Category: Uncategorized

The owner of Uganda’s only tungsten mine has filed a claim against the International Tin Association (ITA) over alleged anti-competitive behaviour, a claim summary published by Britain’s Competition and Appeal Tribunal shows. Kerilee Investments Limited, the British majority shareholder in Uganda-based KI3R, which owns the Nyamuliro tungsten mine, says the ITA refused it membership of its conflict mineral due diligence programme “without due process or justifiable reason”. The International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI) was set up in 2009 and formalised in 2011 to help end-users of tin, tantalum/niobium and… Read More Here

Mining companies in Zimbabwe said a central-bank requirement compelling them to surrender more foreign exchange earned from mineral exports will push their operations to the brink. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Jan. 8 announced that exporters must now hand over 40% of their foreign currency earnings, up from 30%, which is then paid out in the local currency. The country’s mining body said the move would create “a viability crisis” for the industry as members already face increased demand for payment in hard currency from various government agencies, suppliers… Read More Here

The Tanzania gold mines of Barrick Gold have been successfully revived, with North Mara delivering significant improvements and underground production starting at Bulyanhulu, the Canadian major reported on Thursday. Barrick Gold assumed control of the operations of the former Acacia Mining in September 2019 and is now managing the mines through the Twiga joint venture with the Tanzania government. “These mines are now very different businesses,” Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow said in a statement. “North Mara’s life-of-mine production profile has been vastly improved and implementation of its comprehensive water management plan is… Read More Here

Mining Shared Value (MSV), a non-profit initiative of Engineers Without Borders announced that four mining companies have now adopted the Mining Local Procurement Reporting Mechanism (LPRM), with two more set to confirm shortly. Ivanhoe Mines became the first company to use the international transparency standard in 2019, and Lundin Gold, Golden Star Resources and Teranga Gold have now come out with their sustainability reports using the framework. The LPRM is a publicly available information sharing framework that was created by MSV in partnership with the German development agency GIZ, to… Read More Here

Former US president Donald Trump’s last minute controversial removal of sanctions against an Israeli businessman named in corruption scandals in DR Congo’s mining industry and the jailing of another international commodity broker for bribery in a Guinea iron ore scandal this month shows just how vulnerable Africa’s lucrative resources sector has long been to international operators. For too long Africa’s mineral wealth has failed to uplift the majority of ordinary citizens out of poverty.  Resource-rich countries including Zimbabwe (gold, platinum, diamonds) , Sierra Leone (diamonds), DRC (copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds),… Read More Here

Zimbabwe, banking on mining to end two decades of economic stagnation, plans to list the company in which it has placed state mining assets to raise cash to meet government obligations, the nation’s finance minister said. Late last year, the government created Kuvimba Mining House, in which the state pension fund and sovereign wealth fund hold 65%, to house its holdings in platinum, gold and nickel. It intends to use revenue from the company to meet a laundry list of requirements ranging from compensating White farmers for infrastructure on farms… Read More Here

Canada’s Lucara Diamond (TSX: LUC) said Botswana has renewed the company’s mining license for its Karowe mine for another 25 years, paving the way to move the mine’s underground expansion to its execution phase. President and CEO Eira Thomas said the license renewal and extension was an important milestone for the underground expansion of Karowe, as it eases the completion of a supplemental debt financing and full project sanction, later this year. MOVING THE MINE UNDERGROUND IS EXPECTED TO TAKE FIVE YEARS AND EXTEND ITS PRODUCTIVE LIFE BY 20 YEARS The Karowe underground expansion project, which… Read More Here

A unit of Vedanta Resources will issue $400 million in notes to an entity under Oaktree Capital Group, as the mining conglomerate looks to meet liquidity needs. The notes will be partly secured by shares in Mumbai-listed unit Vedanta Ltd., according to separate exchange filings from Vedanta and the US hedge fund, India’s macroeconomic troubles have attracted a wave of global investors betting they can eke out profits from the rising number of capital-starved businesses struggling to stay afloat. Some global heavyweights including Oaktree and Apollo Global Management Inc. have either struck… Read More Here

South Africa’s gold industry has long been defined by deep-level mines, which is why the sector has historically been capital as well as labour intensive. Digging deep requires capital and the often low-grade ore grades have required cheap (read exploited) migrant labour to keep the profits and dividends flowing. Flow they did, as the gold-bearing reefs seemed to go on forever — not just horizontally, but vertically, down into the bowels of the earth. From these mammoth deposits, a third of the gold produced in human history was extracted, generating… Read More Here

Caledonia Mining Corporation has entered into another option agreement in Zimbabwe having entered into an option agreement over Glen Hume, also in Zimbabwe, earlier in December. This option agreement gives Caledonia the exclusive right to explore and subsequently, if exploration is successful and at its sole discretion, acquire the mining claims over an area known as Connemara North, a property which, like Glen Hume, is situated in the Gweru mining district in the Zimbabwe Midlands that has historically produced significant quantities of gold. Connemara North is approximately 30 km from Glen Hume… Read More Here