Mining companies awarded blocks in Egypt’s Eastern Desert are set to start exploring for gold under a legislative overhaul that seeks eventually to unlock vast untapped mineral resources.
Despite plentiful reserves and a rich mining history that gave rise to elaborate Pharaonic gold jewelry, Egypt has just one commercial gold mine in operation. Foreign investment in oil and gas has grown, but mining has languished.
Now, the country is banking on high gold prices and amended mining laws that scrap red tape and a profit-sharing rule, unpopular in the industry, to lure interest.
One year after launching its first bid round under the new rules, it has so far clinched five gold exploration contracts in a first bidding round and kept the tendering system rolling as it tries to build momentum.
The government is looking to attract $1 billion in annual investments in mining, a target industry sources say could be within reach.
“Success is ultimately going to be measured by how many mines are going to be discovered and advanced to production,” said Patrick Barnes, Head of Metals & Mining Consulting EMEARC at Wood Mackenzie, which advised Egypt’s government on its mining law reforms.
“Early indicators show us that this bid round was much better than the ones held previously.”
In its initial tender, Egypt in November awarded 82 exploration blocks to what metals analysts say is a healthy mix of 11 companies, ranging from junior explorers to industry giants such as Barrick Gold (ABX.TO).
The blocks on offer are in the Arabian-Nubian shield geological formation, which flanks the Red Sea and is believed to be one of the most mineral rich areas in the world.
More than 1,000 Arsenal supporters gathered outside Emirates Stadium before Friday’s game against Everton to protest against owner Stan Kroenke’s role in the failed European Super League.
The protestors called for Kroenke to leave the club.
It follows similar protests by Chelsea fans on Tuesday
Around 1,000 Blues supporters had gathered outside Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground before their game against Brighton to protest at their club’s involvement.
Arsenal apologised in an open letter to their fans following their withdrawal from the Super League and said they had “made a mistake”, adding they were withdrawing after listening to them and the “wider football community”.
The Gunners board said they did not intend to “cause such distress” and that they joined the Super League because they “did not want to be left behind” and wanted to ensure the club’s future.
“Our aim is always to make the right decisions for this great football club, to protect it for the future and to take us forward,” they added.
“We didn’t make the right decision here, which we fully accept.”
American businessman Kroenke was appointed to the Arsenal board of directors in 2008 and became the majority shareholder of the club in 2011.
South Africa’s oldest crude oil refinery, the 120,000 barrel per day plant operated by Engen (Enref), will be converted into a new storage facility because the refinery is no longer sustainable in the long term, the company said on Friday.
The refinery, situated on the eastern coast in the city of Durban, has been shut down since a fire in December damaged the plant that supplies around 17% of the country’s fuel production and is South Africa’s second largest crude refinery.
“The conclusion of the strategic assessment is that the Engen refinery is unsustainable in the longer-term,” Engen’s CEO Yusa Hassan said in a statement.
Engen is majority-owned by Malaysia’s oil and gas firm, Petronas.
Hassan said a globally challenging refining environment with supply surplus, depressed demand and low refining margins had placed Engen in “financial distress”.
Hassan added that unaffordable costs to meet the government’s cleaner fuel drive by upgrading refineries was another reason to convert the refinery operating since 1954.
The South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA), which represents operators such as BP (BP.L) and Shell (RDSa.L), said in January that local refinery operators were less likely to invest 40 billion rand ($2.8 billion) for these upgrades after the coronavirus pandemic.
Africa’s most industrialised economy has five other refineries. It is a net importer of petroleum products.
Hassan said the new import and storage terminal was expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2023. He did not provide any cost estimates for converting the refinery.
Chad on Friday staged a state funeral for veteran ruler Idriss Deby Itno, a linchpin in the fight against the Sahel’s jihadist insurgency, as France and regional allies voiced backing for his son and successor, Mahamat Idriss Deby.
The elder Deby, who had ruled the vast semi-desert state with an iron fist for 30 years, died from wounds sustained fighting rebels at the weekend, the army said Tuesday.
His death has stunned the Sahel and its ally and former colonial ruler France, battling a jihadist revolt that in nine years has swept across three countries.
The unrest has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Deby’s coffin, draped in the national flag and surrounded by elite troops, was driven to the Place de la Nation square in the capital N’Djamena for ceremonies attended by foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron.
A 21-gun salute sounded out for Deby, who only last August had been declared a field marshal — the first in Chad’s history — after leading an offensive against jihadists in the west of the country.
Macron, in his tribute to the fallen president, said “you lived as a soldier, you died as a soldier, weapons in your hands”.
“France will never let anyone, either today or tomorrow, challenge Chad’s stability and integrity,” Macron pledged.
But Macron also called on the newly-appointed military government to foster “stability, inclusion, dialogue, democratic transition”.
A similar message was conveyed personally to Deby’s son when he met earlier with Macron and the presidents of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, a French presidential aide said.
“What emerges from the president’s consultations with his counterparts is the need to push ahead very quickly with an inclusive transition, which hands on to political forces,” the source said.
“That’s the only way today, because a purely military process won’t work,” the aide said, adding that the G5 Sahel and African Union “are in the front line, and France will be playing the role of backup”.
The younger Deby, a 37-year-old four-star general commanding the elite Republican Guard, was named president and head of a military council immediately after his father’s death was announced. Parliament and the government were dissolved.
He will wield full powers but has promised “free and democratic” elections after an 18-month transition period that can be extended once.
The move has been branded an “institutional coup” by the opposition.
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), underscoring the “terrible repression” under Deby, on Friday urged the swiftest possible return to civilian rule.
Deby’s death was announced the day after he was declared the winner of an April 11 election — giving him a sixth mandate after three decades at the helm.
The army said the 68-year-old had died on Monday from wounds suffered while leading troops in battle against rebels who had crossed from Libya.
The Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) has vowed to pursue its offensive after a pause for the funeral, with spokesman Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol telling AFP that the rebels were “en route to N’Djamena”.
Mourners attend the state funeral of the late Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno in N’Djamena on April 23, 2021. – Chad’s President Idriss Deby died on April 20, 2021 from wounds sustained in a battle with rebels in the country’s north, an army spokesperson announced on state television. Deby had been in power since 1990 and was re-elected for a sixth term in the April 11, 2021 elections. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
Unstable country –
Deby seized power in a chronically unstable country in 1990 and had twice thwarted attempted coups with support from France.
He was repeatedly returned to office in elections condemned by opponents as fraudulent.
But he gained a reputation in the West as an unfailing ally in the fight to roll back jihadists, whose campaign has shaken the vast, impoverished Sahel.
Chad has well-respected armed forces and hosts the headquarters of France’s 5,100-strong Barkhane anti-jihadist mission.
It also partners Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in a regional anti-jihad coalition called the G5 Sahel.
The group may name Burkina’s president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, as interim leader to succeed Deby, who had been its chairman under a rotational arrangement, a source at the G5 Sahel secretariat in Noukachott said.
French armoured escort –
Macron, who left for France in mid-afternoon, was the only Western head of state to attend the ceremony.
French armoured vehicles escorted Macron to the embassy after his arrival at the military base used for Barkhane’s headquarters, an AFP journalist saw.
The funeral was followed by prayers at the capital’s Grand Mosque.
Deby’s remains were then flown a thousand kilometres (600 miles) east to the village of Amdjarass near the Sudanese border, where he was to be buried alongside his father close to his birthplace of Berdoba
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen called for “flexibility” as talks with Switzerland’s president on Friday failed to make a breakthrough towards sealing a long-delayed cooperation agreement.
Brussels has made no secret of its growing impatience to nail down a “framework agreement” to unify a patchwork of accords with Bern, 13 years in the making.
But the two sides remained at an impasse after the EU refused to budge on demands from Swiss leader Guy Parmelin to exclude key issues relating to state aid, wage protections and freedom of movement from the pact.
“Our position is different — it is that obviously you cannot carve out such three fundamental areas from the agreement,” EU spokesman Eric Mamer said after the 90-minute meeting.
Mamer said the EU had put some “compromises” on the table and wanted them to form a basis for any future talks.
“Our doors are open and at any point in time the Swiss side can contact us and we can continue the discussion,” he added.
Talking before the meeting, von der Leyen insisted that it was possible to reach a deal if there was “some flexibility on both sides”.
“In a negotiation, the final metres are the most difficult,” the European Commission president said.
Parmelin admitted there were “substantial differences” between the two sides and insisted he was trying to get an “acceptable agreement” that would stand up to scrutiny back home.
“We agreed to stay in contact,” he said.
For the EU, the negotiations on the deal concluded in 2018 — but the Swiss have continued to press for changes and have so far balked at signing.
The agreement would rejig five major agreements within 120 bilateral accords that govern non-EU member Switzerland’s relations with the bloc.
Among other points, they touch on access to the single market and fine-tuning applicable Swiss and EU laws.
Fears abound that failing to secure the framework deal could jeopardise Switzerland’s relationship with its largest trading partner at a time when more than half of all Swiss exports go to the bloc, which all but surrounds the landlocked country.
Saudi Arabia on Friday imposed a ban on imports of Lebanese fruit and vegetables into its territory, citing a spike in drug smuggling from Lebanon.
The ban will come into effect on Sunday and will continue until Lebanese authorities provide “adequate and trusted guarantees” to stop “systematic smuggling operations” into the kingdom, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA reported.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was informed of the Saudi decision and that the foreign minister has referred the issue to higher officials. “Smuggling drugs in containers or trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables from Lebanon abroad is an act punishable by Lebanese law,” the statement said.
“Drug smuggling harms the economy, the Lebanese farmers and the reputation of Lebanon,” it added. The statement also called on all security services and customs at the border crossings to make every effort to control all smuggling operations.
The Saudi agency said Saudi authorities noticed increasing attempts by drug smugglers from Lebanon to use the Lebanese products, mainly fruit and vegetable shipments bound for the monarchy or transiting on the way to neighbouring countries, for the illicit trade.
Saudi Arabia will continue to keep a close eye on shipments of other Lebanese products to see if similar measures need to be taken, SPA added.
The ban was announced shortly after Saudi authorities said they had foiled an attempt at the Red Sea port of Jeddah to smuggle around 5.3 million pills of Captagon, a synthetic drug, hidden into a pomegranate shipment coming from Lebanon.
The Eurozone economic recovery accelerated in April despite coronavirus restrictions as business activity grew at its fastest pace since the summer thanks to a manufacturing boom, a key survey said Friday.
“Eurozone business activity grew at a stronger rate in April, the rate of increase accelerating to the fastest since last July as a record expansion of manufacturing output was accompanied by a return to growth in the service sector for the first time since last August,” economic data group IHS Markit said.
The firm’s PMI index rose to 53.7 points in April from 53.2 in March, remaining above the 50-point level that indicates growth.
It marked a second straight month of expansion in business activity after four consecutive months of decline.
“In a month during which virus containment measures were tightened in the face of further waves of infections, the eurozone economy showed encouraging strength,” Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at IHS Markit said.
“Although the service sector continued to be hard hit by lockdown measures, it has returned to growth as companies adjust to life with the virus and prepare for better times ahead.”
Williamson added that the manufacturing sector was booming as “pent-up spending, restocking, investment in new machinery and growing optimism about the outlook have all helped fuel a further record surge in both output and new orders”.
Factories in economic powerhouse Germany led the way as manufacturing expanded across the region “at a rate unsurpassed in over two decades of survey history”.
The hard-hit service sector continued to trail behind however, as countries imposed restrictions to try to curb a third wave of coronavirus infections.
Germany’s return to growth in the sector ground to halt as tighter measures were enforced, but France and much of the rest of the eurozone saw a “marginal” uptick for the first time since last summer.
The more positive news comes as vaccination drives across the European Union pick up pace after a sluggish start caused in part by delivery shortfalls.
Sudan warned Friday it could take legal action against Ethiopia if it goes ahead with plans to fill a mega-dam on the Blue Nile without a deal with Khartoum and Cairo.
Water Minister Yasser Abbas also said in a tweet that Ethiopia has raised “objections” to an invitation by Sudan to attend three-way talks to discuss the controversial dam.
Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia have been locked in inconclusive talks for nearly a decade over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which broke ground in 2011.
Cairo has regarded the dam as an existential threat to its water supplies, while Khartoum fears its own dams would be harmed if Ethiopia fills the reservoir without a deal.
Last week, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok invited his Egyptian and Ethiopian counterparts to a closed meeting after recent African Union-sponsored negotiations failed to produce a deal.
“Ethiopia has objected to the invitation of Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok for a three-way summit and we see that there is no justification for that,” Abbas tweeted.
Addis Ababa announced last July that it had filled part of the barrage with a second stage due to take place this coming July, even if no agreement has been with Cairo and Khartoum.
If Ethiopia goes ahead with the filling, Sudan “would file lawsuits against the Italian company constructing the dam and the Ethiopian government”, Abbas warned.
He said the lawsuits would highlight that the “environmental and social impact as well as the dangers of the dam” have not been taken into adequate consideration.
The tensions over the dam come as Sudan’s relations with Egypt warm while its relations with Ethiopia have been hit by a dispute over the use of the Fashaga farmland near their common border.
In March, Sudan said it has accepted an offer by the United Arab Emirates to mediate with Ethiopia over GERD and the contested border region.
Abbas said the UAE’s initiative included investment opportunities in the Fashaga region as well as “unofficial bid to bridge the gap in views with regard to GERD”.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Friday, assured the international community of Nigeria’s preparedness to galvanize relevant stakeholders for climate action, and readiness to support regional, continental and global multilateral processes for the attainment of the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Speaking at a Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, the President said the fight to redress the impact was the responsibility of all countries and stakeholders, congratulating President Joe Biden of the United States for renewed interest in the Paris Agreement.
President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A video monitor shows U.S. President Joe Biden, center, speaking during the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Biden pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as he convenes 40 world leaders in a virtual summit intended to demonstrate renewed American resolve to fight climate change and pressure wary nations to raise their own ambitions. Photographer: Al Drago/The New York Times/Bloomberg
The President in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, said, “I would like to express my profound appreciation to the President of the United States, His Excellency, Joe Biden, for convening this Summit at a time the world is experiencing tremendous vulnerability from the COVID-19 pandemic and Climate Change impacts, among several other global challenges.
“The issue of Climate Change has taken the front burner globally, as its effects can be seen and felt all around us; ranging from increased atmospheric temperature to irregular rainfall patterns as well as sea-level rise owing to the melting of glacial ice. “Nigeria commends the Biden Administration for the positive decision of returning the United States to the Paris Agreement.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Joe Biden, and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry listen during a virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
In addition to bringing about abundant green economic opportunities to the US economy, the move further complements the larger transition process of global economies to low carbon development pathways.”
The President said the Summit would prove instrumental in galvanizing high-level political support for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its Katowice Rulebook as well as inviting more countries and stakeholders to take more climate-oriented responsibilities.
President Buhari told world leaders that Nigeria was one of the most vulnerable nations, and it had started undertaking major environmentally sound and climate-friendly programs while treading the path of sustainability.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry listens as President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, Friday, April 23, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
He said, “We are expeditiously implementing programs that stimulate gradual transition away from the use of wood stoves to kerosene, Liquefied Natural Gas, biogas, and electricity.
The immediate effects include healthy competition among private sector players leading to higher productivity, employment, and faster service delivery.
Diesel car sales have plummeted in Europe in the first quarter of the year, representing only 23.2 percent of sales as opposed to 30 percent during the same period last year, according to data released Friday by car manufacturers.
“Hybrid electric vehicles made up 18.4 percent of total passenger car sales in the EU, almost doubling their market share in a year,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. “Demand for electrically-chargeable cars also increased during these three months: battery electric vehicles made up 5.7percent of all new cars, while plug-in hybrids accounted for 8.2 percent of EU registrations.”
The group said that from January to March of this year, diesel volumes fell 20.1 percent compared to a year ago to reach 593,559 cars sold across the European Union. The volumes fell nearly 30 percent in Germany and Spain.
Similarly, demand for petrol cars continued its downward trend, with sales decreasing by 16.9 percent from 1.3 million units sold in in the first quarter of 2020 to 1.1 million so far this year, ACEA said.
It said the shy recovery of the auto market, which was hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, had especially benefitted hybrid electric vehicles which saw a siginificant rise in sales, notably in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Poland.
“Registrations of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) jumped by 175.0%, totalling 208,389 units,” ACEA said. “One of the drivers of this growth was Italy, where 16,103 plug-in cars were registered in the first quarter — a year-on-year increase of 445.7 percent.”
Sweden, Germany and France also registered an increase in the sale of such vehicles.
Registrations for battery electric vehicles across the bloc also jumped by 59.1 percent to reach 146,185 cars, with demand still benefiting from government stimuli for zero-emission vehicles, ACEA said .
By contrast, demand for battery electric cars fell in Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands.
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