Congo state miner in production-sharing deal with Chinese firm

BusinessLive reports that while acid mine drainage from disused gold mines in the Johannesburg area of South Africa is well documented, according to a new study AMD from nearly 6,000 abandoned mines is acidifying rivers and streams, raising metals levels and killing fish. The study by World Wide Fund for Nature SA and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showed that South Africa’s heavy dependence on coal for electricity had a “devastating” effect on the country’s water resources, particularly in light of the fact that only 12% of the country’s land area generated 50% of the country’s river flow. The most affected river was the Olifants which flows through the Kruger National Park in a region of the country where coal mining dates back to the 1890s.

The Oppenheimers, the dynasty involved in South Africa's diamond industry for a century, sold their 40 percent stake in De Beers to Anglo American.

Mmegi Online is reporting a major downsize has taken place at Debswana, a partnership between the Botswana government and De Beers.

London-listed Coal of Africa and various environmental groups buried the hatchet on Thursday to work together to preserve Mapungubwe in northern South Africa near the company's controversial Vele opencast project. Construction of the coking coal mine was halted and the Australian company fined $1.3 million because it did not comply with aspects of environmental laws, but the green coalition has now agreed to drop all legal action. Coal of Africa Limited closed at 49.52 pence in London on Thursday up 8.2% on the previous day.

A preliminary economic assessment for the Danakhil potash project in Ethiopia pegs the capital costs at $797 million. Canadian potash junior Allana Potash announced the figure yesterday while also outlining plans to raise the capital during a conference call to investors. CEO Farhad Abasov said during the call that nearly all the debt funding would come from development agencies such as the International Finance Corp (IFC), the African Development Bank and export-import banks from the US, Canada and Europe. The remaining $300 million would come from the sale of equity stock.

Mining Review reports the government of Tanzania has allayed fears over likely land disputes between uranium investors and local residents in the Ruvuma region of southern Tanzania, and is confident that the envisaged uranium project in the area will be operational late next year. The controversial uranium mine is located inside the Selous Game Reserve, Africa’s second-largest wildlife sanctuary and a Unesco heritage site. Australia’s Mantra Resources project in the southern part of the 54,600-square kilometre park is estimated to have 53.9 million pounds of uranium oxide deposits which is worth some $2.7bn at current market prices. Officials claim that mining would only involve about 1% of the park’s overall area and that income accrued from mining would help fund upkeep of the park, but environmentalists have slammed the plan.

Bloomberg reports AngloGold Ashanti, the third- largest producer of the metal, is scaling back a $3 billion, 10-year programme to extend is Mponeng mine outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Mponeng is the world's deepest mine and extends about 4 km (2.5 miles) underground. To meet an output target of 5.5 million ounces of gold by 2015, AngloGold will speed up expansion outside its South African base where barring technological breakthroughs, gold reserves are too deep to be mined profitably and safely. South African gold miners have to contend with some of the highest cash costs in the industry which at some properties are almost double the global average of $620 per ounce. AngloGold's most recent quarterlies showed production at Mponeng declined 8% to 117,000 ounces at $587/ounce.

Reuters reports the board of Brazil's Vale has approved a $6 billion expansion of its Moatize coal project in Mozambique to lift output to 22 million tonnes per year from the 11 million tonnes it expects to mine initially with first production forecast for the second half of 2014. The country's Tete province is believed to hold one of the world's largest untapped coal reserves that has been compared with Australia's coal-rich Bowen Basin. Mozambique suffered a 15-year long civil war that ended in 1992 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world, but the ex-Portuguese colony 7% economic growth this year is forecast to accelerate thanks to billions in mining and infrastructure spending. The Mozambique metical is also the world's best-performing currency.

Zimbabwe's efforts to declare its "blood-stained" diamonds clean is bordering (no pun intended) on the ridiculous, writes Tangai Chipangura, a columnist at News Day.