South Africa

LONDON (Reuters) – South Africa’s mining minister said on Monday he expected to start issuing shale exploration licences later this year.”At the moment we are going through the consultation process (with stakeholders such as communities),” Ngoako Ramatlhodi told Reuters on the sidelines of the Chatham House extractive Industries in Africa conference.”We should finish the consultations by the middle of this year and that will enable us to issue licences.”Earlier in the day, Royal Dutch Shell…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand was slightly softer against the dollar early on Tuesday with scope to weaken further should a central bank report show a wider-than-expected current account deficit.The local unit tends to be hit harder than its peers when investors bail out of emerging markets which offer higher yields but are perceived to carry greater risk.At 0632 GMT the rand traded at 12.4180 to the dollar, down 0.19 percent from where it…