Africa

Perseus Mining Limited is a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and based in Perth; however despite its Australian accent it is an African specialist, specifically focused on the gold producing countries of West Africa. Over the years it has forged a reputation as one of the world's most successful gold explorers, with a quarter of a century of involvement in Ghana and its neighbours coming into fruition very recently, starting commercial production on 1 January 2012.

Career wise, how do you come to be a part of First Quantum Minerals?

Based in Perth, Western Australia, and listed on the Australian Securities exchange (ASX), Continental Coal is a mining company with an Australian accent – which means it understands coal production and, even more importantly, the market that is blotting up most of the world’s coal and promises to do so for a long time. This is of course Asia, and notably China and India.

I was in 1902 that a mining engineer by the name of Georges Bia first opened up a sales office in Brussels. It is here that the routes of the BIA Group can be traced back to. Today, 113 years later, BIA exists as a leading international company in the field of machine distribution for the civil engineering and construction industries, with its head offices remaining in Belgium.

It was in 1929 that O. T. H. Beier, a young pioneer living in Germany, made a life-changing decision, going against the wishes of his family by leaving his home and travelling to Durban to establish himself as a wool merchant. Little could Beier and his family have realised that with this decision he would be sowing the seeds for what would become a business legacy that continues in 2013.

That is the view of the African Development Bank (AfDB), who state in a new report that one-third of Africa's countries have gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of more than six percent.

The report highlights that the continent's middle class is growing rapidly with around 350 million Africans now earning between $2 and $20 a day, while the share of the population living below the poverty line in Africa has fallen from 51 percent in 2005 to 39 percent in 2012.

It was in 2000 that Transnet’s then single port division, Portnet, was divided into separate operations and landlord businesses. It was this decision that led to the creation of Transnet Port Terminals (TPT). Since its formation the business has played a fundamental role in supporting the export-led strategy of the South African government.

It's not all about cubic feet and billions of dollars for Mthozami Xiphu, Executive Director of SAOGA since he took over leadership of the organisation from Warwick Blyth in February this year. Xiphu is a man who feels passionately that developing the oil and gas resources, onshore and offshore could radically change the dynamics of South African society.

Mwana Africa was founded by Kalaa Mpinga, a citizen of the DRC, a former senior executive of Bechtel, and a director of Anglo American before launching Mwana Africa Holdings in 2003. Two years later he and a group of partners across Africa were in a position to float Mwana Africa PLC on the prestigious AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

To say that Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited, or KenGen as it is more commonly recognised, plays an important role in the economic development of the African nation is, to all intents and purposes, a gross understatement. The reason for this is that KenGen alone is responsible for producing almost 80 percent of the electricity consumed in the country.