Battery Metals

DRC
DRC mines minister N'Samba Kalambayi turning to Japan

DRC sent its mines minister and a Tshisekedi adviser to Japan seeking partners to bolster Congolese mining exploration.

Madagascar
Rio Tinto argues its case with Raojelina

The January meeting between the mining giant's chairman, Dominic Barton, and the Madagascan president may result in both sides backing off a little. Rio Tinto is seeking to defuse tensions as it negotiates the renewal of its Fort Dauphin licence.

Madagascar
Mining code fails to make it on to the parliamentary agenda

Reform of the Madagascan mine code has been put back until the next parliamentary session in May 2023. The bill failed to find a consensus as tensions persisted on certain points.

The New Guard
Morocco, Guinea, Zimbabwe and Libya

Every Wednesday, Africa Intelligence reveals the next generation of movers and shakers in business and politics.

MoroccoMakhzen keeping tabs on Obaid Amrane's rising star.

GuineaMamadou Diallo, from the embassy to the World Bank.

ZimbabweJohn Paradza, a key player in Mnangagwe's battle for the youth vote.

LibyeKhalid Chaouki, former Italian MP growing his Tripoli business network.

Guinea
Battery metals attract new exploration hopefuls

The increasing demand for minerals used in the manufacture of electric batteries, namely lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese, is leading to greater interest in Guinea's natural resources.

The New Guard
Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, DRC, Ethiopia, Libya

Every Wednesday, Africa Intelligence reveals the next generation of movers and shakers in business and politics.

SenegalMamadou Fall Kane, presidential oil adviser, branches out into mining

Guinea-BissauSaico Umaro Embaló, the president's nephew and Turkey envoy

DR CongoArthur Omar Kayumba, Tshisekedi's Grand Inga irritant

EthiopiaWintana Shimelis, in charge of the UK's Diageo in Addis

LibyaAhmed al-Sharkasi, the PM's low-key advisor

Burkina Faso
The who's who of the mining sector reform discussions

The future of Burkina Faso's mining sector is at the heart of discussions that began in April between the junta, the government, the Chamber of Mines and civil society. Veterans and newcomers to this industry, which is key to the country's GDP, are helping define and negotiate its framework.

DRC
UN assigning consultants to establish battery precursor factory in Katanga

DR Congo has plans to make the most of its resources in cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese by building battery cathode precursor factories in the Haut-Katanga Special Economic Zone. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa will lend a hand.

Botswana
Ex-supermarket tycoon Saleem Malique wants a piece of mining pie

Malique, after selling his shares in the Payless supermarket chain, is now venturing into Botswana's growing mining sector alongside a Sri Lankan investor.

Central Africa, Namibia
Enaex and Sasol move to dominate mining explosives supply in Walvis Bay

A partnership between Sasol and the Chilean firm Enaex, one of South America's leading mining explosive firms, is planning to build a huge warehouse to stock ammonium nitrate - the substance behind the catastrophe in the port of Beirut but widely used in the mining industry.

DRC
After ERG, more Kazakh businessmen land in Katanga

Eurasian Resources Group remains a leader in the production of copper and cobalt in the DRC. But another company from Kazakhstan, interested in battery metals and linked to the financial tycoon Kenges Rakishev, was recently registered in Lubumbashi.

Tanzania
Zanzibar ditches planned Chinese port at Mpiga Duri

A year ago, Tanzania confirmed two deep-water port concessions on the Zanzibar coast. But amid fraying relations between Dodoma and Beijing, one of them has been abandoned.

Zimbabwe
Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi bet on Prospect Resources' battery metals operations

Australian Prospect Resources may have just shed its flagship Zimbabwean lithium project to China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, but this hasn't deterred investors Mitsubishi and Morgan Stanley from betting on the junior's future battery metals projects.

Tanzania
Australia's Evolution Energy ends stalemate over graphite in PM Majaliwa's homeland

An agreement has been reached between the Tanzanian authorities and the Australian junior Evolution Energy Minerals (formerly Marvel Gold) to recover its exploration rights in the Chilalo graphite mining operation.

Guinea
Alpha Condé's former mining adviser goes it alone

An instrumental figure in the mining sector under Alpha Condé, but sidelined since the coup, Alkaly Yamoussa Bangoura has just set up a consultancy firm dedicated to the industry.

Africa, Saudi Arabia
Leaving trading to Dubai, Riyadh is hoping to be the Gulf's other mining hub for Africa

On a full-scale push in Africa, Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia is trying to present itself as the key to developing a responsible mining industry on the continent.