🇳🇪 Niger Acquired 22k Atomic Bobms

...or such a number of explosive devices could be produced out of 1570 tonnes of uranium, which Niger reportedly confiscated from French Orano company along with the mine where it all had been extracted.

❓ The stockpile is worth $270 million, though it is unclear how Niger would dispose of it, bearing in mind the strick international oversight of fussile materials trade and the World Bank's arbitration order to halt any movement of this stockpiles.

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🇳🇬 It's All Oil Under The Bridge...

🌏 With the help of a bunch of federal ministers, Wednesday morning Nigeria's Dangote Refinery and PENGASSAN trade union ended their dispute.

The terms of their agreement allegedly iclude:
👉 Redeployment of the sacked workers (though in different business units)
👉 No punishment for those engaged in the PENGASSAN strike

Dangote meanwhile seems to be the winner, since none of the sacked will be redeployed at the refinery itself. Also interesting that the agreement only displays the Labour Minister's signature and looks like his own declaration rather than a treaty.

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❤️ Africa Loses 1.5 Niger’s GDP

That much gold is reportedly illegally mined and smuggled from African countries each year.

As the LBMA gold price reaches new heights ($3890 per ounce as of today), we decided to cover some fact about illegal gold mining in Africa.

Did you know that:
👉 Each year around 475 tonnes of gold are produced illegally in Africa (which is equal to approximately $85 billion or 1.5 of Niger’s GDP)
👉 The leaders in illegal mining are Zimbabwe, Mali and Ivory Coast
👉 The major part of illegal gold end up in the UAE, where undergoes refining and join the legal flows of gold bullions

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🇸🇳 Senegal To Launch Refinery

Senegal has announced its plans for the construction of its second oil refinery by 2029.

❓ Like many other crude oil exporting countries, Senegal has long been dependent on petroleum products import due to the lack of local refineries.

This in turn leads to foreign currency deficits and a bizzare situation where countries full of oil (besides Senegal, for example, Nigeria and also Iran) need to rely on oversea refineries.

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🇨🇮 Ivory Coast Joins The Game

Ivory Coast has distributed 11 new mining exploration licenses, whereof 8 for gold.

❓ This, besides the fact that the IC's government goes on performing its basic functions, can tell us that Ivory Coast is inclined to take its share of the pie of the growing prices of gold and other minerals (like copper).

From an investor's perspective, Ivory Coast is thereby distancing itself from its northern neighbourns, where the desire to hop on the train of high prices led to disputes between state and mining corporations.

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🇨🇩🇷🇼 DRC And Rwanda Postpone A Deal

Reuters report that so far the DRC and Rwanda fail to sign a US-sponsored deal on economic cooperation and resources exploitation in the border area.

❓ We've already mentioned that Rwanda and the DRC had agreed on the text of this agreement, with the official introduction of this document expected in early October. Now the DRC appears unwilling to put its signature on the paper.

"The negotiating teams had finalized the text of the agreement but disappointingly, Kinshasa decided at the last minute not to initial it",

a Rwandan official said.

Perhaps the DRC is planning to use its signature as a leverage over Trump to make the latter put pressure on Rwanda. The final goal is probably to get some additional safeguards against armed faction M23 getting Rwandan support.

Heads of both countries are expected to make a visit to Washington by the end of October.


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🇳🇬 Nigeria Boosts Oil (Though Modestly)

Nigeria has reportedly increased daily oil production to 1.7-1.83 million barrels and the number of active drilling rigs from 31 in January to 50 by July 2025.

❓The reforms are attributed to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Comission's (NUPRC) "Drill or Drop" and "One Million Barrels Per Day" initiatives.

However, launched in October 2024, "One Million Barrels Per Day" originally meant the increase in production by 1 million barrels per day by October 2026.

So far it increased from 1.6 a year ago to 1.83.

It's unclear whether Nigeria will eventually meet its ambitious goal, and whether it is worth at all given the persistent surplus on crude oil market.

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🇬🇭 What's Wrong With Ghana's Gold

On Friday Ghana's president held a meeting with civil society representatives intended to discuss solutions to Ghana's "galamsey" problem - massive illegal gold mining that poisons rivers and causes deforestation.

"I don’t gain anything from galamsey. I’m not personally involved in galamsey. I have no interest in galamsey continuing", said the president.

Over the past decade Ghana tried:
👉 Teprorarily banning small-scale mining
👉 Vice-versa expanding legal small-scale mining by massive license distribution
👉 Deporting foreign nationals involved + restricting visa granting rules
👉 Transferring the monopoly to buy gold from small-scale miners to the Gold Board, created in April 2025

What's interesting is that none of this had really had any significant impact yet. Partly this is the reason why some in Ghana are calling on the president to declare a state of emergency.

How exactly the latter can help fix the "galamsey" problem is once again unclear.

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🇧🇼 Botswana And US To Strike A Deal

🌏 The country's president claims Botswana and the US will soon conclude an agreement reducing the US import tariff on Botswana's diamonds.

The negotiations are in an advanced stage. We are on the verge of reaching an agreement.

The African country, in return, will grant the US heavenly business conditions - priority access to its critical minerals, reduction of non-tariff barriers, plus self-imposed committment to accept certain US standards.

❓ In August Trump introduced additional duties on Botswana-originating products.

While some countries can afford a go-f*ck-yourself response to such actions by the US, Botswana has no choice but a sign contract with the devil as its diamond-reliant economy is still suffering from a plunge in diamond prices.

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🇨🇩The DRC Will Punish Lawless Miners

🌏 According to a Reuter's insider, the DRC is going to pointedly permanently and ban cobalt exporters that violate its new quota system.

The desire to uphold prices is easy to understand. Though the DRC'd better increase its revenue by harnessing illegal artisan cobalt mining.

The video shows the consequences of an illegal mine collapse in the DRC in 2023.

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🇳🇬 Nigeria's Oil Stealers

🌏 The Nigerian Army has reportedly destroyed 41 illegal refineries and recovered about 49,300 litres of stolen crude oil in September-October.

❓ Oil theft-related losses in Nigeria peaked at 102,000 barrels (11,970,000 litres) in 2021. Since then daily stolen volumes had contracted tenfold (officially) as of July, 2025.

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🇨🇮 Barrick Sells Mine To An Ivory Coaster

Canadian Barrick has announced it sells its 89.7% stake in Tongon gold mine to the Atlantic Group, a major ivorian multisector investor.

📈 For Ivory Coast the deal marks the 1ST time a local company takes control over a major gold mine;

📈 For the Atlantic Group it's a viable and still (after many years of exploitation) profitable asset, that will supposedly generate revenue up to at least 2027;

📉 For Barrick it's another step in assets optimization, and not the most profitable one (China's Zijin allegedly offered $500 million for the same mine, which is now being sold for $300 million)

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🇳🇬 US Aims For Nigeria's Minerals?

Yesterday US' republican congressman Riley M. Moore publicly called for the recognition of Nigeria as a country of particular concern citing an alleged persecution of Christians.

Nigeria is the deadliest country in the world for Christians and the world stands by silently.

That's why I'm urging Secretary Rubio to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern to unlock diplomatic levers to protect our brothers and sisters in Christ.

👁 If there's more to it than a mere cry for attention, the US may be aiming to strike another Best and Beautiful Deal of The Century (imminently leading to a Nobel Peace Prize) regarding Nigeria's solid minerals.

Just a reminder - China has already opened at least 2 lithium processing facilities in Nigeria, with up to 3 enterprises on various stages of development.

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📍Who Really Digs It Up?

As news slows a little, we've decided to speak about the real power players behind Africa’s resources. First up gold.

Africa now accounts for roughly a quarter of global mine supply—about 1000 tonnes in 2024—though the majority of large-scale output comes from FOREIGN operators.

In Africa 10 biggest gold miners are:

👉 Barrick Gold (Canada): operating in DRC (Kibali - 45%), Mali (Loulo-Gounkoto), Tanzania (North Mara, Bulyanhulu).

👉 AngloGold Ashanti (United Kingdom): operating in Egypt (Sukari), Ghana (Obuasi, Iduapriem), Guinea (Siguiri), Tanzania (Geita), DRC (Kibali - another 45%).

👉 Newmont (United States): operating in Ghana (Ahafo).

👉 Gold Fields (South Africa): operating in Ghana (Tarkwa), South Africa (South Deep).

👉 Harmony Gold (South Africa): operating in South Africa (multiple underground operations).

👉 Endeavour Mining (United Kingdom): operating in Senegal (Sabodala-Massawa), Ivory Coast (Ity, Lafigué), Burkina Faso (Houndé, Mana).

👉 B2Gold (Canada): in Mali (Fekola Complex).

👉 IAMGOLD (Canada): Burkina Faso (Essakane).

👉 Perseus Mining (Australia): operating in Ghana (Edikan), Ivory Coast (Yaouré, Sissingué); advancing Tanzania (Nyanzaga) and holds Sudan (Meyas Sand) project.

👉 Resolute Mining (Australia): operating in Mali (Syama), Senegal (Mako); advancing Ivory Coast (Doropo project).

How many genuinely African companies are there in African gold mining? We'll speak of it next time.

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🤔 Senegal’s Vicious Oil Circulation

🛢 In the twisted world of supply chains no one would be surprised to learn that Senegal, having its own large crude oil deposits, imports refined fuel products from abroad. After all, there is only one modest refinery.

However, the Senegalese love oil SO MUCH that they also import crude oil from Nigeria.

It turns out, not only the Senegalese unique refinery produces very humble output (30,000 barrels/day), but it also fails to process local sorts of oil. So they found Nigeria’s crude more suitable.

💵 As a result, Senegal is deprived of foreign currency twice. I wouldn’t even dare to imagine what a horror is unfolding on the pages of their balance of payments.

However, despair thou shalt not. There is also a hope for deliverance for Senegal’s oil sector.

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❤️ Goldman Sachs Proposes, COMEX Disposes

In our observation of African mining developments we cannot leave unattended today’s trading ⚡️ BREAKING ⚡️ (though mostly symbolic) news - a spot ounce of gold has decisively took the long-besieged fortress of $4000.

Once upon a time (a week ago) there was an affordable (not to say miserable) $3800, with heavy-weight analytics (like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Research and others) foreseeing $4000 somewhere in the middle 2026.

While the consensus now is further consistent growth, for our cause there are 2 significant trends to observe:
👉 How governments will strengthen mining-related regulations in pursuit of higher public revenues
👉 How states bestowed with golden wealth will dispose of their newfound incomes and where they'll funnel it

After all, the paradox of plenty was coined for a reason.

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🇨🇩 DRC Reveals Underpayments

🌏 Mining companies operating in the DRC underreported $16.8 billion in revenue in 2018-2025, leading to $50.4 million in lost contributions to local community development funds.

"The mind of man is capable of anything - because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future"

wrote J.Conrad in "Heart of Darkness" in 1899

Very meaningful 👐, but what he probably didn't mean is that in 2025 mining management's minds would be occupied with number juggling in an attempt to save a needy multibillion-dollar corporation another dozen million dollars on local development.

The video shows a recent BBC capture of work conditions at a coltan mine in the Eastern DRC.

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