by Gavin Keeton
This article first appeared in the January 2018 edition of Africa in Fact, Issue 44. Africa in Fact is the journal of Good Governance Africa. It is published here with permission.
In July 2016, the United Nations Conference...
There is a myth that many people believe with regard to copper mining – that the price of copper alone determines the strength and success of the industry, as evidenced by the amount of copper produced.
Whilst price is a...
For most people, “copper” calls to mind an important and increasingly rare commodity that’s found in a certain part of Zambia. Here, these mineral deposits were once so rich that the entire area was named Copperbelt Province. But copper...
1. It is the heaviest element in the universe
Uranium is heavy, and is nearly three times as dense as iron. This makes it atomically unstable, which contributes to it being radioactive. Uranium’s natural radioactivity – the emission of particles...
1. It is Africa’s second-largest gold producer
In 2016, Ghana produced 90 tons of gold; only South Africa – with 140 tons – produced more gold on the continent. The gold mining industry accounts for five percent of the country’s...
1. It’s the first step
Blasting is the very first step of the mining process. Explosives are placed deep in the ground (surface mining) or in the rock-face (underground mining), and detonated to release large quantities of mineral-bearing ore. Explosives...
There is something about “uranium” that connotes a rare — and even foreboding — substance, at least partly because of the way the word sounds. Compare “uranium” to good old “tin”, and it is somehow difficult to believe that...
Did you know that advances in mining technology mean that you can now grow gold and copper next to your tomatoes and maize? This is not science-fiction or the speculation of a wild-eyed scientist, but technology which is being...
Considering that the per carat value of coloured gemstones like emeralds and rubies is growing faster than diamond prices, it may finally be time to rewrite Marilyn Monroe’s 1950’s hit, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”. The growing popularity...
1. There has been mining there for thousands of years
Archaeologists believe that the Gokomere people (who are the ancestors of today’s Shona people, among others) were smelting iron in what is today Zimbabwe as long ago as the 1st...
