Mining and Exploration

Since it was first discovered in the country in the 1920s, copper has been one of Zambia’s most important sources of income. Five years after its independence from British rule in 1964 Zambia was classified as a middle-income country, with its GDP, then among the highest of any African nation, buoyed by what where at the time soaring copper prices. The history of decline in Zambian copper production, as opposed to the growth that was witnessed for example in Chile over the same period, is well known.

With an estimated 40 trillion cubic feet (tgf) of liquid natural gas (LNG) contained in its contracted exclusive economic zone (EEZ) Cyprus hopes to establish itself as an energy hub for the eastern Mediterranean, its primary export market being Europe.

As one of the world’s fastest growing senior gold producers, with operations and development projects located in some of the safest and most stable countries in the Americas Goldcorp is riding on the crest of a wave. Its operating assets include five mines in Canada and the USA, three in Mexico, and three across Central and South America, namely the Marlin mine in Guatemala, Alumbrera in the Argentine, and its newest and largest project Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic.

The country, the world’s largest diamond producer, has long campaigned for its diamonds to be processed, sorted, marketed and sold from within its own borders. The auction was conducted by the government-owned Okavango Diamond Company.

Later in the year, diamond giant De Beers, which owns the country's main mining firm with the government, will also move its sales to Botswana’s capital, Gaborone. Last year, the company moved its rough stone sorting operation, which had been based in London for nearly 80 years, to Botswana.

Tanbreez, though this does need explaining to the uninitiated, does just what it says on the tin. The name is a contraction of two close associates on the periodic table Tantalum (TA) and Niobium (Nb), their cousins the rare earth elements (REE), while the final Z stands for their elusive though incorruptible uncle Zirconium. All of these are sought after as new uses are found for them in, among other things, electronics, alloys, mobile devices, car exhausts and green power generation applications.

For many years South Africa has been the repository of the world’s platinum group metals (PGM’s), with some 80 percent of the globe’s total production of metals such as platinum, palladium, osmium, iridium, rhodium, and ruthenium originating from within the Bushveld intrusion, a large layered igneous intrusion within the Earth’s crust.

NunaMinerals is at the forefront of gold exploration in Greenland – and it is a company with a proven record of success. Its CEO, Greenlandic geologist Ole Christiansen was responsible for the discovery and initial development of what remain today the country's only producing mine, the Nalunaq Goldmine in South Greenland, as well as the Seqi olivine mine near Maniitsoq in West Greenland, currently on ‘care and maintenance’. NunaMinerals is currently working hard to develop the next generation of gold mining prospects.

Based purely on its geological structure alone, Greenland has what the vast majority of industry experts consider to be highly favourable conditions for the development of its own mining sector. Indeed its geographical location between Europe and the United States, combined with the high prices attainable for most of the raw materials that are present there, partially offset its absence of infrastructure and of sources of energy, and the harsh climatic conditions of the country.

The Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum is a Greenlandic government agency, working under the Ministry for Industry and Minerals and responsible for overseeing the growth of the nation’s resources. This is a burning issue in this volatile nation, which has just appointed its first female Prime Minister who is clearly keen to encourage the country’s emergent mining industry and has taken the initiative to lift the existing ban on the extraction of uranium.

“There are a number of motivations for our company to be here in Greenland,” explains Nicholas Rose, Chief Executive Officer of Avannaa Resources, “the primary one being the geological map of the country that shows a large variety of geotectonic environments that have high potential for hosting giant ore deposits.”