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Rio Tinto’s MoU with Kigali to explore and mine lithium signals the continued interest of mining majors in African transition minerals.

South Africa’s EPCM Holdings has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for a 10,000m3 diesel storage facility at the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in Lualaba province. Kamoa-Kakula is one of the world’s top ten copper projects in terms of annual production.

Australian junior Globe says it is advancing its project to site a niobium refinery in the Malawian capital and has outlined an ambitious plan to power mining and refining operations with renewable energy.

Commercial operations for the $127m Mozambique-Malawi (Moma) transmission interconnection project has been delayed, a source with knowledge of the project told African Energy. The delay to the Moma link into the Southern Africa Power Pool comes after a previous hold-up from demining complications, while other milestones remain to be met for the long-awaited regional interconnection scheme.

Construction is expected to restart in mid-2024 at Mozambique LNG, with a revived financing package expected to be put in place after nearly three years of force majeure, and as the adjacent Rovuma LNG project is also resuming work.

The United Kingdom is guaranteeing an African Development Bank loan whose funds will be used to further improve Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco)’s network and increase the deployment of renewable energy.

KenGen has requested consultants to provide project management and supervisory services for the 42.5MWac Seven Forks solar PV development.

The ten largest renewable energy additions to African grids in 2024 fall into four distinct groups: Ethiopian hydro, other sub-Saharan African hydro, and wind and solar projects in North Africa and South Africa. African Energy has assessed the projects and whether or not they will be built in time.

Solarcentury Africa plans to sell output domestically from its second merchant plant in Namibia, but the 60MWp SolNam solar PV project also supports SCA’s goal of becoming a leading trader in the Southern African Power Pool (Sapp) market.

The strongmen in charge of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger plan to quit the regional Ecowas bloc, as Russia further enhances its military/business relationship with the Sahel troika and Central African Republic. While Niger believes its oil production could increase fivefold as its export pipeline to Benin starts up, and the Sahel states made significant progress in developing solar generation capacity in 2023, shifting political sands mean the largely western-funded PV boom is unlikely to be repeated, and the focus of China and others on resources plays leaves a big gap in international support for other sectors, writes Marc Howard.

Nigerien oil production could increase fivefold as a result of the Niger-Benin Export Pipeline, which is expected soon to ship its first cargo from the Sèmè-Kraké terminal. With traders competing to land marketing rights for Niamey’s share of up to 90,000 b/d of crude supply, the revenues will significantly aid the military regime, whose hold on the government has consolidated as General Abdourahamane Tiani’s junta has sought to cement ties with China and others.

An oversubscribed Eurobond issue in January indicated that Côte d’Ivoire’s strong economic performance – including 6.5% GDP growth, big infrastructure investments and Eni’s major Baleine oil and gas field – has been enough to allay investors’ concerns over the presidential succession and wider regional instability. These issues feature in the first of African Energy’s new series of Risk Management Reports (RMRs), which will provide updates, analysis and context on key political, social, economic and energy trends in countries across the continent. In line with the model established by African Energy’s sister publication Gulf States Newsletter (GSN), a ‘risk grade’ (explained below) is assigned to each country. A full list of African risk grades will follow soon.

Côte d’Ivoire’s three times oversubscribed $2.6bn dollar Eurobond issue underlines President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s reputation for prudent economic management – a status that will add to pressures from supporters for ‘ADO’ to stand for a controversial fourth term – and offers some hope for under-pressure African borrowers who could benefit from renewed access to international capital markets and the relatively attractive interest rates CdI has secured.

The United Arab Emirates has stepped in to finance Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s long-desired oil refinery, as the UAE ramps up its sub-Saharan business activity. Junior foreign minister Sheikh Shakhbut Bin Nahyan Al-Nahyan has been making yet more visits around the continent, also taking in Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola’s Cabinda enclave in January.

Italian major Eni has completed its acquisition of assets from Norway’s Neptune Energy Group, in a transaction that brings with it natural gas assets in Algeria, Egypt, Europe and the Far East.