AFRICA INDUSTRIAL BRIEFS

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources.

ECONOMY

Cape Verde Joins Party for Chinese Cooperation Zone

Zambia and Mauritius have already been selected as hosts for the five Chinese economic cooperation zones in Africa. Cape Verde, off Africa’s Atlantic west coast, has announced that it will compete with Tanzania, Liberia and Nigeria for the three remaining places. The country’s finance minister Jose Brito will visit China as part of a policy of strengthening ties with China and becoming a hub for Chinese trade between Africa, the Americas and Europe, in competition with the nearby Canary Islands. At the Sino-African summit in Beijing in November 2006, China pledged to invest $5 billion in China. From the Beijing perspective zones in Africa and Asia are part of a plan to encourage enterprises to venture overseas.

POWER

Interconnection Answer to East African Power Problems

Power utilities in East African countries have agreed to form and implement a $1 billion plus project for regional electricity interconnection. The project is aimed at reliable and secure distribution in the region and will allow power sharing between member states. The decision was taken at a conference at Entebbe, Uganda organized by the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company and Statuette, the Norwegian transmission operator. Prolonged drought conditions have affected hydropower generation and interconnection is seen as the least coast solution for power supply. Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi’s power authorities all pledged support for the project.

Eskom Plans 100 MW Windfarm

Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, has called for ‘expressions of interest’ from wind turbine manufacturers in the proposed $160 million windfarm project to be sited on the country’s west coast. The 100 MW project will use turbines rated between 1.5 MW and 2.5 MW. The power generation capacity of the project may be increased depending on the quality of the bids covering the design, construction, commission and maintenance of the project. Prequalified bidders would proceed to the request for proposal stage where the bids will be assessed on their technical, financial and commercial compliance. Eskom said that the project schedule would depend partly on the lead times for equipment delivery.

METALS & MINERALS

CVRD Looks to Expand on Mozambique Coal Base

According to the Mozambican natural resources minister Esperana Bias Brazil’s CVRD is looking at further major investments in the country and is in talks covering an aluminum smelter, a steel plant and a power station. These investments would flow from the development of the Moatize coal mine, which is scheduled to start operations in 2010 and will produce 2.5 million tons of thermal coal and 8.5 million tons of metallurgical coal annually. CVRD is expanding its global aluminum operations and the available coal supply in Mozambique would feed the power hungry aluminum production process

Xstrata in Black Power – Black Gold Project

South Africa’s African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and Xstrata Coal have announced the development of a major new greenfield, open cut, thermal coal mine. The $392 million Goedgevoden project will produce 3.1 million tons of thermal coal per annum over a 30-year lifetime. The mine at Witbank coalfield in Mpumalanga province will be developed through a majority black controlled joint venture with ARM holding 51% and Xstrata 49%. The mine will be commissioned in 2009 and reach full production in 2011. ARM Coal has obtained 3.2 million tons per annum export capacity for the mine in the Phase V of the Richards Bay coal terminal.

Niger Digs Uranium Resources

The Saharan country of Niger is aiming to double uranium output over the next four years as two Chinese and one French operated mines come into operation. In 2006 Niger mined about 3,500 tons of uranium and expects this total to more than double once the Imouraren (3,000 – 4,000 tons) and Teguida (700 tons) mines are commissioned in 2010/11, adding over 4,500 tons per annum. France’s Areva holds the rights to Imouraraen, and Sino-U is developing Teguida. Despite rebel insurgencies in the area 60 uranium exploration permits have been granted to foreign companies and another 120 for uranium and other minerals remain to be awarded.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.