Africa Mining – Page 101 – Republic of Mining

Riots hit major bauxite mining hub in Guinea (Reuters U.S. – April 26, 2017)

April 26, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

Riots have paralyzed a major bauxite mining hub in Guinea, Africa’s top producer, as residents erected barricades and burned tires to protest against high pollution levels and power cuts, government and company officials said on Tuesday.

The unrest broke out on Monday night in the city of Boke, home to mining companies Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) and Companie Bauxite de Guinee (CBG) which each export around 15 million tonnes of the aluminum ore annually.

“It’s a problem with electricity that aggravated the situation. We are working on finding a solution to the problem,” said Saadou Nimaga, secretary general at Guinea’s Mines Ministry.

Robert Friedland: Celebrating a lifetime of achievement – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – April 24, 2017)

April 26, 2017

http://www.northernminer.com/

Over most of the last two decades, the first voice Peter Meredith would hear at the crack of dawn each morning was Robert Friedland’s. “The phone would ring and he would say: ‘Hi Peter, it’s Robert,’ and I’d think, ‘What a surprise, who else calls me at six in the morning?’”

Meredith, who retired as a partner at auditing firm Deloitte in Vancouver to join Ivanhoe Mines full-time in 1996, says that over the following sixteen years, he was pretty much a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day guy, to keep up with his boss.

“Robert doesn’t take weekends off and he doesn’t like holidays much … He is a very energetic, driven guy—he knows no boundaries as to how hard he works—so the tone from the top is that you feel like a non-contributor when you aren’t working as hard as he is.”

Why Apple Won’t Be Able to Stop Mining Yet – by Adam Minter (Bloomberg News – April 26, 2017)

April 26, 2017

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg View) — Just before Earth Day, Apple Inc. announced a new goal: to make its computers and phones and watches without mining any new raw materials. Instead, Apple would one day build its products “using only renewable resources or recycled material.” This is what’s known as a “closed loop,” in which new products are made exclusively from older versions of the same product.

If successful, Apple would no longer have to worry about digging holes in the ground, avoiding conflict minerals and the other messy details of high-tech manufacturing in the 21st century. It’s a bold idea, even for Apple, which can boast several past successes in promoting sustainable manufacturing and operations. Given both technological and commercial obstacles, however, it’s almost certain to fail.

Closed-loop recycling isn’t a new idea. In the 1930s, Ford Motor Co. spent several years operating a money-losing factory devoted to recycling old Fords into raw materials for new ones. More recently, Dell Inc. developed a breakthrough computer made using materials from old devices.

Miners Told to Move Congo HQs as Provinces Vie for Revenue – by Thomas Wilson (Bloomberg News – April 24, 2017)

April 25, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Democratic Republic of Congo told local units of Glencore Plc, China Molybdenum Co., Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and four other mining companies to relocate their head offices as newly demarcated provinces fight over tax revenue and control of mineral projects.

The companies, all headquartered in Lubumbashi, the capital of Haut-Katanga province, must move to Kolwezi town in neighboring Lualaba, where their mines are based, Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said in an April 14 letter, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg and confirmed by the ministry.

“The objective is to move the administration of these companies closer to where they mine and consolidate the decentralization process by building stronger relationships between the mining companies and the relevant provincial authorities,” Kabwelulu’s chief of staff, Valery Mukasa, said by phone from the national capital, Kinshasa.

Diamonds Aren’t Forever – by Tom Wilson (Slate Magazine – April 25, 2017)

April 25, 2017

http://www.slate.com/

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, artisanal mining is a remnant of the once-booming gem industry.

TEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo—As the truncated rat cooks in the fire, its body slowly roasting over the smoldering logs, 30-odd diggers stand around in the sweltering midday sun. Some break boulders at the bottom of a 50-foot pit in a dry riverbed, trying to access the gravel beneath, which they hope holds hidden wealth. Others watch, talk or take shelter from the heat.

A mile upstream, the divers try their luck. In ragged, re-stitched wetsuits, young men resurface every few minutes, heaving sacks of earth from the riverbed into the hands of helpers on a patchwork flotilla of multicolored dinghies. The boats are as close to the Angolan side of the river as can be, tethered to Congo by 50-foot ropes and pale hosepipes that pump air to the divers.

These miners are the remnants of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s diamond industry, which once provided a quarter of the world’s supply. In 2015, Congo exported 17.1 million carats of the gems, down from 33 million carats 10 years earlier.

South Africa’s Sibanye declares war on illegal gold miners – by Ed Stoddard (Reuters U.S. – April 21, 2017)

April 21, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

WESTONARIA, South Africa, April 21 Illegal gold mining has plagued South Africa’s mining companies for decades, robbing the industry and state coffers of billions of rand through smalltime pilfering as well as networks run by organised crime.

Now, with unmined output dwindling and proving more diff cult to extract, one firm has had enough: diversified precious metals producer Sibanye Gold says that it will clear all illegal miners from its shafts by the end of January next year.

“We will have them out then,” Sibanye’s Chief Executive Neal Froneman told Reuters. His campaign slogan is “Zero Zama”, after the Zulu for illegal miners, “zama zamas” or “taking a chance”. A Gold Fields spin-off formed in 2013, Sibanye is the first company to set itself a deadline to stop the practice and has laid out 200 million rand ($15 million) to make it happen.

Apple wants to try to “stop mining the Earth altogether” to make your iPhone – by Zoë Schlanger (Quartz Media – April 20, 2017)

April 21, 2017

https://qz.com/

Apple just announced that it plans to stop relying on mined rare earth minerals and metals to make their products, and instead use only recycled sources.

Mines where rare earth mineral are extracted are often sites of exploitation, where workers, some children, are exposed to extremely toxic substances and dangerous working conditions for scant pay. The effluent from the mines poisons soil and groundwater supplies and wreaks environmental devastation, too.

Despite slower growth, China still key market for miners and Africa – by Keith Campbell (MiningWeekly.com – April 21, 2017)

April 21, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – There can be no doubt that, for the past two decades-and-a-half or so, the biggest single influence on the global mining industry has been China. Between 2002 and 2012, that country experienced an annual average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 10.4%, compared with India’s 7.6%, the UK’s 1.3%, Germany’s 1.2%, France’s 1.0% and Japan’s 0.8%.

During the period 1992 to 2002, China’s average annual real GDP growth rate had been 9.8% (India’s had been 5.8%). (These figures are from The Economist: Pocket World in Figures 2015.)

The result was the “commodity supercycle” and a global mining boom. But Chinese economic growth has, of course, decelerated significantly since 2012. In 2015, it grew at 6.9% and last year at 6.7%, according to official data released in Beijing. (The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, has estimated India’s 2016 growth rate at 6.6%, which makes China again the world’s fastest- growing economy.

Tanzanian gold miner Acacia to review operations if export ban persists (Reuters Africa – April 20, 2017)

April 21, 2017

http://af.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Tanzanian gold producer Acacia Mining will have to review its mining operations if the government’s ban on gold and copper ore exports remains in place, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Shares in Acacia, which is majority owned by Barrick Gold, briefly touched a six-week low, paring losses by 0900 GMT to trade down 3.7 percent after it said first-quarter core profits rose 25 percent to $82 million but cashflow was reduced by $36 million in part due to the ban.

The government halted the export of unprocessed ore on March 3, following President John Magufuli’s call for the construction of more gold smelters in the country, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer.

Glencore Cobalt Supplies in Congo Face Hold Up Over Mine Row – by Thomas Wilson (Bloomberg News – April 19, 2017)

April 19, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A dispute between state-owned Gecamines and its joint-venture partner at a Congolese cobalt mine that supplies Glencore Plc threatens to halt the supply of as much as 4 percent of the metal within two months.

Jersey-registered GTL, a joint venture between Gecamines and closely held Groupe Forrest International, has processed the hill of mine waste that looms over the southern Congolese mining town of Lubumbashi since 2001, producing as much as 5,000 metric tons of cobalt a year. The state-owned miner has blocked GTL’s access to the site since March 23, according to Groupe Forrest Chief Executive Officer Malta Forrest.

“Gecamines has blocked our access stating that it believes we have exceeded the limits set in our contract,” Forrest said in an interview April 15 in Lubumbashi. “It’s simply not true. Despite our requests Gecamines provided no evidence for their calculations.”

Soros Calls $10 Billion Steinmetz Mine Suit a ‘Frivolous’ Stunt – by Jesse Riseborough and Franz Wild (Bloomberg News – April 18, 2017)

April 19, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

George Soros hit back at allegations that he supported a defamation campaign that resulted in Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz being stripped of rights to one of the world’s most lucrative mineral deposits.

Soros funded law firms, transparency groups, investigators and government officials in the West African nation of Guinea in a coordinated effort to ensure BSG Resources Ltd. lost the rights to the Simandou iron ore deposit in April 2014, BSGR said in a complaint filed Friday in Manhattan federal court. Companies controlled by Steinmetz allege the actions of the Soros-funded groups cost them at least $10 billion.

“The allegations in BSGR’s lawsuit are frivolous and entirely false,” Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros, said in an emailed statement. “The lawsuit is a desperate PR stunt meant to deflect attention from BSGR’s mounting legal problems across multiple jurisdictions.”

Gold rush fever among poor Zimbabweans leaves trail of destruction – by Andrew Mambondiyani (Reuters U.S. – April 18, 2017)

April 18, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

TARKA FOREST, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thousands of unemployed Zimbabweans have turned to illegal gold panning in a bid to survive the country’s deteriorating economy, leaving a trail of destruction that has alarmed farmers, timber plantation owners and the country’s environmental authorities.

Peasant miners have set up makeshift mines on farmland and timber plantations in the country’s eastern provinces, which border Mozambique where gold fetches a higher price. Deep tunnels have been dug beneath roads, railways and buildings in the Kwekwe area of the Midlands province. In some parts of Manicaland province, waterways have been diverted and roads destroyed.

With more illegal miners likely to exploit the area as the economy continues to slump, and the state placing responsibility to act on landowners, farmers are fearful of irreversible damage to their land, and the risk of losing their livelihoods.

South Africa: The Pondoland Rebellion – by Mark Olalde (Pulitzer Centre – April 12, 2017)

April 13, 2017

http://pulitzercenter.org/

Above the rolling waves of the Indian Ocean, throughout Amadiba’s lush, green hills, funerals have become celebrations.

One by one, delegations from the area’s villages march and toyi-toyi to the meeting place while singing songs from the anti-apartheid struggle. The uniquely South African choruses swell as elderly women ululate. War drums beat chaotic melodies as young men dance and brandish sticks in the traditional manner of Pondoland.

It’s been a year since community leader and anti-mining activist Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Radebe died in a hail of bullets, and the community is gathering to celebrate him on Human Rights Day, a South African holiday marking the police massacre of more than 50 people at a 1960 protest of apartheid policies. In March of last year, assassins posed as police, a blue light flashing deceptively from their car as they approached Radebe’s home in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

COLUMN-If you thought lithium was exciting, try cobalt – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – April 10, 2017)

April 11, 2017

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, April 10, 2017 – Lithium was the super-hot metals story of 2016. A spectacular price rally propelled lithium out of the metallic shadows onto the global investment stage. This year it is the turn of cobalt.

The price of cobalt traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) has exploded from $33,000 per tonne to $55,000 since the start of January. This time last year, the price was bombed out at multi-year lows below $25,000 per tonne.

As with lithium, cobalt’s story is all about batteries and the green technology revolution. The lithium-cobalt battery is already standard in many electronic applications and both metals are expected to see usage accelerate thanks to the rapidly evolving electric vehicle and grid storage sectors.

Anglo American to Sell South African Coal Mines to Seriti – by Paul Burkhardt and Loni Prinsloo (Bloomberg News – April 10, 2017)

April 10, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Anglo American Plc agreed to sell a group of South African coal mines to black-controlled Seriti Resources Holdings Ltd. for about 2.3 billion rand ($166 million) as it focuses on other commodities.

Seriti, which is led by South African Chamber of Mines President Mike Teke, will buy three thermal coal operations that supply state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., as well as four closed collieries, Anglo said in a statement Monday.

The sale, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will make Seriti the second-biggest provider of energy coal to Eskom, supplying almost a quarter of the utility’s current annual requirements.