Casa Mining, in which Ortac has a 22.2% stake and Premier African Minerals has a 4.5% stake, has begun drilling at its Akyanga gold deposit in Democratic Republic of Congo. Both Ortac Resources Limited and Premier African Minerals Limited, have revealed that Casa Mining Limited has started a 5,000 metre drill programme at the Akyanga gold deposit, part of the prospective Misisi gold project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Casa’s aim is to increase and upgrade the existing mineral resource estimate. Ortac has a 22.2% stake and Premier African Minerals has a 4.5% stake. In 2014, UK consultant SRK reported an inferred mineral resource at the Akyanga deposit of 5.5 mln tonnesRead more
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Canadian-listed Alphamin Resources hoped to finalise the remaining funding required to build the Bisie tin mine in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the end of the year according to CEO Boris Kamstra. Total cost of the project is estimated at some US$152m towards which Alphamin had already raised some $22m in July through private share placements. The company plans to raise a further $55m in equity along with $80m in debt. Speaking at a presentation to financial media in Johannesburg on Tuesday Kamstra said that, all going to plan, initial production of tin-in-concentrate is expected during the first quarter of 2019 with theRead more
Greenwish, a Mauritius-based renewable energy company run by a former Morgan Stanley, has partnered with Orange SA planning to invest $800 million on solar-powered telephone towers across Africa. The project could fuel economic growth by providing power for essential services. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rates of energy access in the world and is home to about half of the world’s 1.2 billion people without reliable electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. The problem extends to businesses as well as households, cutting into productivity and growth. “We reduce the total cost of power by 30 percent,” said Charlotte Aubin-Kalaidjian, the founder and chief executive officer of GreenWish, who was formerly a managing director at MorganRead more
London-based Vedanta Resources is studying how to produce cobalt for use in batteries to take advantage of the electric car revolution. Another diversified miner is betting on the electric car revolution and surging demand for metals such as cobalt. London-based Vedanta Resources is now studying how to produce cobalt for use in batteries, CEO Tom Albanese said on Tuesday (August 15). The company currently mines cobalt as a by-product of copper, producing a total of 1,000 tonnes of cobalt-copper alloy per year. But increasing demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has prompted the company to look at producing cobalt suitable for the lithium-ion batteries that power them. “As cobalt is becoming more exciting, weRead more
The Democratic Republic of Congo suspended its value-added tax on imports by mining companies after briefly reinstating it. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suspended a value-added tax (VAT) on imports by mining companies after briefly reinstating it, the country’s Chamber of Mines said on Thursday (August 17). In July 2016, the government decided to suspend the VAT on imports for one year to protect the Congolese franc from low metals prices. After the decree expired last month, customs authorities resumed charging the tax, hurting mining companies in the country. At the time, miners said they saw the tax as part of a deteriorating business climate in the unstable country. The DRC is Africa’s top producer ofRead more
The commercial connections between financiers, enterprises and emerging economies. Economic correspondent Moin Siddiqi reports Inward foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Africa during 2015 were estimated at between US$54-57.5bn, with some variance between sub-regions. According to The African Development Bank (AfDB), FDI in East Africa amounted to US$8.9bn since 2010; West Africa (US$9.7bn); Southern Africa (US$12.9bn); and Central Africa (US$5.4bn). The leading 2015 FDI destinations based on United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data were Angola (US$8.7bn); Mozambique (US$3.7bn); Ghana (US$3.2bn); Nigeria (US$3.1bn); Ethiopia (US$2.2bn); South Africa (US$1.8bn); Sudan (US$1.7bn); Congo, DRC (US$1.6bn); Zambia (US$1.6bn); Tanzania (US$1.5bn); Congo (US$1.4bn); and Kenya (US$1.4bn); respectively. While advanced countries, notably the UK, the US and France, are important FDI providers, emerging economies, led by China, India, South Africa,Read more
South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have signed a visa waiver agreement for official and diplomatic passport holders. The agreement was signed on Monday by Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and Security of the DRC, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari in Tshwane. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister Mkhize said the signing of the agreement is a positive step towards enhancing relations between South Africa and the DRC. “The Republic of South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo maintain good diplomatic and political relations. The highest expression of our relations is the annual Bi-National Commission (BNC), co-chaired byRead more
Standard Bank has appointed Amedeo Anniciello as Chief Executive in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), subject to regulatory approval. The DRC is Africa’s second largest country, combining abundant hydro energy potential with a wealth of mineral resources. This exceptional potential continues to attract global investment, especially from global multinational companies. “Mr Anniciello brings the global banking expertise as well as local and African risk insight required by global corporates and African businesses seeking to access African opportunities,” says Sola David-Borha, chief executive, Africa Regions, Standard Bank. “The DRC represents a substantial opportunity for the Standard Bank Group. We are increasing our capital and investment locally, and introducing theRead more
Recent findings by the GSM Association, a trade body that represents the interest of mobile operators worldwide, have revealed that the high mobile sector taxation in most African countries have undermined the efforts of digital inclusion in the continent and the uncertain and complex taxation regimes are affecting operators’ ability to invest in infrastructure rollout. The GSMA report on ‘Taxing Mobile Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: A review of mobile sector taxation and its impact on digital inclusion’, finds that; in Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 420 million people (43 per cent of the population) subscribed to a mobile service at the end of 2016; but the region faces a significant digitalRead more
Ivanhoe Mines Chairman and CEO, Robert Friedland. In the two decades since billionaire mining investor Robert Friedland founded Ivanhoe Mines, his small team has made some of the biggest mineral discoveries in the world. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it has done so while trading and contracting with companies controlled by one of President Joseph Kabila’s brothers, searches of thousands of pages of Congolese corporate records obtained by Bloomberg show. Ivanhoe’s unearthing of Africa’s largest copper deposit in the DRC last year after more than a decade of exploration work helped quintuple the company’s stock price. The discovery adds to other successes by Friedland, which include building theRead more