Mining and Exploration

Once considered home to one of the largest gold deposits in India, the Kolar mines were nationalised in 1956 and 1972, before operations were handed to BGML. Mounting losses and falling revenues however led to BGML’s closure in 2001. In June of this year, India’s Supreme Court approved the government’s plan to issue a global tender for BGML’s assets, so that the Kolar gold mines could be restated.

Cerrejón is an integrated mining and transport complex in the La Guajira region, jutting out into the Caribbean Sea from the north of Colombia. The mine is independently operated, but belongs in three equal parts to subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Glencore Xstrata: between them these partners approved investment of $1.3 billion in 2011 for an expansion project that will increase Cerrejon’s production and export capacity by 8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2012 - 2014 to reach a 40 mtpa production by 2015.

The First Quantum Minerals (FQM) story began in the late 90s and spans humble beginnings from a tailings retreatment process at Bwana Mkubwa in Zambia, to its present day achievable aspiration to be one of the world’s leading copper producers. The financing and development of Kansanshi marked the transition of the company to a fully fledged miner and the beginning of a spectacular growth story for the company over the last decade.

A project without equal

John Gladston, Trident Resource Optimisation Manager, discusses the history and growth of the Trident project, the largest single investment project that Zambia has ever witnessed.

“Trident represents the biggest single project investment in Zambia that has ever occurred, totalling some $2 billion,” states John Gladston, Trident Resource Optimisation Manager. “As is typical of First Quantum, the project is going great guns and is progressing on-time and to budget.”

The new Prime Minister of Australia, sworn in today, has pledged his government to abolish the country’s carbon tax, and within 100 days to introduce legislation to abolish the mining tax that has been blamed for damaging jobs and investment.

However the mining community can’t breathe easily quite yet. When Labor introduced the mining tax on 1 July 2012, it also extended onshore the petroleum tax and imposed the tax on Australia’s largest gas exporting facility the North West Shelf LNG project: that measure will be retained.

Historically the most sparsely populated province in Zambia, the North-Western Province is in the midst of something of a social and economic revolution, one that has been propelled forward by the activities of some of the biggest mining ventures in the country. These include Barrick Gold’s Lumwana Mining Company, First Quantum Minerals’ (FQM) Kansanshi Mine and now the latter’s Trident development.

Working to the highest international standards, Global Sourcing & Supply (GSS) is an integrated facility management and contract supply operation supported by an advanced logistics capability.

Without beating around the bush, the gold industry as it stands in mid-2013 is under pressure and not just when it comes to the recent falls in gold price. This pressure also stems from issues including resource nationalism, labour concerns, political and legislative uncertainty, and increased environmental requirements.

As much of the Western world spent the latter years of the last decade and the first few of this battling the global recession, the economies of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have flourished. With each country experiencing economic expansion of between five and ten percent during the years during and following the crisis it comes as little surprise that East Africa has since been considered the core of Africa’s growth.