Cyprus-based Karo Resources will invest $4.2 billion to develop a platinum mine producing 1.4 million ounces of platinum group metals annually by 2023, Zimbabwe Mines Minister Winston Chitando said on Thursday.
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Zimbabwe is again attracting investments into the mining sector after foreign investor confidence dipped during the rule of former president Robert Mugabe, who was forced to resign in November following a defacto army coup.
New President Emmerson Mnangagwa has promised to open up investment opportunities to foreigners and change some rules, such as the empowerment law for the mining sector.
Work on the new project, to be located in the Mhondoro-Ngezi platinum belt west of the capital Harare, is expected to start in July, Zimbabwe Mines Minister Winston Chitando said.
“This is the largest investment structure in the country’s mining industry in Zimbabwe. The landscape of Zimbabwe’s mining industry will never be the same,” Chitando said during the signing ceremony with Karo Resources executives.
Chitando said Karo Resources was expected to be fully compliant with the empowerment law from the start by giving up majority ownership in the project. He did not give more details.
The government said on Monday it had changed its empowerment law to limit majority ownership by state entities to only diamond and platinum mines and not the entire mining sector as in previous legislation.
The platinum project is expected to directly employ 15,000 people when fully implemented, Karo Resources head Loucas Pourolis said.
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Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia
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Zimbabwe signs $4.2 billion mining investment deal with Karo Resources

Democratic Republic of Congo will declare cobalt and coltan, used in electric vehicle and renewable energy technology, as “strategic” minerals which will earn the country higher royalties, an advisor to the prime minister said on Wednesday.
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A new mining code was signed into law on Friday by President Joseph Kabila despite vigorous opposition by global mining companies with operations in Congo such as Glencore, Randgold and China Molybdenum.
Royalties paid to the government from cobalt and coltan mining will jump to 10 percent from 2 percent previously. Miners of the two metals used in batteries, would have paid a royalty of 3.5 percent under the new code if they had not been designated as strategic.
The government considers minerals with the “strategic” designation important for the economic, social and industrial future of the country.
“We need to make enough money before we run out of these minerals so that is why they are strategic to the country,” said Jean Nkunza.
“We have to make sure for the next 20 years we make money from these minerals because demand is going to be so high. It’s going to continue to grow and we are not going to stop raising the royalties on these minerals.”
Other “strategic” minerals on the list include lithium and germanium, Nkunza said.
Congo is the world’s biggest source of cobalt, the price of which more than doubled last year. The central African country is also Africa’s top copper producer.
International mining companies have said the new mining code will deter foreign investment but have agreed to start negotiations with the government over measures to implement the code.
The announcement by the prime minister’s office, however, appears to pre-empt those negotiations, which were due to determine, among other things, how metals would be classified.
The code also removes a clause that protected miners from changes to the fiscal and customs regime for 10 years and raises royalties and taxes across the board.
Low commodity prices in recent years hit Congo’s resource-dependent economy hard, causing inflation to swell to nearly 50 percent in 2017, and the government is desperate to increase its revenues.
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Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle
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Cobalt to be declared a strategic mineral in Congo

South African gold producers will likely reach a settlement within six weeks in a lawsuit over a fatal lung disease that companies have set aside 5 billion rand ($420 million) in provisions for, a lawyer and industry group said on Sunday.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-43173 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/miner_in_a_gallery_potosi__pixinn.net_.jpg" alt="Update: All 87 workers underground Lily Gold Mine rescued; 3 office workers missing" width="600" height="350" />
“I am confident we will finalize the settlement within six weeks,” Richard Spoor, the human rights lawyer who has spearheaded the class action suit over the disease silicosis, which gold miners contract while working underground, told Reuters.
A spokesman for the working group on Occupational Lung Disease (OLD), a group put together by the six companies involved, said it was is “hopeful” the settlement can be reached in that timeframe.
The settlement would still need to be approved by a High Court before it was implemented.
In February, Graham Briggs, the chair of the working group, said the settlement was seen within “months”. On top of the 5 billion rand that companies have made in provisions, there is 4 billion rand available from a compensation fund to which the industry has been contributing for years.
The suit was launched around six years ago on behalf of miners suffering from silicosis, contracted by inhaling silica dust in gold mines.
Almost all of the claimants are black miners from South Africa and neighboring countries such as Lesotho, whom critics say were not provided with adequate protection during and even after apartheid rule ended in 1994.
The six companies involved are Harmony Gold (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HARJ.J">HARJ.J</a>), Gold Fields (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GFIJ.J">GFIJ.J</a>), African Rainbow Minerals (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ARIJ.J">ARIJ.J</a>), Sibanye-Stillwater (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SGLJ.J">SGLJ.J</a>), AngloGold Ashanti (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ANGJ.J">ANGJ.J</a>) and Anglo American (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAL.L">AAL.L</a>).
Anglo American no longer has gold assets but historically was a bullion producer.
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South Africa gold miners’ silicosis lawsuit settlement expected within six weeks

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With R300-million in new cash in its coffers, construction and mining firm, Basil Read plans to turnaround the struggling construction firm. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Aviwe Mtila spoke to Basil Read&#8217;s CEO, Khathutshelo Mapasa for more insights.

Basil Read CEO outlines turnaround plans

Zimbabwe must offer foreign miners a consistent legal framework, the right to keep a controlling stake in operations and a greater share of profits to encourage investment, the head of Anglo American Platinum (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMSJ.J">AMSJ.J</a>) said.
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The country, home to the world’s second largest reserves of platinum after South Africa, is pinning hopes on a recovery in its mining industry after a coup that pushed out veteran leader Robert Mugabe, whose rule saw the economy plunged into chaos.
But decades of laws that deterred investors with tough terms and frequent changes, low global platinum prices and a crumbling economy have left Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth largely untapped.
“We are not investing in any material growth,” Chief Executive Chris Griffith told Reuters, adding that Amplats was considering investing in a small process to optimize operations, a process known as “debottlenecking”.
“But that is not betting the farm on Zimbabwe yet,” he said, adding that terms now on offer and an uncertain global outlook for platinum meant the world’s top producer of the metal had no immediate plans for major investment in Zimbabwe.
The southern African nation requires platinum and diamond companies to hand over at least 51 percent of operations to the government, a rule that had extended to the rest of the industry until it was changed last year for other metals.
Amplats, which owns the Unki platinum mine and is building a $62 million smelter, would be among major multinationals that the new mining minister, Winston Chitando, would hope to woo as the nation prepares for elections in six months.
But platinum prices are hurting those recovery prospects.
The industrial precious metal is down more than 50 percent from a record high of nearly $2,300 per ounce in 2008 due to a supply glut and shrinking demand from autocatalyst makers and jewelry buyers in China, the world’s biggest consumer.
“CHOPPING AND CHANGING”
Griffith met Zimbabwe’s Chitando to discuss issues plaguing the industry, including laws and rules on processing that he said had changed three times since work on Amplats’ new smelter started.
The Amplats CEO told the minister that constant changes made taking any investment decision difficult.
“I said (to Chitando): ‘You think I will bring half a billion dollars to Zimbabwe when you guys keep chopping and changing the rules? There is no way I will do that.&#8217;”
Unki, the smallest of three platinum mines in Zimbabwe, is Amplats’ only operation outside South Africa.
The smelter under construction will produce a matte product that will be sent to the company’s refinery in South Africa.
As well as concerns about not keeping a controlling stake, miners were concerned that companies were only allowed to retain 20 percent of their foreign earnings, Griffith said.
Following years of cost cuts and asset sales, Amplats paid its first dividend in seven years last week.
“The market is improving all the time so as we get to that position one of the things that will be a key consideration is: does the market want the extra ounces?” he said.
Zimbabwe will impose a 15 percent penalty tax from Jan. 1, 2019 on exports of platinum producers which do not build refining facilities in the country, Chitando told a mining conference on Wednesday.
Impala Platinum (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=IMPJ.J">IMPJ.J</a>), Zimbabwe’s largest platinum producer, said last year “neither the smelter nor the export levy is affordable” and could lead to the closure of its Mimosa mine.
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Writing by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Pratima Desai and Edmund Blair
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Amplats CEO seeks friendlier Zimbabwe mining laws to lift investment

Precious metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater arrested nearly 1,400 illegal miners at its South African gold shafts last year in a blitz the company says has mostly ended the practice at its mines.
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Illegal gold mining has plagued South Africa for decades and it costs the government and the industry more than 20 billion rand ($1.7 billion) a year in lost sales, taxes and royalties, according to a Chamber of Mines report last year.
Sibanye Chief Executive Neal Froneman vowed last year to take the war to illegal miners and clear them from its shafts by January 2018 under the battle cry “Zero Zama”, after the Zulu term for illegal miners.
According to data provided to Reuters by Sibanye, it made 797 arrests in 2017 linked to illegal mining at its Cooke operations and 1,383 overall. The blitz peaked in June with more than 500 arrests, above the 443 arrests in 2016 as a whole.
While Sibanye fell short of its goal of stamping out illegal mining altogether, Sibanye’s head of security Nash Lutchman said based on available intelligence, “there are only about 40 to 50 illegal miners operating now, scattered across our Kloof and Driefontein operations”.
Froneman said last year the number of illegal miners in the company’s gold operations numbered “in the thousands”. Sibanye was the first South African gold miner to set itself a deadline to stop the practice.
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Most zamas are undocumented immigrants from neighbouring countries who have long provided migrant labour for South Africa’s mines, but are now being laid off. The syndicates that support them and traffic the illegal metals are well-funded, well-established and highly dangerous, security experts say.
‘END OF STAGE ONE’
Sibanye’s drive was helped by the mothballing of its loss-making Cooke operation west of Johannesburg, which was the epicentre of illegal mining activity in its shafts.
Illegal miners gain access to working gold mines through bribery and other means, forcing companies to dispatch security teams to the shafts and to tighten entrance measures.
Sibanye spent 300 million rand last year and will spend another 300 million rand this year on access and biometric controls at the entry points to its gold mines.
“It still costs us so I don’t know if we will ever declare a victory but we are at the end of stage one,” Froneman told Reuters.
“My biggest concern about illegal mining is the corruption of our supervisors and our employees. That just sets a path for creating a rotten organisation. Everybody gets bribed and the integrity of the business just gets undermined,” he said.
Froneman admitted there was no guarantee illegal miners would not try to return, so the company needed to maintain its costly vigilance.
Security experts have said Sibanye would struggle to eradicate illegal mining completely but could reduce it by 90 percent.
Sibanye is the second South African gold producer to announce a milestone linked to illegal mining this month.
AngloGold Ashanti said it would spend up to $500 million to mechanise its Obuasi mine in Ghana.
The gold mine was rendered worthless when it was invaded by thousands of illegal miners. They were removed by the military last year and the South African company decided to revive the mine as an automated operation after a feasibility study.
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Editing by James Macharia and David Clarke
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Sibanye says clears most illegal miners from gold shafts

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The rehabilitation of mines can offer renewed economic opportunities and deal with many of the environmental issues that are created by mining; this is according to Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo, SA High commissioner for Canada.

Rehabilitation of mines can offer renewed economic opportunities, says Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo

By: Boston Consulting Group
How will technology impact the mining industry?
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According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, mining in the not-too-distant future won’t look all that different from something out of, say, I, Robot or Battlestar Galactica. Robots will be shuttled to outer space, where they will mine asteroids.
Here on Earth, self-organizing robot swarms will explore and extract ore, while other swarms crush and leach it underground, with minimal environmental impact. Even more fantastic, robots created through 4D printing will be dispatched in flat form to the mine site, where they’ll self-assemble once exposed to air. Meanwhile, engineers will monitor all this activity from the comfort of their offices, located hundreds or thousands of miles away.
To coincide with the Mining Indaba, the consulting firm released a report on The New Technology Frontier in Mining.
The report provides insight and solutions to the following:
<ul>
<li>Mining stands at the verge of a new technology frontier and will affect all elements of the value chain (making what we do today better, cheaper, faster, safer)</li>
<li>Aside from affecting the value chain, new technology may even challenge the composition of the value chain altogether (disrupting the value chain)</li>
<li>Companies need to bridge the way from ‘the mine of today’ to ‘the mine of the future’</li>
<li>This transformation is big, but should be tackled step-by-step: The best way to get there is through technology pilots, that (1) show business value on operational level and (2) fit into an overarching vision</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/new-technology-frontier-mining.aspx">Read the full report here</a>.

Leveraging Technology to Revolutionize Mining

African miner Petra Diamonds is likely to strike a deal with its lenders that could include a waiver or a reset of its debt covenants within the next month, its chief executive Johan Dippenaar said.
<div id="attachment_44080" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44080" class="wp-image-44080 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/rough_diamonds_wikipedia.jpg" alt="South Africa to encourage black involvement in diamond sector" width="600" height="400" />Photo: Wikipedia</div>
The London-listed mining company said last week it had started negotiations with its lenders for debt agreements relating to its EBITDA for December 2017 and June 2018.
The confiscation of a consignment of its diamonds in Tanzania and a labour strike at its South African mines were the main reasons that Petra flagged in October that it was likely to fall short of its loan obligations.
“We are too tight with the covenants but we discuss with the banks all the time and we are confident that in a month or so we will have solutions to it,” Dippenaar told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Cape Town.
“We have illustrated a business that keeps on growing and is able to service its debt, we are just at a turnaround point.”
Petra, which operates five mines in South Africa and Tanzania, reached peak capital expenditure in its last financial half year after seven years of investing more cash than it generated into expanding its operations.
The company has spent nearly $1.5 billion over the last seven years at the Finsch and Cullinan mines.
Dippenaar said Petra would now focus on cutting its debt, adding that acquisitions and explorations were not on the table.
Net debt at the end of December stood at $644.7 million but is expected to fall to $560–$600 million by the end of June. The company has a syndicated loan of about $120 million with South African banks.
Petra, which was accused of under-declaring the value of the stones, is caught up in an industry-wide crackdown by the Tanzanian government in an effort to reap more mineral revenue. Petra has denied the accusation.
The consignment, which was confiscated in September, has not yet been returned but the company resumed exporting other diamond packages after a brief government-mandated stoppage.
Dippenaar said the Tanzanian government had concluded questioning its employees but it was unclear whether the full investigation was over.
“We are hopeful that a resolution will come out in the six months to June,” he said.
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Editing by Dale Hudson
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Petra Diamonds seeks debt deal to avoid loan default

Sibanye-Stillwater said on Friday that all the miners who were trapped underground at its Beatrix gold mine in South Africa had been brought to the surface.
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Company spokesman James Wellsted said 955 miners, trapped after a storm knocked out power, had been freed.
The National Union of Mineworkers said another 65 workers had previously been rescued.
“Everyone is fine, there were minor injuries and a bit of dehydration but that’s all,” said Wellsted.
The incident highlights safety concerns in an industry that is home to the world’s deepest mines, with workers at some sites operating at depths of up to 4 kilometres.
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Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Joseph Radford
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Sibanye-Stillwater Beatrix Gold Mine workers trapped underground  brought to surface

Blockchain is to be used for the first time to try to track cobalt’s journey from artisanal mines in Democratic Republic of Congo through to products used in smartphones and electric cars.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-38901 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/blockchain_illustration_wikimedia_commons.jpg" alt="Op-Ed: Blockchain - Innocent Until Proven Guilty" width="1550" height="872" />
Sources close to a pilot scheme expected to be launched this year say the aim is eventually to give manufacturers a way of ensuring the cobalt in lithium-ion batteries for products such as iPhones and Teslas has not been mined by children.
Tracking cobalt presents many challenges as scores of informal mine sites would have to be monitored, all players in the supply chain would need to buy into the scheme, and accurate, electronic data would need to be transmitted from remote areas &#8211; all in a vast country plagued by lawlessness.
But companies are under growing pressure from consumers and investors to show the cobalt they use has come through supply chains free of rights abuses, just as they have for minerals used in electronics such as tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold.
Businesses in China, the main destination for Congolese cobalt from artisanal mines, have set up a Responsible Cobalt Initiative, which has been joined by tech giants such as Apple and Samsung, to address child labour.
The problem they face is that there are few sure-fire ways of tracing cobalt from the informal mines that produce up to a fifth of the cobalt from Congo, the world’s biggest producer.
“The demand to make cobalt more sustainable is going to continue growing, meaning there is a will to find a solution and blockchain will be part of that,” said a source with the project, who declined to be named because it is not yet public.
<h3>OPEN QUESTION</h3>
Blockchain technology is already used in the diamond industry. Gems are given a digital fingerprint that is then tracked by blockchain as gems are sold, giving a forgery-proof record of where the stones have come from.
The cobalt supply chain is far more complex but the developers of the pilot hope blockchain &#8211; a decentralised online database in the form of a distributed ledger &#8211; can at least track some of the stages that are a major worry for end users.
Sheila Warren, head of blockchain policy at the World Economic Forum, said it was an open question how well it could work in Congo given the prevalence of conflict, lawlessness and an opaque legal system.
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“We are prototyping, iterating, testing, scaling,” said Warren, who is working with experts to see how blockchain can improve mineral supply chains. “The technology is not the hard part.”
Amnesty International, which detailed the extent of child labour in cobalt mining in Congo in a 2016 report, said it was looking at blockchain, especially with a view to tracing payments to middlemen.
“You have to be wary of technological solutions to problems that are also political and economic, but blockchain may help. We’re not against it,” said Amnesty researcher Mark Dummett.
Congo holds half the world’s cobalt reserves and demand for the main mineral component of lithium-ion batteries is set to surge as electric cars proliferate. In 2016, Congo mined 54 percent of the 123,000 tonnes of cobalt produced worldwide.
Carmakers such as Volkswagen are trying to secure long-term cobalt supplies to sustain electric car production, and they are asking suppliers to ensure no child labour was used in the supply chain.
<h3>BAGGED AND TAGGED</h3>
The plan for the Congo pilot scheme is to give each sealed bag of cobalt produced by a vetted artisanal miner a digital tag which is entered on blockchain using a mobile phone, along with details of the weight, date, time and perhaps a photo.
At the next stage, a trader buying the bag would record the details on blockchain, and the process would be repeated until the ore gets to the smelter &#8211; leaving an immutable record of the cobalt’s journey for downstream buyers or third parties to view.
The pilot will involve organisations throughout the supply chain, from on-the-ground monitors checking that sites are not using child labour, through the refining process to end users, according to people helping to develop the scheme.
One potential risk in the supply chain is that cobalt mined by children gets mixed with “clean” cobalt before processing.
The industry is experimenting with options such as indelible marks that survive the refining process, a mass balance approach as used for Fairtrade certification of products such as cocoa, or bolting blockchain onto computer technology already used by refiners to monitor material as it moves through their plants.
“We are very bullish about the potential impact of blockchain in minerals and metals supply chains,” said Harrison Mitchell, director of RCS Global, which advises companies on responsible sourcing and audits supply chains.
“Blockchain-enabled supply chains will have the ability to deliver trust and transparency over the production of metals such as cobalt,” he said. “Ensuring that information from these mine sites is inputted correctly and transparently is difficult, but it is possible.”
<h3>INPUT DATA</h3>
Some institutional investors are also pushing mining companies and manufacturers to harness blockchain to help clean up mineral supply chains.
Christine Chow of Hermes Investment Management said tracking cobalt was far more complex than diamonds, typically involving 12 steps as opposed to five stages for gems.
“But the principle of recording key characteristics and then entering them into the blockchain, which is stored on the cloud, is the same,” said Chow, part of the Hermes EOS team that advises institutional shareholders on responsible investing.
“To make it work, the key players in the chain must agree a set of input data to define its features,” said Chow, whose team has $425 billion of assets under advice.
The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) said its members, which include all major mining companies, were well-placed to draw on blockchain’s potential to improve public trust in the industry.
“It does not solve the whole problem, but it solves a big part of the problem,” ICMM CEO Tom Butler said.
“Quality at entry to where the blockchain starts remains a challenge, but in that respect we’re in a privileged position as ICMM members are mining responsibly.”
Glencore, the world’s biggest producer of cobalt, declined to comment on the use of blockchain.
In its 2016 sustainability report, Glencore said when it sourced cobalt in Congo from outside its own production, it only dealt with third parties that did not use artisanal mines.
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Editing by David Clarke
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Blockchain to track Congo’s cobalt from mine to mobile

Sibanye-Stillwater said on Thursday that over 1,000 miners were stuck underground at its Beatrix gold mine in South Africa after a storm knocked out power, but they were not in danger.
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Spokesman James Wellsted said the miners were safe and receiving food and water. Power was being restored to the mine but there was not yet enough to bring the miners to the surface.
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Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Joe Brock
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Miners stuck underground, not in danger: Sibanye-Stillwater

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Liam Bullock | Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen
To the west of Ethiopia near the Sudanese border lies a place called the Asosa zone. This may be the location of the oldest gold mine in the world. Dating back some 6,000 years, it provided a key source of gold to the ancient Egyptian empire, whose great wealth was famous throughout the known world. It may even have supplied the Queen of Sheba with her lavish gifts of gold when she visited King Solomon of Israel almost 3,000 years ago.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-18585 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gold_-_luxury_rules.jpg" alt="Gold Fields earnings rise as low-cost mines boost output" width="1024" height="768" />
The excitement in this part of the world is more about the future, however. Some local inhabitants already make a living from prospecting, and several mining companies have been active in the area in recent years, too.
Treasure trail
But what comes next could be on a much bigger scale: I have just co-published with my colleague, Owen Morgan, new geological research that suggests that much more treasure might be buried under the surface of this east African country than was previously thought.
The Asosa zone is made up of flatlands, rugged valleys, mountainous ridges, streams and rivers. It is densely vegetated by bamboo and incense trees, with remnants of tropical rainforests along the river valleys. The zone, which is part of Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, is spotted with archaeological sites containing clues to how people lived here thousands of years ago, together with ancient mining pits and trenches.
Local inhabitants have long taken advantage of these riches. They pan for gold in Asosa’s streams and also extract the precious metal directly from outcropping rocks.
More substantial exploitation of the region’s riches dates back to the Italian invasion of the 1930s. The Italians explored the Welega gold district in West Welega, south-east of Asosa.
Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, believed the country had the potential to become a global leader in gold. But when the revolutionary Derg government deposed him and the country plunged into civil war, gold mining disappeared off the agenda for a decade and a half. It took until the early 2000s before the government started awarding exploration licences.
Several mines are up and running, neither of them in Asosa. One is at Lega Dembi slightly to the east, owned by Saudi interests. The other, at Tigray in the north of the country, is owned by American mining giant Newmont, and just started production late last year.
More is already on the way: the beneficiary of the Italian efforts from the 1930s in Welega is the Tulu Kapi gold prospect, containing 48 tonnes of gold. This was most recently acquired in 2013 by Cyprus-based mining group KEFI Minerals (market value: roughly US$2.3 billion (£1.7 billion)).
As for Asosa, the Egyptian company ASCOM made a significant gold discovery in the zone in 2016. It published a maiden resource statement that claimed the presence of – curiously the same number – 48 tonnes of gold. Yet this only looks like the beginning.
<h2>Au-some potential?</h2>
The Asosa zone geology is characterised by various kinds of volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are more than 600 million-years-old. The region has been intensely deformed by geological forces, resulting in everything from kilometre-long faults to tiny cracks known as veins which are only centimetres in length.
Some of these veins contain quartz, and it is mainly here that the region’s gold accumulated between 615m and 650m years ago – along with silver and various other minerals. The gold came from molten materials deep within the Earth finding their way upwards during a process known as subduction, where tectonic forces drive oceanic crust beneath a continent. This is comparable to the reasons behind gold deposits in island arcs like some of the ones in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Our field observations and panning suggest that gold should be generally abundant across the Asoza zone – both in quartz veins but also elsewhere in the schist and pegmatite rocks in which they are located. We also see signs of substantial graphite deposits, which are important for everything from touch-screen tablets to lithium-ion batteries.
There is undoubtedly much more world-class gold within this area than has already been discovered, pointing to a promising source of income for the government for years to come – much of the region remains unexplored, after all. It probably is no exaggeration to say that Ethiopia’s gold potential could rival South Africa’s, which would put it somewhere around the top five gold producing nations in the world.
There are still some substantial challenges, however. Dealing with governmental red tape can be difficult. In an area like the Asosa zone there are dangerous wildlife to avoid, such as venimous snakes, baboons and even monkeys. The vegetation also becomes forbiddingly wild during wet seasons.
It is also important to strike up good working relationships with local inhabitants, showing the utmost respect to local cultures – it’s the ethical way to operate, and failing to do so can make life harder with the authorities in the capital. This includes the need to preserve the natural beauty of the region; gold mining already has a very bad international reputation for environmental damage.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90408/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />With the right approach, however, western Ethiopia will be a literal gold mine that could bring economic benefit to the region. What the Queen of Sheba may have known 3,000 years ago, the modern world is finally rediscovering today.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Ethiopia could be sitting on one of world’s great untapped gold deposits

Ivory Coast’s mining sector turnover rose by 11.5 percent in 2017, an increase achieved mainly via exports of gold, manganese and nickel, the government spokesman said on Wednesday.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-41293 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/gold-flickr.jpg" alt="South Africa's AMCU accepts Sibanye Gold new wage offer" width="1024" height="718" />
“The mining sector announced a sales revenue of 539 billion CFA francs ($1.02 billion) in 2017, compared to 483 billion in 2016,” Government Spokesman Bruno Nabagne Kone said after a cabinet meeting.
Manganese output increased by a whopping 146 percent, reaching 510,000 tonnes in 2017. Gold output rose to 25.395 tonnes in 2017, 2.15 percent higher than in 2016. Nickel production, which started in 2017, was at 379,766 tonnes.
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Kone added that in 2017, Ivory Coast exported five shipments of diamonds worth 11,156 carats in total, earning $2.1 million.
Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is seeking to develop its long-neglected mining sector to diversify its sources of revenue.
Diamond activity resumed in April 2014, after the lifting of an international ban that had been in place because of wars and crises that divided the country between 2002-2011.
“Our country’s mining sector has a lot of potential. In a few years Ivory Coast will figure amongst the most important mineral producers on the continent,” said Kone.
Australia’s Perseus Mining Limited is set to open its Sissingue gold mine in the north of the country in the first quarter of 2018, Kone said.
He reaffirmed that around 200 billion CFA francs would be invested in the country’s Ity gold mine to boost its performance and hit a potential of 50 tonnes. Other projects are underway in bauxite mining, nickel and iron, Kone added.
($1 = 528.8800 CFA francs)
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Editing by Sofia Christensen and Tim Cocks
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Ivory Coast mining sector turnover rose 11.5% in 2017

Platinum miner Lonmin reported a 65 percent drop in 2017 profit on Monday as the company took a $1.1 billion impairment charge after a business review.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-8674 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mine.jpg" alt="Harmony Gold narrows quarterly loss" width="382" height="350" />
Bruised by higher costs and subdued commodity prices, the miner, which is being bought by Sibanye-Stillwater, said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to $40 million for the year to Sept. 30 from $115 million a year earlier.
Lonmin delayed its results last year pending the outcome of a business review.
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“Persistent adverse macroeconomic conditions and inflationary cost pressures continue to affect the entire mining industry in South Africa,” the miner said in a statement.
Lonmin has been worst hit among the major platinum miners by operating conditions and community and labour unrest.
The company reiterated its spending and production targets for 2018 but said it planned to cut a minimum of 500 million rand ($41 million) from its annual overhead costs by Sept. 30.
The price of platinum has been largely subdued since record highs nearly a decade ago due to high levels of above-ground stocks of the metal.
Sibanye-Stillwater agreed to buy Lonmin for about 285 million pounds ($395 million) in December.
($1 = 12.0808 rand)
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Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; editing by Jason Neely and Louise Heavens
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Lonmin reports 65% fall in 2017 profit on higher costs

The first three months of 2018 will be crucial to the flickering fortunes of Africa’s most advanced mining industry. They are likely to be months littered with litigation argument and acrimony.
The resource rich industry of South Africa – once a world leader in mining employing a million people and producing more than half of the world’s gold –has seen more than two decades of decline. Corruption, falling productivity, rising costs and dithering over regulation have taken a heavy toll.
In 2016, according to Statistics South Africa the South African mining industry’s real GDP was 2.6% smaller than it was in 1994.The financial services sector grew by 168% over the same period. On top of this, the South African mining sector has slid, according to Fraser Institute Investment Attractiveness Index that measures best practice in policy, legislation, regulation and operating environment.
Hanging above all of this is a court result and a judicial hearing regarding a controversial rewrite of the <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2017/06/15/chamber-mines-seek-legal-opinion-mining-charter/">Mining Charter</a> that has taken more than five years to get nowhere. It was released in April, after minimal consultation, to outrage from the Chamber of Mines. The mining companies objected to the increase of black ownership from 26% to 30% to be maintained at all times.
This is the issue that the Chamber of Mines took to the <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2017/11/27/court-challenge-south-africa-mining-charter-postponed-february/">Gauteng High Court in November</a>. The mining companies argue that a “once empowered always empowered” principle should apply; in that once a mining company has borne the cost of transferring shares into black ownership it is deemed to have done its job regardless of any dilution of the stake. The Chamber of Mines hopes for a judgement in the first quarter of 2018-victory in court could send the Mining Charter back to the drawing board.
&#8220;A full bench of three judges heard this case. This is one reason why the decision is going to take a while. The three judges have to arrive at a majority decision and that takes time, but we are hoping to have a decision by the end of March. I think it was a difficult case and not easy to argue from a legal perspective. I am optimistic, but it will be a tough one,&#8221; says Elize Strydom, the head of legal for the Chamber of Mines.
The mining employers pin higher hopes on the judicial review of the amended Mining Charter, set for February 19 20 and 21, again at the Gauteng High Court, again before a full bench of three judges led by senior High Court Judge Dunstan Mlambo.
Observers believe this case, in particular, is likely to bring a lot of pressure down on Mining Minister Mosebenzi Zwane. In this judicial review, it will not merely be the mining employers against the Mining Charter, there will be seven organisations that number the unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity, plus Lawyers for Human Rights representing communities who live near the mines.
&#8220;I think the review is a lot easier for us because there are so many flaws and measures in the Mining Charter that are beyond the powers of the minister. For instance, the minister indicated that 2% of the proposed 5% skills levy is to go to an empowerment agency that he has yet to create. This is not in his power to do this &#8211; that is within the power of the minister of finance. What we hope is that the minister will have to start again from scratch. Then we can sit down with the unions and interested parties to come up with something that we can all work with,&#8221; Strydom said.
Whether minister Zwane will be there to negotiate is another question amid the uncertainty. Moves are growing apace to encourage President Zuma to resign early in a dignified exit that will mean the dissolving of cabinet.
A new broom could mean renewed confidence among foreign investors with president-elect Cyril Ramaphosa being painted as the mining-savvy, business-friendly, leader.
Whoever takes over, at least one political analyst believes the damage has been done more than a decade ago with the advent of the Minerals Resources and Petroleum Development Act. The legislation ushered in black empowerment and virtually nationalised the country&#8217;s mineral rights overnight.
&#8220;I think foreign investors have been fighting shy of South African since the mineral resources were taken over by the government in the early 2000s. I don&#8217;t think the removal of one man is going to suddenly make the mining investors in Toronto and London think we are a great place to invest. I think the country has to improve its economic fundamentals first. The country has massive unemployment, too much spending on welfare and this lingering political chaos,&#8221; says Moeletsi Mbeki, a political analyst.
If the Chamber of Mines carries the day at the judicial review it is likely judges will instruct that the Mining Charter be torn up.  That could trigger a rewrite process that could take even more years and with it bring even more uncertainty.

2018 will be crucial to the flickering fortunes of Africa’s most advanced mining industry

South Africa’s precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater has agreed to buy Lonmin in an all-share deal, valuing the troubled platinum producer at about 285 million pounds ($382 million), the two companies said on Thursday.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-9751 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mining_3_-path_finder.jpg" alt="Lonmin begins its post-strike rebuilding process" width="1262" height="845" />
Lonmin, the world’s third biggest platinum producer, has faced the combined pressures of low platinum prices and challenges of operating in South Africa, where laying off workers to improve profitability is a fraught issue.
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Its share price in London was up 18 percent by 0822 GMT, while Sibanye-Stillwater’s fell 2.6 percent in Johannesburg trade.
“The flexibility inherent in the larger regional PGM (platinum group metals) footprint will create a more robust business, better able to withstand volatile PGM prices and exchange rates,” Neal Froneman, chief executive officer of Sibanye-Stillwater, said in a statement.
He said the acquisition would “deliver longer term benefits for all stakeholders.”
Under the offer, each Lonmin Shareholder will receive 0.967 new Sibanye-Stillwater shares for each Lonmin share, the companies said in their statement.
Following the completion of the deal Lonmin shareholders will hold around 11.3 percent of the enlarged group.
“Doubtless welcome news to long suffering Lonmin shareholders averting the need to dig into their pockets once again to refinance the company in its regular three to four year refinancing cycle,” Marc Elliott, analyst at Investec bank said.
He added Sibanye management could get the most value from Lonmin’s smelting and refining assets and could also be betting on a rebound in the price of platinum group metals.
Lonmin’s share price has halved this year because of uncertainty about the future of a company, which has repeatedly called on its investors for cash.
In November, Reuters reported on its array of measures to save cash after it delayed its annual financial results pending conclusion of a business review.
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Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Barbara Lewis in London; Editing by Adrian Croft.
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mining

Zimbabwe signs $4.2 billion mining investment deal with Karo Resources

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South Africa gold miners’ silicosis lawsuit settlement expected within six weeks

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Amplats CEO seeks friendlier Zimbabwe mining laws to lift investment

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Miners stuck underground, not in danger: Sibanye-Stillwater

Ethiopia could be sitting on one of world’s great untapped gold deposits

Ivory Coast mining sector turnover rose 11.5% in 2017

Lonmin reports 65% fall in 2017 profit on higher costs

2018 will be crucial to the flickering fortunes of Africa’s most advanced mining industry

South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater to buy troubled platinum producer Lonmin

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mining

Zimbabwe signs $4.2 billion mining investment deal with Karo Resources

Cobalt to be declared a strategic mineral in Congo

South Africa gold miners’ silicosis lawsuit settlement expected within six weeks

Basil Read CEO outlines turnaround plans

Amplats CEO seeks friendlier Zimbabwe mining laws to lift investment

Sibanye says clears most illegal miners from gold shafts

Rehabilitation of mines can offer renewed economic opportunities, says Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo

Leveraging Technology to Revolutionize Mining

Petra Diamonds seeks debt deal to avoid loan default

Sibanye-Stillwater Beatrix Gold Mine workers trapped underground brought to surface

Blockchain to track Congo’s cobalt from mine to mobile

Miners stuck underground, not in danger: Sibanye-Stillwater

Ethiopia could be sitting on one of world’s great untapped gold deposits

Ivory Coast mining sector turnover rose 11.5% in 2017

Lonmin reports 65% fall in 2017 profit on higher costs

2018 will be crucial to the flickering fortunes of Africa’s most advanced mining industry

South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater to buy troubled platinum producer Lonmin

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