News Updates

23rd February, 2022

Energy and mining industry experts this week detailed how the mining industry is grappling with the technical challenges of transitioning existing, and preparing new, operations to become more efficient and integrating renewable energy sources to, eventually, facilitate net-zero emissions from the mining and production of mineral resources

Meanwhile, the drive to decarbonise the miningindustry includes mineral exploration. Exploration companies, while not subjected to external pressure that existing operations are, are also planning for carbon-neutral mines, says Zambian exploration company Insignia CEO Katambi Bulawayo.

“While pressure is not coming from external factors, we know that governments, including in the areas we are exploring, are talking about net-zero economies and the transition to a global green economy. The mining sector is very key to this transition, with some of the metals we are exploring for, including copper, cobalt and nickel, critical to this transition.

1st January, 2023

KoBold Metals, a start-up backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has committed $150 million to developing the Mingomba copper-cobalt mine in Zambia, said to be the world’s highest-grade undeveloped large deposit of the orange metal.

The start-up, which has Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the world’s top miner BHP (ASX:BHP) as shareholders, will use its artificial intelligence tools to process drilling data and optimize exploration for copper and cobalt at Mingomba.

KoBold is buying into what will be a joint venture with the existing owners of the project – Australian private equity firm EMR Capital and Zambia’s state-owned mining investment vehicle ZCCM-IH (LON: ZCC)