Zimbabwe’s state-owned miner Kuvimba Resources said its lithium assets are attracting potential investors from both China and other countries. Kuvimba has identified a lithium ore resource of 38 million tons at Sandawana, the site of a mothballed emerald mine formerly run by Rio Tinto. That’s sparked investor interest, acting Chief Executive Officer Trevor Barnard said in an interview from his office in the capital, Harare.
Petra signs PPAs to procure wheeled renewable energy for Cullinan, Finsch
Diamond producer Petra Diamonds has entered into long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) for the procurement of wheeled renewable energy for its Cullinan and Finsch diamond mines from licenced South African energy trader Etana Energy. Etana provides cost-competitive clean energy from new large-scale renewable energy projects, mostly wind-based, through wheeling over the existing South African grid. The company has a portfolio of multiple ready-to-build and grid-secured wind and solar projects that are expected to come online over the course of 2025 and 2026.
De Beers reports lower fourth-cycle rough diamond sales
Diamond miner De Beers sold $380-million worth of rough diamonds during its fourth sales cycle of this year, compared with the $446-million of diamonds sold during the third sales cycle of this year. Sales were also lower than the $479-million of diamonds sold during the fourth sales cycle of 2023.
South32’s CEO says open to buying joint Anglo manganese assets
Australian diversified miner South32 is open to buying Anglo American’s share of two manganese operations the companies jointly own, should they come for sale at the right price, CEO Graham Kerr said on Thursday.
Anglo is the subject of a takeover offer by the world’s biggest listed miner BHP Group, which had previously owned those assets but spun them out with its 2015 demerger of South32.
BHP has a week to convince Anglo its South African plan can work
BHP Group just won an extra week to convince Anglo American on its $49-billion takeover plan. But the world’s biggest miner still must resolve the deal’s most intractable obstacle: What to do about South Africa?
After a month of rising tensions, the companies are holding discussions after BHP raised the value of its proposal for a third time on Monday. Anglo has rejected the latest bid, but agreed to extend a deadline for BHP to commit to a binding offer so that talks can continue.
Junior coal miners bemoan logistics as single-biggest challenge to their survival
Logistics inefficiencies in South Africa are the single-biggest reason why junior mining companies are likely to fail, said midtier coal producer Ndalamo Resources. Ndalamo CEO Shammy Luvhengo participated in a junior coal mining panel at Joburg Indaba, which was held on May 21 and 22, highlighting the biggest challenge for this sector as being Transnet’s inefficiency and saying this was creating an imbalance in the system.
Huge manganese value-add opportunity reiterated at Junior Indaba
The huge opportunity that South Africa has to add value to its rich endowment of manganese through local processing was reiterated during the second day of Wednesday’s Junior Indaba. “Specific to manganese, we’re certainly very bullish,” Manganese Metal Co (MMC) CEO Louis Nel said in response to questioning by Fluor sales director Kudakwashe Maramba during a panel discussion.
Anglo shoots down BHP’s third attempt, agrees to one-week extension
The world’s top diversified miner BHP has made a third unsolicited conditional takeover proposal for smaller rival Anglo American on Wednesday, only hours before its initial deadline for a firm intention to make an offer expired.
The board of London-listed Anglo American rejected the latest proposal of £29.34 a share, but agreed to a one-week extension to the ‘put up, or shut up (PUSU)’ deadline under UK Takeover rules.
Top Anglo investor says BHP bid requires ‘meaningful revision’
South African state-owned asset manager the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) said on Wednesday that it would require a “meaningful revision” of BHP Group’s bid for rival miner Anglo American.
Anglo rebuffed BHP’s initial $39-billion all-share proposal made on April 25, dismissing it as opportunistic.
It subsequently rejected a revised offer of $43-billion saying the world’s largest listed miner “continues to significantly undervalue” the company and that its difficult to execute.
More funding mechanisms needed to support juniors in early stage exploration, panel says
South Africa needs more funding mechanisms to support junior mining at an early stage of exploration, Bedrock Capital CEO Messu Mwaniki said on May 21 at the Junior Indaba in Johannesburg. “I think by now we should have much more junior mining funds available, which can be seen to come on board, from a private equity perspective. As a junior miner, at best, your mindset should be on private equity,” he said.