Nigerian Billionaire Plans to Dig Platinum Mine in Zimbabwe

Bravura Holdings Ltd., owned by Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters, has $1 billion available for the development of a platinum mine in Zimbabwe, its country manager said.

The 3,000 hectare (7,413-acre) concession where it plans to dig the mine is in Selous, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and close to existing platinum mines.

“From where we are now, we will go to resource definition, after that we will go to resource modeling, after mine development and then mine construction,” Lionel Mhlanga, Bravura’s manager in the southern African country, said in an interview at the mine on Nov. 6. “Those are all things that should happen in the next 18 months.”

Bravura is one of a number of little-known companies that have secured platinum concessions in Zimbabwe as the government seeks to kick start its stagnant economy. Still, established platinum miners haven’t announced plans to expand their operations. While Zimbabwe has the world’s third-largest platinum group metal reserves, investors have been deterred by frequent changes to mining laws and currency policies.

In addition to Bravura, Russian and Cypriot companies have announced plans to invest in Zimbabwean platinum mines.

Peters owns Aiteo Eastern E & P Company Ltd., Nigeria’s biggest domestic oil producer, but has little experience in mining.

Still, the group also intends to explore mining lithium, rare earth minerals and tin in Zimbabwe, Mhlanga said.

It’s also seeking to mine cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, copper in Zambia, gold in Ghana and iron ore in Guinea, he said. Namibia and Botswana could also be options for the company, he said.

BNN

6 Nigerians Sentenced for Funding Boko Haram Terrorist Group

Six Nigerians are facing prison terms of ten years to life after a federal appeals court in the United Arab Emirates upheld their convictions for funding the terrorist group Boko Haram.

According to The Daily Trust newspaper, the accused were initially tried and convicted last year following their arrest in 2017.

The court in Abu Dhabi Monday sentenced Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu to life in prison. Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were each given a ten-year sentence.

The newspaper said the court judgement said that between 2015 and 2016, the accused transferred $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria to benefit Boko Haram even as associates defended their actions, saying there was nothing criminal about the transaction. 

VOA

Nigeria says it has killed Boko Haram militants in airstrike

The Nigerian air force has killed several Boko Haram militants in an airstrike in the northeastern state of Borno, an official said Monday.

Some of the militants’ structures, including a suspected fuel depot, were destroyed in the airstrike on Tumbun Allura, a Boko Haram logistics hub on the fringes of Lake Chad in northern Borno, military spokesman John Enenche said in a statement reaching Xinhua.

The air raid was executed Sunday following credible intelligence reports as well as aerial surveillance missions that identified the location, Enenche said.

“The Nigerian Air Force attack aircraft, dispatched by the Air Task Force to engage the location, scored accurate hits in the target area, resulting in the destruction of the terrorists’ fuel dump,” he said, adding several Boko Haram militants were also killed.

Since 2009, Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria, extending its attacks to countries in the Lake Chad Basin.

 CGTN

Nigeria Exempts Dangote Cement From Land Border Closure

Nigeria has allowed Dangote Cement to resume exports across its land borders, raising hopes that Africa’s most-populous nation may be opening up trade with neighbors after a year-long blockade.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration gave permission for Africa’s biggest cement producer to export to Niger and Togo in the third quarter for the first time in ten months, Michel Puchercos, chief executive officer, said on an investor call Monday.

The exemption to Dangote Cement is seen as a softening of the government’s position on a border closure that started in August last year, and could open the way for other businesses to fully resume exports across the country’s land barriers.

BUA Group and a gas company have received presidential approval to move goods across the land borders, Joseph Attah, the spokesperson for Nigerian Customs, said by phone from Lagos, without providing details.

Nigerian authorities closed borders with neighboring countries including Benin and Niger to curb smuggling and boost local production. Although the blockade encouraged the consumption of locally grown produce such as rice, it hurt factories across west Africa, which rely on Nigeria’s market of 200 million people.

Dangote Cement resumed land exports with “restricted volumes,” and plans to grow the trade using the sea channels, according to Puchercos. A total of 69 tons were exported through land borders in the period, less than 1% of the 11,741 tons of cement sales in the nine month through September.

Dangote Cement shares were unchanged at 185 naira per share by 11:21 a.m. on Tuesday in Lagos, the commercial capital.

The Lagos-based company’s plan to buy back some of its shares has been delayed by market volatility and low liquidity, which have affected valuation, Guillaume Moyen, acting chief financial officer, said at the same conference call. 

By Emele Onu and Tope Alake

Bloomberg 

Related story: Video - Aljazeera speaks with Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote 

Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is building the world's largest refinery in Nigeria

Nigeria IDP camp fire displaces thousands of residents

A fire at an internally displaced persons camp in northern Nigeria left at least 7,200 people without shelter, authorities said early on Wednesday.

A total of 1,200 tents were burned in the fire at the camp in Gajiram village in Borno state, according to Yabawa Kolo, an official from Nigeria’s Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

Officials said the incident, which occurred last week, was the latest in a “series of the annual fire outbreaks” at the camp, reported an online news website called the Premium Times.

The camp includes those who escaped the violence of the Boko Haram armed group.

Kolo said the government sent humanitarian aid to the camp’s residents.

Five children were killed and 7,457 people lost their tents in a fire last year at a refugee camp in Borno state, reported Anadolu Agency.

Armed groups have forced more than two million people to flee their homes since 2009 when Boko Haram began an armed campaign. Some 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions forced from their homes.

Most of the displaced have been housed into squalid camps where they depend on food handouts from international charities.

Scores of civilians are still trapped in remote communities and are unable to flee because of a lack of security on roads.

The violence has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a military response.

Al Jazeera