Cobalt price: BMW avoids the Congo conundrum – for now

Mines minister Mosebenzi Zwane had pledged in writing to a court that he would not publicly say changes to an industry charter were "law" until a judicial challenge has been completed.

Ivanhoe boss transforms what could have been a set of exciting drill results into 43 holes of “global significance in the copper world”.

International watchdog group Global Witness says political elites and security forces have controlled and secretly exploited Zimbabwe's diamond sector for over a decade.

Mali is the third-biggest gold producer in Africa after South Africa and Ghana, and gold overwhelmingly dominates its mining sector.

Mainly due to lower output from Konkola Copper Mines, a subsidiary of London-listed Vedanta Resource

The diamond miner also had to halt operations at its Williamson mine as several key employees are being questioned by local authorities.

South Africa holds the world's biggest reserves of platinum, chrome and manganese, but investment in the sector has dropped in each of the past two years as a result of increasing legal uncertainty and labour disputes.

Once Banfora is up and running, it would take the company's annual gold output to between 300,000 and 350,000 ounces.

Official figures released on Thursday signall a bad start for the second half of the year with business confidence at its lowest in more than three decades.