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News Archive - 2001 The following page contains news items about African mineral resource issues released during 2001. To return to the MRF Africa News home. 2001 News Items
Title: Chad-Cameroon
pipeline sets precedent Planet Ark. The World Bank funded oil pipeline through Chad and Cameroon establishes precedent.
Title: Surface
Mining Takes 70 Percent of Tarkwa Land in Ghana AllAfrica - Accra Mail, Ghana - November 27, 2001. Surface-mining concessions have taken over 70 percent of the total land in the Tarkwa area, Mr Joseph Aidoo, Western Regional Minister said on Saturday. He said surface mining in the region was responsible for severe environmental, social, economic and other abuses, which have to be changed.
Title: Tanzanian
President Calls for More Mining Investment From S. Africa EnviroScan - Xinhua
News Agency - CEIS, November 16, 2001. Tanzanian President Benjamin
Mkapa has urged more South African investors to exploit opportunities
in the booming mining industry in his country, the official Daily News
reported here on Friday. "I'm still convinced that if we work together for mutual benefit, your members can get a handsome return on their investment in Tanzania, and we can have the resources to fight poverty in a sustainable way," Mkapa was quoted as saying. The full article is available.
Title: Intercity
Boss Advocates Solid Minerals Fund in Nigeria Daily Trust, Abuja, November 13, 2001. The Managing Director of Intercity Bank Plc, Alhaji Lamis Shehu Dikko, has called for the establishment of the solid minerals exploration and development fund to stimulate solid minerals prospecting business in Nigeria. The Managing Director observed that for the mining sector to develop and prosper, a deliberate policy of integrating the small miners into the formal sector has to be evolved to facilitate their progression into medium miners.
Title: Tanzania's
mineral exports set to double, thanks to gold exports MBendi World Mining News, November 12, 2001. According to the chairperson of the Tanzanian Chamber of Mines (TCM), Mr Sam Lwakatare, Tanzania's mineral exports are set to double by next year. Projections for 2002 are estimated at over $400 million, up from the $185 million receieved from 2000. These increases are largely attributable to increases in the gold sector in Tanzania that has seen phenomenal growth in terms of new mines and projects.....
Title: People
Wary of Activities of Mining Firms in Tanzania African Church Information Service, Henry Neondo, November 9, 2001. Three
years down the line after the international mining conglomerates had
Title: Ghana
- prisoner of the IMF BBC World Service - November 5th, 2001. Tarkwa is at heart of Ghana's gold mining industry. Gold may be the country's biggest export earner, but the people get nothing out of it. Urged on by the international institutions, the government allows mining firms to operate virtually tax-free for up to 10 years. Environmental and other regulations are also kept to a minimum. For related information see also reports prepared for SAPRIN on the "Impact of Mining Sector Investment in Ghana: A Study of the Tarkwa Mining Region" January 20, 2001 (PDF) and the Final Ghana Country Report 25 August 2001. Title: Ghana
Mining Law is Ineffective (Ghana) Public Agenda, Accra, E. Asiedu Acquah, November 5, 2001. A human rights
lawyer has blamed the social, economic and environmental
Title: Reducing
Waste to Save Money and the Environment in Kenya UN Integrated Regional Information Network, November 5, 2001. The Kenya
National Cleaner Production Centre will address good practices
Title: Senior
official arrested on gem-smuggling charges in Sierra Leone Associated Press, Freetown, November 2, 2001. -- A top government official in Sierra Leone was arrested with his wife yesterday on accusations they smuggled diamonds out of the West African country, officials said. Momoh Pujeh, the Minister of Transport and Communications, and his wife, Mary, are accused of illicit diamond mining in eastern Kenema.
Title: “Conflict Diamonds” Report
Prompts Debate (Angola) UN Integrated Regional Service - October 26th, 2001. News that illicit diamonds worth US $1 million left Angola each day in spite of strict United Nations' sanctions overshadowed other developments in the war-torn country this week. Global Witness, an international lobby group which placed "conflict diamonds" on the international agenda, responded to the UN report by questioning whether sanctions were indeed working, and by saying that the diamond industry should take greater responsibility for keeping conflict diamonds off the market. The full article is available at: http://allafrica.com/stories/200110260385.html Related Articles: http://allafrica.com/stories/200110230499.html http://www.news24.com/News24/Finance/Features/0,4186,2-8-133_1102808,00.html
Title: Draft
Bill on Track as Miners Respond to Change in South Africa Business Day - October 26th, 2001 - Johannesburg. The draft Minerals Development Bill is on track, according to Rick Menell, president of the Chamber of Mines, with only a few key areas where consensus between government and industry has yet to be established. Government was pushing through legislation to shift toward a "use-it-or-lose-it" policy on mineral rights, with ownership moving to the state and away from private companies and individuals.
Title: Mines
violate Villagers’ Rights in South Africa Mail and Guardian - October 25th, 2001 - Johannesburg. At a village near Potgietersrus two mining companies are at loggerheads with the provincial government over the ecological effects of their open-cast mining operations. The government has also raised concerns about the deaths of Kaditswene villagers, who drowned in abandoned mining excavations.
Title: Zambia
Party President Promises to Re-Negotiate Mining Companies’ Contracts The Post - Lusaka - October 23rd, 2001. Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) has promised to re-negotiate contracts with mining companies so that more Zambians can do business with them. Addressing a rally in Kitwe on Sunday, ZRP president Ben Mwila said his party would ensure that mines stopped importing labour from South Africa to enable more Zambians to get jobs.
Title: Cyanide Release at Tarkwa Gold
Mine, Ghana A cyanide spillage has occurred at the Tarkwa gold mine in the Wassa West District of Ghana on 16 October 2001. The operation is owned by Goldfields Limited of South Africa.
Title: Poverty, Oil and Mining Dependency
Linked Charles Cobb Jr., Washington, DC, October 12th, 2001. Poverty and health problems are worse in countries dependent on oil or mineral exports than in countries with more diverse economies, a new Oxfam America report has found. Infant and child mortality is higher; life expectancy is lower. These nations also spend a far higher percentage of their budget on their military. "This probably has the greatest relevance for Africa," says UCLA Professor Michael Ross who authored the study. The full news article is available on AllAfrica.com. The Oxfam America report, "Extractive Sectors and the Poor", is available for download.
Title: South African Guideline on
Cyanide Management for Gold Mining The guideline has been prepared by a multi-stakeholder committee, through the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, consisting of representatives of the mining industry, government departments, non-governmental organisations, cyanide suppliers and labour. Its development follows concerns raised after recent accidents involving cyanide at or en route to mining operations and the subsequent development of a voluntary international Code of Practice for cyanide management. This guideline is aligned with the international code. This is a voluntary
initiative by the gold mining industry in South Africa in order to improve
its management of cyanide, thus reducing risks to personnel, members of
the public and the environment resulting from the industry’s use of cyanide. The guideline has been designed around best practice principles and includes the latest operational expertise and application of technology for the management of cyanide. The Guidelines, released in June 2001, can be downloaded in Adobe PDF format.
Title: UNIDO Mercury Pollution Abatement
Project in Tanzania The Tanzanian Ministry
of Energy and Minerals, in collaboration with UNIDO is undertaking a mercury
pollution abatement project through financial support from the Japanese
Government. The project, now in its third year of implementation, assesses
and reduces the environmental and human health The information is from the June 2001 'UNIDO in Tanzania' newsletter.
Title: South African industry and
government join forces to fight AIDS CSIR Miningtek is participating in a major collaborative initiative between South Africa's coal industry and the departments of Health and Minerals and Energy aimed at combatting HIV/AIDS through community intervention, as well as incorporating a number of social upliftment programmes. The initiative is to be known as the Powerbelt HIV/AIDS project. Further information is available from the media release.
Title: Financial Times
- Africa Mining 2001 Survey "Turmoil in Zimbabwe, fresh worries about conflict diamonds and a lacklustre gold price have overshadowed the past year for the African mining industry. But there has been good news, too. It has been an annus mirabilis for the platinum industry. Diamond prices have rebounded, while coal has picked up." The survey is available from the FT.com website.
Title: Africa's diamond wars The New York Times of today (also on the Web) carries on article on Africa's diamond wars. See http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/040600africa-diamonds.html (free subscription to view).
Title: COMMUNITY EDUCATION FOR THE
SMALL SCALE GOLD MINERS ON THE HEALTH HAZARDS OF MERCURY Southern African Network for Training on the Environment (SANTREN) is a network body comprises research and trainer individuals drawn from a host of institutions in the SADC region. It was initiated and created with the mission to enhance natural resources management and environmental protection through co-ordinated training programs in Southern Africa. The Network interacts with other SADC institutions in the region, but its structures are designed to be informal, dynamic and able to respond quickly to needs. SANTREN has now about 500 members and more than dozen projects aiming to establish short course programs that are based on cost recovery and sustainability principles. Small Scale Mining (SSM) is one of the projects, which is very active in greening small scale mining activities, both in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, under the subject "Environmental Management of Artisanal & Small-Scale Mining Activities" (EMASMA). The SSM Team is intending to run two short courses this year (May and July) on the subject of "Community education for the small scale miners on the health hazards of mercury". The first course will be offered to zonal and regional mine officers, planners, managers, decision-makers, NGOs, politicians, small scale service providers including mercury handlers etc. The second course will be offered "in situ" to the arisanal mine workers. For further information contact the course coordinator at kinabo@hotmail.com.
Title: Investment fund for African
mining The Financial Times (19 February 1999) announced that a group of international investors has launched a fund to invest in Africa's mining sector. The fund, to be called African Lion, will have a capital of $30 million of which $8 million will be provided by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), the single largest investor. Other investors include Lion Selection of Australia, Comafin (a CDC fund for Africa), and Investec and Rand Merchant Bank of South Africa. The fund will invest throughout sub-Saharan Africa mainly in mineral projects at an advanced exploration stage (including coal but not oil and gas). Some 70 potential projects were already identified with good prospects in Ghana, South africa, Tanzania, and Zambia; Mali and Burkina Faso were also being considered.
Title: Africa in 1999 The following is an extract from a Mbendi newsletter for January 1999 (see below for Mbendi contact Details):"1998 was not a good year for Africa and 1999 promises to be no better. Armed conflict increased and looks set to continue. The slow-down in the world economy has affected stock markets; caused currencies to depreciate; and reduced foreign exchange income from oil, minerals and metals and agricultural products. Aid to the region is reducing and investors are having second thoughts, leaving many projects on the drawing board. Aids, malaria, cholera and other diseases are rampant. Foreign debt servicing and corruption mean that little foreign exchange trickles through to fund education, health and infrastructure. None of this is likely to be much different in 1999. Tourism, mining, niche energy and, strangely enough, information technology provide the best hope for the dark continent." So begins our outlook for the continent for 1999, prepared to assist companies in preparing their 1999 African business plans. This can be found from http://www.mbendi.co.za/af.htm and there is also our African oil industry outlook at http://www.mbendi.co.za/indy/oilg/afoi1999.htm. We look forward to hearing your views and comments on the immediate future of Africa.
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