The Editorial Team |

South Africa Probes Illegal Miners Blast Risk Under City of Gold

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa is probing a potential catastrophe lurking beneath its richest city — illegal gold miners are digging and blasting 30 centimeters (12 inches) from gas pipelines beneath some of Johannesburg’s most vital infrastructure, raising the risk of explosions. The government has been jolted into action after the Sunday Times newspaper reported on the activity that could create an inferno. Some of the illegal miners are digging right below…

An Oil-Rich State Seeks Hope in Ashes of Africa’s Worst War

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Torched homes, gutted shopfronts and fields of rotting corn greeted Laker Betty as she returned to the town in South Sudan’s breadbasket she fled in terror a year ago. She’s one of thousands of civilians tentatively returning to the East African nation after a war that at its height rivaled Syria for the dubious title of the world’s worst conflict, claiming almost 400,000 lives. As President Salva Kiirprepares to welcome rebels…

Blood Gold’ Crackdown May Imperil Small Miners It Seeks to Help

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – New rules designed to prioritize safety for many of the world’s most vulnerable gold miners may in fact put their livelihoods at risk. When his fellow miners winch him up from the hole in the desert, Keith Gushure is covered in mud. Gushure, 21, holds a pick and a hammer. For the past 18 hours he’s been trying to chip, gouge and pry gold out of the 56-foot (17-meter)…

Guinea Bauxite Miner to Build Rail, Refinery in $3 Billion Deal

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GUINEA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Societe Miniere de Boke, which mines aluminum raw material bauxite in Guinea, signed agreements with the West African nation to spend $3 billion on a railway, an alumina refinery and the development of new mining areas. The 135-kilometer (84-mile) railway, which will link mining operations to a river terminal, will cost an estimated $1.2 billion and is expected to start operations in 2022, the group said in a statement…

Battered Bitcoin Miners Seen Shutting Down as Losses Pile Up

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency’s crash may be throwing in the towel. The Bitcoin network’s hash rate, one way of gauging the computing power dedicated to mining the digital currency, dropped about 24 percent from an all-time high at the end of August through Nov. 24, according to Blockchain.com. While the decline may have partially resulted from miners switching to other cryptocurrencies, JPMorgan Chase & Co. says some in…

Bitcoin’s Deepening Crash Now Approaches Its Worst Bear Markets

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin broke below $4,000 and extended its 2018 crash to within striking distance of the biggest cryptocurrency’s worst bear markets. The virtual currency conceived just over a decade ago slid as much as 14 percent to $3,675 on Monday, bringing its decline from last December’s record high of almost $20,000 to about 80 percent. All nine of its largest peers tracked in real time by Bloomberg fell, with drops ranging as high as 21…

Democracy Comes to Ethiopia at Breakneck Speed: Balance of Power

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ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – On a continent where true political reform often seems to be a mirage, Ethiopia is pursuing change at a breathtaking pace. Since taking over as premier in April, Abiy Ahmed has spearheaded a redistribution of power across Africa’s second-most populous nation – and its fastest-growing economy – that’s been under the iron rule of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front for a quarter-century. Vowing a crackdown on the “cancer” of corruption,…

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