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South Africa coal miner Exxaro agrees deal to buy manganese assets

South Africa coal miner Exxaro agrees deal to buy manganese assets

Reuters13-05-2025

JOHANNESBURG, May 13 (Reuters) - Exxaro Resources (EXXJ.J), opens new tab said on Tuesday it has reached an agreement to buy manganese mines in South Africa in a deal worth 11.67 billion rand as it diversifies into green transition minerals.
The South African coal miner entered into a binding agreement to buy shares and claims in manganese assets held by Ntsimbintle Holdings and OM Holdings, it said in a statement.
The coal miner has been seeking to diversify into green transition minerals including copper.
"This acquisition provides Exxaro with a strong entry point into the manganese sector," CEO Ben Magara said in the statement.

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‘Too many people lost work': doubts in South Africa's coal belt over ‘just energy transition'
‘Too many people lost work': doubts in South Africa's coal belt over ‘just energy transition'

The Guardian

time5 hours ago

  • The Guardian

‘Too many people lost work': doubts in South Africa's coal belt over ‘just energy transition'

Cooling towers and smokestacks still loom over the single-storey houses of Komati, but the winter sky is clear: smoke hasn't billowed from the vast concrete chimneys of the South African town's power station since it stopped burning coal in 2022, 61 years after its inauguration. While the state power company Eskom didn't fire any permanent employees, the end of coal generation and earlier job losses in nearby mines have fuelled doubts in the small town and wider coal belt that there are any benefits to South Africa's 'just energy transition' to renewable power. Opposite Komati's supermarket on a Thursday afternoon, unemployed people of all ages sat by the roadside. 'We are just sitting here, waiting for anything, maybe a company car that will come by and say they are looking for people,' said Busiswe Ndebele, who was a mine plant attendant for five years until she was fired while pregnant in 2022. The 34-year-old said she had received training from Eskom in CV-writing and running a business, but didn't see a future beyond coal. 'We are surrounded by coalmines, so if the coalmines close down there won't be any jobs,' she said. The phrase 'just transition' is thought to have been coined in the US in the 1980s by the trade unionist Tony Mazzocchi, who wanted a fund to help workers move away from jobs in which they were exposed to toxic chemicals. In recent years, it has come to represent decarbonising economies without destroying livelihoods that depend on fossil fuels. The phrase appeared in the 2015 Paris agreement, which legally bound countries to limit global heating to 'well below 2C above pre-industrial levels'. South Africa was the world's 15th highest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2023, according to the World Bank. Coal power accounted for 82% of electricity generation last year, according to the energy thinktank Ember, down from 90% in 2014. Over the same period, wind and solar power expanded from 0.4% each to 4.5% and 8% respectively, after 2021 government reforms enabled more private sector generation. Only two of South Africa's 14 operating coal power stations are scheduled to still be running fully by 2050, as it aims to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions. At the Cop26 climate conference in 2021, countries including the UK, France and Germany pledged $8.5bn (£6.5bn), mostly in loans, to support South Africa's plans for a just transition away from coal. In 2022, South Africa said it needed 1.5tn rand (£62bn) by 2027 in international and local private investments to meet its greenhouse gas cutting targets while protecting jobs. International pledges have since risen to $12.9bn as other lenders joined, while the US dropped out. However, the transition has hit multiple roadblocks. One has been the prospect of job losses in a country where unemployment has risen from 36% to 43% since 2015. Approximately 400,000 jobs, 80,000 in coal mining, are at risk in Mpumalanga province, the site of most of the power stations and mines, a 2023 government report estimated. South Africa also needs new transmission infrastructure to bring large private renewable energy projects in the windy south-west and sunny north-west on to the grid. Eskom, which has struggled financially in recent years, said last year it planned to build 9,000 miles (14,500km) of new transmission lines in the next decade – a fivefold increase on the previous decade. Meanwhile, crippling power cuts of up to 12 hours a day in recent years led to the closure of three coal power stations being pushed back from 2027 to 2030. Policymakers said that on the plus side the delay would allow more time to implement lessons learned from Komati. 'You must front-load the benefits … and not shut down [power stations] and do it after, almost like an afterthought,' said the electricity and energy minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. 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Inside the power station, Pillay was upbeat, showing off a demonstration site where staff were trying to grow vegetables under raised solar panels, and amid welding and solar panel installation training facilities. It employs 188 full-time staff, 22 of whom have been hired since the 2022 shutdown, while 170 staff have been 'redeployed'. There are 250 contractors, down from a peak of 540. Tshepang Matela was among 183 local people hired for six months to get rid of invasive plant species. Now, the 23-year-old high school graduate is a data analysis intern and wants to work in AI. She said: 'I think a lot of the [Komati] citizens are starting to warm up to the idea of the just energy transition.' The mood was colder across the river where residents of the Big House, an informal shack community, wash their clothes and a makeshift bridge that children cross to get to school is often swept away when it rains. 'When the power station closed, I felt so disappointed. 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African telco regulator launches metaverse adoption framework
African telco regulator launches metaverse adoption framework

Coin Geek

time6 hours ago

  • Coin Geek

African telco regulator launches metaverse adoption framework

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote the adoption and regulation of metaverse technologies across the continent. ATU signed the MoU with the Metaverse Institute, a London-based organization that supports the development of the metaverse for positive global impact. The MoU commits the two partners to a continental framework for the adoption and governance of the metaverse. The agreement is 'a historic step in our digital journey that positions Africa to lead in the next generation of internet platforms,' noted John Omo, the ATU Secretary-General. Africa's youth is marching toward a new world of digital opportunities, and 'we must act now to build safe, inclusive virtual economies and communities,' he added. The metaverse was the hottest buzzword in the tech world a few years ago, with billions of dollars invested in the technology as tech giants and startups raced to be the trailblazers. Mark Zuckerberg even changed Facebook's name to Meta (NASDAQ: META) to match the company's bold ambitions in the space. However, the technology's time at the top was short-lived, with artificial intelligence (AI) dislodging it a few years later. Today, many companies that were initially focused on the metaverse are shifting their course, and with each passing year, fewer billions are being invested in the virtual world. But despite the reduced spotlight, metaverse technologies still hold great promise. The Metaverse Institute notes that over $5 trillion will flow toward training humanoid robots in safe metaverse-based virtual environments alone. Beyond training, the metaverse offers a risk-free environment to explore solutions that would be too expensive in the physical world, such as the iterative development of smart cities. They also allow users to experiment with solutions requiring excessive trials before being released into the real world, such as medical simulations and risk-free surgical training. The MoU will also cater to metaverse regulation, which has been neglected for years. Most governments are racing to police stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and AI, with the metaverse receiving little attention, which limits its growth. 'We are honoured to comprehensively evaluate the impact of emerging technologies and the virtual worlds ecosystem on the continent, delivering pragmatic recommendations to maximize Africa's global competitiveness. Together, we envision a digitally empowered Africa by 2063, a global leader in the digital revolution, where innovation serves humanity to forge a prosperous, inclusive and sustainable future for all,' commented Christina Yan Zhang, the Metaverse Institute CEO. While the metaverse may not have the allure it had five years ago, several global giants have deployed pilots on these virtual environments to better interact with their consumers and optimize manufacturing, ranging from Nike (NASDAQ: NKE) and Christie's to Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) and H&M. However, a new report from the University of Stirling has warned that integrating the metaverse doesn't always translate to a sales bump. The university's research found that having a digital twin of a physical product dilutes the digital product. And yet, as the consumer metaverse dips, the technology's biggest market could be in manufacturing. Major global brands like German auto giant BMW and American retail company Lowe's (NASDAQ: LOW) are using industrial metaverse to run simulations with digital 3D models to spot imperfections and improve their products, saving billions in manhours and resources. Malawi sets 2026 deadline for digital IDs In Malawi, the government has set a 2026 deadline for the issuance of digital IDs, leveraging emerging technologies like blockchain and AI. Speaking at the ID4Africa 2025 AGM in Ethiopia, Malawi's National Registration Bureau (NRB) principal secretary, Mphatso Sambo, revealed that the country has conducted a successful pilot program for the digital ID. It intends to fully roll out the service next year to enhance access to government services. The new digital ID is anchored on a strong national ID uptake in the southeastern African nation, where almost 100% of all citizens aged 16 and above now possess an ID. 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African Union agency says Fitch's downgrade of Afreximbank is 'flawed'
African Union agency says Fitch's downgrade of Afreximbank is 'flawed'

Reuters

time7 hours ago

  • Reuters

African Union agency says Fitch's downgrade of Afreximbank is 'flawed'

NAIROBI, June 9 (Reuters) - An African Union credit review body has questioned Fitch ratings agency's downgrade of Africa Export-Import Bank last week, saying it was based on a "flawed" categorisation of loans and calling for the decision to be reconsidered. Last Wednesday, Fitch downgraded Cairo-based Afreximbank's credit rating to BBB-, one notch above junk ratings, from BBB, citing high credit risks and weak risk management policies. Fitch calculated that the ratio of Afrexim's non-performing loans (NPLs) exceeded the 6% 'high risk' threshold outlined in the ratings agency's criteria. Afreximbank said in its first quarter operating results that the NPLs ratio stood at 2.44% at the end of March. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a body established by the African Union to do the groundwork for the launch of an African credit ratings agency later this year, contested Fitch's calculations and called for talks between Fitch, Afreximbank and other African institutions. "The APRM notes with concern Fitch Ratings' misclassification of Afreximbank's sovereign exposures to the Governments of Ghana, South Sudan and Zambia as NPLs," APRM said in a statement published late on Friday. "This classification raises critical legal, institutional and analytical issues which the APRM strongly contests." Fitch defended its rating decision, saying it operates on the basis of independent and timely analysis. "All Fitch's supranational rating decisions are taken solely in accordance with one globally consistent and publicly available rating criteria, with rating drivers and sensitivities clearly identified in our ongoing public rating commentary," the ratings agency told Reuters. The row over the rating, which determines the cost of credit for a financial institution, comes as Afreximbank seeks to protect its loans from restructuring in Ghana, Zambia and Malawi, saying that as a multilateral lender it has preferred creditor status. "The assumption that Ghana, South Sudan and Zambia would default on their loans to Afreximbank is inconsistent with the 1993 Treaty establishing the Bank to which Ghana and Zambia are both founding members, shareholders and signatories," APRM said. The founding treaty of the lender, whose mandate is to promote intra-Africa and extra-Africa trade, is legally binding on all members, APRM said, placing legal obligations on the bank's financial operations. Afreximbank has not commented on the downgrade by Fitch, but it has previously said it is not in debt restructuring talks with any of its member states. Afreximbank's loans to its member states are governed by "a framework of intergovernmental cooperation and mutual commitment, rather than typical commercial risk principles", shielding its loans from sliding into non-performance realm, APRM said. "Fitch's unilateral treatment of these sovereign exposures -as comparable to market-based commercial loans - despite their backing by treaty obligations and shareholder equity stakes, is flawed," APRM said.

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