Africa

Afric Oil, South Africa’s first BEE oil company, is embarking on a strategy to achieve security of supply and growth in the marketplace, as finance director Mangadi Dikotla explains to Gay Sutton.

BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (BECSA) has entered into an empowerment transaction with a black-owned consortium led by Pembani Group, it announced today.

The consortium will effectively hold an eight per cent equity interest in BECSA, and also includes a Broad-Based Empowerment grouping. BECSA shareholders have also approved the implementation of an Employee Share Ownership Plan in which participating employees will hold a beneficial interest of two per cent equity in BECSA.

Afferro Mining has agreed to sell its 38.5 per cent interest in its Putu iron ore project in Liberia to Russia’s second biggest steelmaker.

Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, already owns the remaining 61.5 per cent of Putu through its subsidiary, Lybica Holdings.

Afferro will receive a cash payment of $65 million on completion of the deal. It said it would use the funds from the sale to accelerate its development strategy for its 100 per cent owned Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon.

Namibia Breweries Ltd (NBL) offers more than a winning portfolio of some of the region’s best-selling beers. Contracts manager Gideon Shilongo explains it is also setting the standard with a range of ground-breaking environmental initiatives.

There’s a mining boom in Namibia that is placing extra demands on electricity supply—necessitating a complete restructuring of the industry, as Alan Swaby learns.

Let a private company sell below cost for any length of time and it will inevitably end up staring down the barrel of disaster. But when the seller is a public body, it’s much easier to fudge the true situation and avoid a similar fate.

As Alan Swaby learns, there’s precious little allowance for Africa’s regional differences or difficulties when it comes to the performance expectations of multi-national customers.

Carl Zeiss Vision South Africa has been making use of strategic partnerships in order to improve visibility across the supply chain and underline its commitment to excellent customer service.

Investec has agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to establish a €100 million renewable energy funding facility to promote clean energy generation and energy efficiency initiatives in South Africa.

Investec and the EIB are to be equal partners in the programme, with each contributing €50 million.

Extract Resources has announced that Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has issued it with a mining licence for the Husab Uranium Project.

Extract Resources is a uranium exploration and development company with a primary focus on Namibia. The company’s 100 per cent-owned Husab Uranium Projecthosts the largest and highest grade granite-hosted uranium deposit in the country.

Wood Group’s new Angola-based joint venture has been awarded a contract by BP, it has been announced.

Wood Group Kianda, a joint venture involving Amílcar Nascimento—Wood Group's Angolan business partner—and Wood Group, is to be officially launched in Luanda, Angola today. Wood Group Mustang, Wood Group Kenny and Wood Group PSN will all provide their services through the joint venture.