February 16
Africa: Extraction of Raw Materials Could Rise 60 Percent By 2060 - and Making Mining 'Greener' Won't Stop the Damage
The United Nations' flagship Global Resources Outlook report is the portrait of a juggernaut. Due to be published later this month by the UN's International Resource Panel, it… Read more »
January 30
Congo-Kinshasa: 'We Miners Die a Lot.' Appalling Conditions and Poverty Wages - the Lives of Cobalt Miners in the DRC
It was a cool, dusty morning in July 2021, when I first visited the Kamilombe cobalt mine in Lualaba Province in south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Situated just outside… Read more »
January 07
Senegal: Senegal's Small Scale Gold Miners Still Use Poisonous Mercury - How to Reduce the Harm
"Do not fish in these waters." "Contains high levels of mercury." Read more »
December 03, 2023
Africa: African Countries Lost Control to Foreign Mining Companies - the 3 Steps That Allowed This to Happen
Within a few years of independence, African governments asserted sovereignty over their metal and mineral resources. Prior to this, the resources were exploited by European mining… Read more »
June 08, 2023
Ghana: Ghana's Informal Mining Harms Health and the Land - but Reforms Must Work With People, Not Against Them
Artisanal small-scale mining has been practised in Ghana for over a century. In 2018, small-scale miners generated 2.1 million ounces of gold, accounting for 43.1% of total gold… Read more »
June 01, 2023
South Africa: Harry Oppenheimer Biography Shows the Mining Magnate's Hand in Economic Policies
In Harry Oppenheimer: Diamonds, Gold and Dynasty, his outstanding biography of the South African mining magnate who died in 2000, Michael Cardo shows that there is still mileage to… Read more »
May 01, 2023
Libya: Libya Lost, Then Found, 2.5 Tonnes of Uranium - a Red Flag for Nuclear Safety
Earlier this year the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi reported that about 2.5 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate had gone missing from a site in… Read more »
March 01, 2023
Africa: Oil and Gas Companies Are Seen As Climate Villains. Truth Is, We'll Need Their Expertise to Make Green Hydrogen a Reality
Think about oil and gas companies and climate change and chances are you'll think dark thoughts. It's true Exxon Mobil had remarkably detailed knowledge of global warming in the… Read more »
January 23, 2023
Zambia: Copper Transformed Way the World Works Before - It's About to Do So Again
Copper is all around us. The metal is both ever-present and invisible in our world. Copper makes reading the words on this screen possible. And the global spread of artificial… Read more »
January 13, 2023
Congo-Kinshasa: Mining and Armed Conflict Threaten Eastern DR Congo's Biodiversity in a Complex Web
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) conflict-affected eastern provinces are home to numerous protected areas. These areas host unique biodiversity and a range of threatened… Read more »
January 08, 2023
Zambia: Climate Change Action Could Set Off a Copper Mining Boom - How Zambia Can Make the Most of It
At last year's US Africa leaders summit in Washington the US signed an historic memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to develop an electric… Read more »
November 22, 2022
Africa: All Signs Point to Blowing Past the 1.5 Degrees Global Warming Limit - Here's What We Can Still Do #AfricaClimateCrisis
The world could still, theoretically, meet its goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, a level many scientists consider a dangerous threshold. Realistically,… Read more »
November 01, 2022
Ghana: Ghana's Illegal Mining Continues Because the Rules and Reality Are Disconnected
Artisanal and small-scale mining - a low-tech, indigenous mining subsector - is taking on increasing economic importance in many developing countries. Over 150 million people… Read more »
October 13, 2022
Ghana: Ghana's Artisanal Miners Are a Law Unto Themselves - Involving Communities Can Help Fix the Problem
Ghana is Africa's largest gold producer, the sixth globally. It produced approximately 129 metric tonnes in 2021. Read more »
September 26, 2022
South Africa: Some Plants Can Short-Circuit the Toxic Effects of Metals - Scientists Are Trying to Harness Their Power
At first glance, it's hard to see what gold, iron, lead, arsenic, silver, platinum and tin have in common. A look at the periodic table will clear up the confusion: they are all… Read more »
September 23, 2022
Africa: To Reach Net Zero the World Still Needs Mining #AfricaClimateCrisis
On the wooded hill above the Stan Terg lead and zinc mine in Kosovo, there is an old concrete diving platform looming over what was once an open-air swimming pool. Before the… Read more »
September 14, 2022
South Africa: Burst Mining Dam - What Must Be Done to Prevent Another Disaster
Jagersfontien, a small town in the middle of South Africa with over a century of mining history, awoke to a tragic failure of responsibility on 11 September 2022 when torrents of… Read more »
August 22, 2022
Zambia: Copper Mines Hard-Baked Racism Into the Workplace By Labelling Whites 'Expats'
Zambia's Copperbelt has been a centre of the world copper industry for almost a century. When mining began on an industrial scale in the 1920s, the mines employed both migrant… Read more »
August 16, 2022
South Africa: Marikana 10 Years On - Survey Shows Knowledge of Massacre Is Low
To explore the patterns of collective memory in South Africa after nearly three decades of democracy, we set out to establish how much of the country's recent history people in the… Read more »
August 03, 2022
South Africa: Artisanal Gold Mining Is Out of Control. Mistakes That Got It Here
Illegal and unregulated artisanal gold mining on the Witwatersrand Basin, located south of South Africa's Gauteng province, is an increasing threat to community, industrial and… Read more »
July 10, 2022
Morocco: Morocco - A Top Fertiliser Producer - Could Hold a Key to the World's Food Supply
Morocco has a large fertiliser industry with huge production capacity and international reach. It is one of the world's top four fertiliser exporters following Russia, China and… Read more »
June 24, 2022
Nigeria: Nigeria's Latest Lithium Find - Some Key Questions Answered
High-grade lithium has been discovered in Nigeria. In 2019 the total production volume of lithium, not high grade, in Nigeria reached 50 metric tons This is small compared to… Read more »
May 29, 2022
Congo-Kinshasa: What Coltan Mining in the DRC Costs People and the Environment
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is rich in natural resources - its untapped deposits of minerals are estimated to be worth US$24 trillion. Gold, diamonds, cobalt and zinc… Read more »