Behre Dolbear will be attending 121 Mining Investment in Cape Town, 3-4 February 2025.
Behre Dolbear will be attending Mining Indaba in Cape Town, 3-6 February 2025.
HEADLINES
At least seven people killed by army at Ghana's AngloGold Ashanti mine
Trapped underground with decaying bodies, miners faced a dark reality
UK government launches lab in Gateshead to research heating from flooded mines
Fleet Space, Ma’aden partner to accelerate critical minerals discovery in Saudi Arabia
Trump tariff risks fuel a chaotic hunt for gold in London
Ma’aden to open office in Brazil, invest around $1.3 billion
At least seven people killed by army at Ghana's AngloGold Ashanti mine
ACCRA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A Ghanaian small-scale miners' association on Sunday said soldiers killed nine unarmed people at an AngloGold Ashanti (AU.N), opens new tab mine on Saturday night, while the army said seven illegal miners had been killed in a firefight.
AngloGold Ashanti's main sulphide treatment plant is seen in Obuasi June 24, 2008
Kofi Adams, local chairman of the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, told Reuters that nine people had been killed and fourteen severely injured in the incident at the Obuasi gold mining site in the West African country's Ashanti Region.
He said the people had not been armed.
Earlier, Ghana's armed forces said that about 60 illegal miners carrying locally manufactured rifles and other weapons breached the mine's security fence at around 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Saturday and fired on a military patrol deployed there, leading to a shootout.
"This is unprecedented (and) it's difficult to understand why this happened," Adams said, noting that in the past, trespassers on the site had been scared off with warning shots.
Trapped underground with decaying bodies, miners faced a dark reality
As Mzwandile Mkwayi was lowered into the South African mine in a red metal cage attached to a hoist above ground, the first thing that struck him was the smell.
"Let me tell you something," he tells the BBC, "those bodies really smelled bad".
When he got home later that day, he told his wife he could not eat the meat she had cooked.
"It's because when I spoke to the miners, they told me some of them had to eat other [people] inside the mine because there was no way they could find food. And they were also eating cockroaches," he said on a phone call from his home.
Allegations that the miners resorted to eating human flesh in order to survive were also made by other miners who were rescued in December, in statements submitted to the high court.
Mkwayi, a former convict, known locally as Shasha, lives in the township of Khuma that was close to the disused mine in Stilfontein. The 36-year-old, who had served seven years in prison for robbery, volunteered to go down to help with the rescue effort.
"I'm being rehabilitated by the correctional services and I volunteered because people in our community were seeking help for their children and brothers.
"The rescue company said they didn't have anyone who wanted to go down. So my friend Mandla and I agreed to volunteer so we could help our brothers to resurface and bring up the dead bodies."
But even though he wanted to help, the 25-minute journey down the 2km (1.2 mile)-deep shaft filled him with terror.
UK government launches lab in Gateshead to research heating from flooded mines
THE UK government has opened a lab in Gateshead in northeast England to research how heat can be extracted from water inside former coal mines.
The Living Laboratory opened this week and is situated near three existing mine water heat networks.
The Mining Remediation Authority (MRA), the government agency responsible for the lab, along with Gateshead Council, will publish open-access data on the temperature, chemistry, and pressure of water in the flooded mines.
The water inside former coal mines is typically between 20oC and 30oC, with the temperature increasing at greater depths. Water at 1 km below the surface in the Yorkshire coalfield around Doncaster has been recorded at 42oC.
Mine water is thought to be an efficient source of low-carbon heating and is already used to supply heat networks around the UK, the largest being in Gateshead, which was launched in March 2023. The council-owned Gateshead Energy Company’s heat network uses mine water from 150 m below the surface to heat 350 council homes along with public buildings including the Baltic Arts Centre and Gateshead College. It is predicted to save 1,800 tCO2e per year over the next four decades.
A planned heat network for a new development in Seaham, County Durham, will be supplied by mine water with estimated emissions savings of 2,600 tCO2e per year over its expected 25-year lifespan.
The MRA hopes the new lab can inform decisions on permitting and access for future mine water heat networks.
The lab’s proximity to the Gateshead Energy Company’s heat network and two other existing mine water heat networks will also allow researchers to explore the geothermal properties of the networks’ interconnectivity. Fiona Todd, a geoscientist at the MRA, said: “Our Living Laboratory will provide insights into the behaviour of mine water heat systems and help us understand how multiple schemes co-exist within the same region.
“This research project represents a strategic step in transforming Great Britain’s mining legacy into a powerful driver for sustainable growth. Repurposing disused mines as sources of low-carbon heat will deliver both environmental and economic benefits to local communities.”
Fleet Space, Ma’aden partner to accelerate critical minerals discovery in Saudi Arabia
Australian space exploration company Fleet Space Technologies and smart solutions provider and Tahreez announced Monday the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlining a partnership with Saudi Arabian Mining Company Ma’aden.
The agreement aims provide the latest breakthroughs in space, multiphysics, and AI drill targeting services. The collaboration will also help accelerate discovery of mineral resources in Saudi Arabia and will enable Ma’aden to deploy Fleet Space’s vertically integrated technology stack, ExoSphere.
Fleet Space’s technology brings together satellite connectivity, remote geophysical data acquisition, and near real-time data processing to deliver actionable 3D models of the Earth’s subsurface.
The initiative will drive real-time 3D subsurface imaging at scale to unlock the exploration potential of the Arabian Shield and drive progress toward Vision 2030.
Through the joint venture between Tahreez and Fleet Space, a regional task force will be created by the joint venture to support the rapid deployment of ExoSphere across Ma’aden’s projects and opportunity zones in the Middle East to identify potential targets for future development.
“Integrating leading-edge, world-class exploration technologies is a central pillar to Ma’aden’s ambitious growth strategy,” Ma’aden CEO Bob Wilt said in a news release.
“This collaboration will accelerate our path to discovery, and strengthen the Kingdom’s position as a mining innovation leader and a foundational partner for the global mineral value chain.”
Trump tariff risks fuel a chaotic hunt for gold in London
The risk that US President-elect Donald Trump will impose universal import tariffs is causing fresh turmoil in the global gold market, with a closely watched barometer of bullion demand reaching historic highs in London.
In recent weeks US prices for gold, silver and other metals have surged above other international benchmarks. That comes as major bullion dealers and fleet-footed investors respond to the risk that precious metals will be caught in the crossfire if Trump follows through with campaign-trail pledges to impose tariffs of as much as 20% on incoming goods from all countries.
Now, a spike in so-called lease rates in London this week signals that an increasingly frenetic global hunt for bullion is under way as major dealers seek to shift metal to the US before any tariffs are imposed.
Lease rates reflect the return that holders of bullion in London’s vaults can get by loaning their metal out to other buyers on a short-term basis. Normally, the returns on offer sit close to zero, but this week they’ve surged to historic levels, with profits on one-month lease rates exceeding 3.5% on an annualized basis.
That’s the highest level since at least 2002, and it signals surging demand for metal in London’s vaults. There have been similarly extreme moves in the silver market, and some analysts and traders warn that there may not be enough freely available metal to meet dealers’ needs.
Ma’aden to open office in Brazil, invest around $1.3 billion
Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden, the mining arm of the Crown Prince’s Public Investment Fund (PAF), plans to open its first office in Sao Paulo, Brazilian mining minister Alexandre Silveira said on Tuesday.
The initiative includes an estimated 8 billion reais ($1.31 billion) to advance geological mapping in Brazil, Silveira told reporters in Riyadh.
“We need to know more about our subsoil…and partner with the Brazilian mining sector so that we can explore and take advantage of the subsoil in a sustainable, adequate way,” he said, emphasizing that mining, along with oil and gas, is critical to the global energy transition.
The investment aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy to diversify its economy, leveraging its expertise in mining and sustainable energy.
