Africa

A major natural gas discovery has been made offshore Mozambique in the deepwater Rovuma Basin.

The discovery was made by London, UK-based Cove Energy together with its partner, Houston, US-based Aanadarko Petroleum, nearly 20 miles north-west of the Prosperidade complex.

The Golfinho discovery well encountered more than 193 net feet of natural gas pay in two high-quality Oligocene fan systems. The well was drilled to a total depth of approximately 14,885 feet in water depths of approximately 3,370 feet.

Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has completed its acquisition of Rio Tinto and Kwezi Mining’s shares in both Chapudi Coal and Kwezi Mining and Exploration (KME).

The acquisition has been carried out by Keynote Trading & Investment 108, a subsidiary of CoAL.

Chapudi and KME hold the prospecting rights for the Chapudi Coal Project and related exploration properties in South Africa’s Soutpansberg coalfield in the Limpopo Province. CoAL originally agreed to acquire the Chapudi coal assets from the previous owners in November 2010.

The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) seeks to transform global gold production by integrating and formalizing the position of countless artisanal and small-scale miners. Executive director Lina Villa Córdoba talks to Jayne Flannery about ARM’s vision for the human face of the industry.

Lucien Bradet explains how the Canadian Council on Africa is working to change negative perceptions of the continent, support investment into Africa, and ensure that knowledge and skills are transferred with it.

As the sole producer of rubber in Ghana, Ghana Rubber Estates Limited has been able to lay down the blue print for cash crop farming in the country; however, as managing director Lionel Barre tells Jane McCallion, the company has implemented a policy that prizes partnership with suppliers as much as it does profit.

Famdra may be a small company, but its industrial weighing equipment is setting new standards for accuracy and cost effectiveness, as Gay Sutton discovers.

Against a backdrop of increasing competition from cheap imports and rising transport costs, Astral Foods’ CEO Chris Schutte tells Andrew Pelis how South Africa’s leading integrated poultry producer is going from strength to strength.

The story of Astral Foods’ consistent year-on-year growth traces back to its beginnings in 2001 when conglomerate Tiger Brands decided to unbundle its agricultural arm.

The expression ‘chicken feed’ normally implies something cheap and insignificant, but this is far from the truth when half a million chickens are involved, as Abdul Salam Akate tells Alan Swaby.

Tullow Oil has announced the discovery of further oil at one of its wells in the Kenya Rift Basin.

The Ngamia-1 exploration well, located onshore Kenya in Block 10BB, has been drilled to an intermediate depth of 1,515 metres, with the total net oil pay encountered so far increasing to more than 100 metres across multiple reservoir zones.

Mining operations usually provide much needed employment in developing countries but these jobs have a finite life. As Alan Swaby learns, a longer point of view is what’s really called for.

There’s nothing new in the bigger mining companies, operating in third world or developing countries, having social responsibility policies. But the question is not what to do while the mine is in operation but rather how to put in place a sustainable structure that can still function even after the life of the mine is over.