Barrick’s bet on African gold maestro faces first test in Congo

Australia, Canada, South Africa and many more countries are courting a small, transient, global workforce of engineers, geologists and metallurgists to keep their mining, oil and gas, and energy operations running. What can these major corporations do to secure the right talent? If you’re Rio Tinto, you turn to content marketing.

A new survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit finds when institutional investors interested in frontier markets were asked to choose two regions out of five, two-thirds see Africa – projected to be the fastest growing region on the planet this year – as holding the greatest opportunity.

Zambia Daily Mail reports that workers at the Kansanshi copper mine have gone on strike.

The future of about 160 workers at BK11 diamond mine in Botswana is in the balance after UK-based owner, Firestone Diamonds (LON:FDI), suspended operations yesterday.

An Australian explorer said today that one of Africa’s most prolific uranium plays is shaking off the tag that it was the uranium province that was missed and is starting to emerge as a potentially significant greenfields province.

London’s AIM-listed Bellzone Mining announced this morning that its Forécariah joint venture project in Guinea has received approval to complete the first blast at Yomboyeli, allowing Bellzone to kick off iron-ore production by the end of the first quarter this year.

Banro's Twangiza oxide mine poured its first gold Q4 2011and it owns four additional licences along the same rich gold belt in the east of the country. After bumping up its debt offering to $175 million on Friday the company says it can now start building a second oxide mine.

Shares in Newmont Mining was down 2.7% on Friday after the company announced a $1.6 billion charge after mothballing its Hope Bay project in northern Canada.

Shares in Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (LON, ASX: AQP), the fourth- largest producer of the metal, dropped 11% this morning in Johannesburg, the deepest decline since October 2008, after the company announced that Zimbabwe has rejected a joint proposal with Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (PINK:IMPUY) to meet local ownership rules.