The Editorial Team |

Zambia Finance Chief Mwanakatwe Targets IMF Program by Year-End

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia’s Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said she’s in talks with the International Monetary Fund about securing a financial package and has taken the necessary steps to ensure the southern African nation qualifies for support. “I would want to see a program with the IMF, I think it would be good for us,” Mwanakatwe said in an interview in Cape Town on Tuesday. “I would love to see something in place by…

Billionaire Robert Friedland Plans World’s No. 2 Copper Mine

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KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Billionaire investor Robert Friedland said the copper deposit Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. is developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo has the potential to become the world’s No. 2 mine for the metal. “Kamoa-Kakula will become the world’s second-largest copper mine with peak annual production of more than 700,000 tons of copper metal,” Ivanhoe founder Friedland said Wednesday at a mining conference in Cape Town. Friedland announced the findings of an independent…

What Mines Mean for South Africa Communities: Violence, Sickness

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mines in South Africa, which has the world’s fifth-biggest mining sector, are seen as a benefit by only 13 percent of people who live in their proximity, a report on the industry’s social impact said. Four out of five people see no positive impact at all and 8 percent said mines brought “sickness, dispossessions and damages,” ActionAid said in a report released Tuesday. South Africa’s economy during apartheid was…

Eskom Bonds Are Trading Like There’s a Rescue Plan in Place

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – There’s been enough bad news about South Africa’s state-owned electricity company in recent months to rattle the hardiest bond investor. Or so you’d think. Even before President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday the nation won’t allow Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to fail, the company’s bonds were trading as if its troubles were over. The premium investors demand to hold the company’s 10-year dollar bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries dropped this week to the lowest…

Zambia Finance Minister Holds Firm on Increased Mining Royalties

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LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, sees recent changes to its mining royalties regime as fair and won’t consider a review despite warnings from the industry that it could deter investment and result in job losses, Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said. “There is no renegotiation taking place because a law has been passed in parliament to change the tax regime,” Mwanakatwe said Tuesday in an interview in Cape Town. “We don’t want…

Palladium Rally Offers Lifeline to Buoy South African Miners

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Record palladium prices and a weaker rand are lifting the gloom enveloping South Africa’s platinum industry. For South African producers, the rally in palladium is partially offsetting the slump in platinum prices to near a decade low. Combined with a decline in the rand, which lowers costs for miners selling metal for dollars, that’s extending a lifeline to companies such as Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., Sibanye Gold Ltd. and Lonmin Plc. “While the…

Cash-Rich Ghana Banks Seen Boosting Loan Growth After Purge

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A regulatory spring-clean that’s cut the number of Ghanaian banks by almost a third is strengthening the industry, brightening prospects for lending growth and easing the pain of unpaid debts. The expanding economy is also helping lenders put behind them years of challenges weighing on the West African nation — including daily power outages, poor banking regulation and an inflation rate that has averaged 14 percent since 2013. Flush with cash after…

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