Mining Sector |

Congo Billionaire Seeks French Loan to Develop Iron-Ore Railway

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Paul Obambi, a billionaire investor in the Congo Republic, is in talks with French lenders to fund a railway he’s building to export iron ore. Obambi’s company SAPRO SA is negotiating with “a consortium of banks” to finance the 450-kilometer (280-mile) track that will link the southwestern town of Mayoko to a port at Pointe Noire, he said in a phone interview from Paris on Tuesday. Construction is expected…

Why South Africa Is Ripping Up Its Mining Rules Again

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s mining industry is a prime example of the nation’s stark imbalances. Its highly paid, mainly white male executives oversee hundreds of thousands of mostly black workers labouring in deep and dangerous operations. To spread the nation’s wealth more equally, in 2017 the government revised its mining charter to require that companies give more ownership to black shareholders. The industry lobby group sued to stop this, saying that…

Surviving on $3 an Ounce Has Lonmin in Race Against Time

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Every day, Lonmin Plc sends thousands of miners hundreds of meters below ground, where they use drills, diggers and explosives to extract about 40,000 metric tons of rock laden with precious metals. The ore is milled, crushed, concentrated, smelted and refined in a month-long process that eventually yields about 4,100 ounces of platinum-group metals each day. Yet for all its trouble, Lonmin’s revenue in the most recent quarter was barely $3 an ounce…

Mining Lobby in Court Over South African Black-Ownership Rules

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s Chamber of Mines starts the first of its two-pronged legal fight over the country’s black-empowerment rules Thursday. The case will be heard in Pretoria over two days and pits the chamber, which represents producers including Anglo American Plc and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., against the Department of Mineral Resources. At stake is whether mining companies can claim to have met black-ownership requirements even after beneficiaries have sold their stakes in…

Noble Group Buys Into African Project Amid Default Concerns

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LILONGWE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Noble Group Limited may be losing money on Asian operations, selling assets in the U.S., and battling concerns it’ll default, but the Hong Kong-based commodity trader has decided that now’s the right time to boost its presence in Africa with a bet on the electric vehicle boom. The company is investing 500,000 pounds ($655,000) in an obscure mining project in Malawi, emerging as Mkango Resources Ltd.’s top shareholder, according to statements from…

Nigeria Seeks to Boost Mining Reserves to Lure Investors

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria plans to spend 15 billion naira ($42 million) over the next year to explore for minerals and attract investors into mining and reduce its dependence on oil, Solid Minerals Development Minister Kayode Fayemi said. “Because we are starting from a low base, we want to have a portfolio of exploration activities in place that could whet the appetite of the average investor who wants to come in,” Fayemi said in…

Billionaire Agarwal to Boost Anglo Stake by Up to $2 Billion

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Anil Agarwal, an Indian mining billionaire, is buying 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) worth of additional Anglo American Plc shares, increasing his stake in the blue-chip British miner that’s benefited from a recovery in commodity prices. Agarwal said Wednesday the purchase, which is the equivalent of about 9 percent, was a family investment and he doesn’t intend to make a takeover offer for the company, according to a statement. It comes…

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