Category: Mining
With New Lockdowns in South Africa Threatening to Slow Cobalt Exports to China, Prices For the Strategically Important Metal Are Going Up
Investors are becoming increasingly worried that South Africa's recent decision to close 20 land ports will adversely impact the flow of cobalt from mines in the DR Congo to customers in China. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a series of new lockdown measures in an effort ...
Analyst: China Will Diversify Iron Ore Buys From Australia, Brazil To Guinea in West Africa
Peter O’Connor, a senior analyst of metals and mining at the Australian investment firm Shaw and Partners, said out loud on CNBC what many people have been quietly thinking: that the natural progression of China's steadily deteriorating ties with Australia will prompt Beijing to end its dependence ...
Rapidly Deteriorating China-Australia Ties Provides a Sobering Lesson For African Countries
There's an old Chinese idiom that says "kill a chicken to scare the monkey" (殺雞儆猴). According to the folktale, there was a street performer who made a lot of money from a dancing monkey. One day, that monkey, however, didn't want to perform. The owner became very ...
Construction Begins on New Chinese-Financed Vocational Campus in an Important Congolese Cobalt Mining City
The Chinese embassy in Kinshasa announced that construction will begin soon on a new vocational education campus in Kowlezi, the capital of the southern Lualaba province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The new 15,000 square ...
Australia’s Billion Dollar Copper Export Business is Now in China’s Crosshairs, Can African Producers Get the Business?
Chinese media is hinting that copper may be the next Australian export to suffer from the worsening dispute between the two countries that began back in April when Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origin of COVID-19. Chinese authorities have already ...
Ghanaian Presidential Candidate Doesn’t See the Justice in Locking Up Locals for Illegal Mining When Chinese Are Released
Opposition National Democratic Congress presidential candidate John Mahama scolded the government for releasing Chinese nationals caught engaging in illegal artisanal mining (locally known as galamsey) while locking up locals for doing the same thing. “Our youth have been imprisoned for their involvement in ...
This Chart Explains Why the U.S. Just Invested $25 Million in a Company That Will Help Diversify Its Supply of Cobalt
The United States Development Finance Corporation invested $25 million in a company that will help to develop a Brazilian nickel and cobalt mine. The U.S. and a growing number of European countries are becoming increasingly concerned about China's dominance of the global cobalt supply chain, given the ...
Zambia Becomes the First African Country to Default on Its Debt Since the Outbreak of COVID-19
The day that many African policymakers had long feared since the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year is now here. Zambia yesterday said it will be unable at this time to repay the interest on three Eurobonds, totally around $3 billion, and will effectively have to default ...
The Chinese Embassy in Harare Responds to Zimbabwe’s National Park Mining Ban
The Chinese embassy in Harare responded late last week to the Zimbabwean government's surprise decision to ban all mining activities in the country's five national parks and in most river beds. Although Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa did not mention China by name when announcing the ...
Zimbabwe Government Responds to Public Outrage Over Chinese Coal Mining in Hwange National Park
In a surprise reversal, the Zimbabwean government announced an immediate ban on all mining activities in the country's five national parks. The move was in response to widespread outrage over the government's decision to allow two Chinese companies to begin coal mining operations in the Hwange National ...
NGO Takes Zim Government to Court to Stop Chinese Mining Operations in the Hwange National Park
The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association announced that it will take legal action to stop Chinese mining operations in the Hwange National Park. Last week, the Zhongxin Mining Group Tongmao Coal Company began mining in two coal concessions that were allocated ...
Forget About Oil, Cobalt is the Resource of the Future
Strong demand for electric vehicles in China and Europe is expected to bolster the output of cobalt and copper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's mining sector. Today, the DRC is the Saudi Arabia or cobalt. 60-70% of the world's cobalt originates there and China is ...