PHOTO
Image used for illustrative purpose. Excavators sit idle in a nickel-mining area on the hill of Pomala village in Southeast Sulawesi province September 2, 2012. The most dramatic effect of new regulations on Indonesia's mining industry has been on mineral exports, which surged as companies fought to beat a May 6 export tax deadline and plunged thereafter. Nowhere is the human impact of the slide more visible than in the remote mining communities of Sulawesi, an island east of Borneo and the country's main source of nickel. Picture taken September 2, 2012. To match Feature INDONESIA-MINING/EXPLORERS REUTERS/Yusuf Ahmad
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Spain-based Xcalibur Multiphysics have joined hands to map, develop and co-finance natural resource projects to spur minerals and critical raw materials beneficiation in Africa.
The partnership will prioritise projects to locate and identify focus minerals, including precious, base and critical raw materials, comprising gold, diamonds, bauxite, manganese, copper, cobalt, graphite, lithium and rare earth elements, AFC said in a statement.
Hence, African countries will have access to improved geological data, which will de-risk investments in the sector, create jobs, unlock mineral resource wealth and support a more just energy transition.
Xcalibur will lead in providing the technical and mapping expertise, while AFC will lead in identifying and implementing investment and financing solutions for approved projects, the statement added.
Project development in seven priority countries is well advanced and will extend soon to other African countries.
Xcalibur has executed large-scale, country-wide and regional high-resolution mapping programmes, leading to an inventory of more than 50-million-line-kilometres of data acquired in Africa and worldwide.
These programmes have demonstrably increased exploration activities in the host countries, leading to increased investment, the statement said.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)
