehicle (EV) metals has spurred a surge in investments in Africa’s Copperbelt, a region straddling Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Companies from the U.S., Japan, and Europe are increasingly leveraging advanced technologies to identify and extract critical minerals such as copper and cobalt, challenging China’s dominance in the region.

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Niger revokes French nuclear group’s licence at major uranium mine (Al Jazeera – June 21, 2024)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Removal of Orano licence highlights tensions with France, with Russia said to be eyeing the major site.

Niger’s military government has revoked the operating licence of French nuclear fuel producer Orano at one of the world’s biggest uranium mines, as it continues to cut ties with former colonial power France.

State-owned Orano said on Thursday that it had been ordered out of the Imouraren mine in northern Niger which sits on an estimated 200,000 tonnes of the metal, used for nuclear power and weapons.

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London bullion market drops bid to block U.K. trial over allegations against Barrick mine – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – June 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

London’s bullion market association is abandoning a jurisdictional challenge to a lawsuit by Tanzanian claimants, setting the stage for a British trial into allegations that the association is wrongly giving human-rights clearance to gold products from Barrick Gold Corp.’s controversial North Mara mine.

The lawsuit was filed in London in 2022 by relatives of two Tanzanian men allegedly killed by security forces at the North Mara gold mine, but the jurisdictional argument had delayed the trial for nearly a year.

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Sanctions on Russian diamonds: Good or bad for Africa? – by Chrispin Mwakideu (DW.com – June 19, 2024)

https://www.dw.com/en/

Diamond-rich African nations are ramping up production to fill the gap left by the G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds. But not all countries are happy about the ban.

Earlier this year, the G7 , a group of wealthy nations comprising the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, and the European Union banned rough diamonds mined in Russia.The ban was part of many sanctions on Russia imposed by Western nations and their allies for President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But the sanctions against Russian diamonds, intended to weaken Russia’s economy in light of its aggression, could pose a potential risk to the global diamond market’s stability.

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Orano at Risk of Losing Niger Uranium Mine Sought by Russia – by Katarina Höije (Bloomberg News – June 15, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Orano SA could lose the right to mine uranium at one of the largest deposits in the world by June 19 after Niger rejected the French nuclear company’s plan for developing the asset.

The move comes as Russia’s seeks to take over mining assets in the West African country controlled by the French company, Bloomberg reported on June 3. Niger’s Paris-allied president was overthrown in a coup last July, the latest in a string of military takeovers in the region that has seen strongmen spurn ex-colonial power France and forge closer ties with Moscow.

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Nigeria turns to lithium as its oil industry struggles (Euro Dayfr.com – June 6, 2024)

https://euro.dayfr.com/

As Nigeria’s oil reserves begin to run out after decades of crude oil exploitation, the West African country is turning to another valuable resource – lithium. There is a growing global demand for this “white gold”, necessary for the production of batteries for electrical appliances, electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

Nigeria is estimated to have significant lithium resources, but the country’s mining industry is currently underdeveloped. Furthermore, the government must tackle the problem of resource theft, support the sustainable development of the mining industry and ensure that foreign players add value to the domestic market. rian of lithium to guarantee its success.

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What to know about Russia’s growing footprint in Africa – by Mark Banchereau and Jessica Donati (Associated Press – June 6, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa’s sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent.

Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States. Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad.

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South Korea, Africa leaders pledge deeper ties, critical mineral development – by Hyonhee Shin (Reuters – June 4, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

GOYANG, South Korea, June 4 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and the leaders of African countries agreed on Tuesday to forge deeper trade and business cooperation and launched a “critical minerals dialogue” aimed at sustainable development of the continent’s resources.

Hosting a first-ever summit with the leaders of 48 African nations, Yoon said South Korea would increase development aid for Africa to $10 billion over the next six years as it looks to tap the continent’s rich mineral resources and potential as a vast export market.

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