In Namibia, Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy Modestus Amutse has taken aim at the repeated use of short term employment contracts by operations holding long term mining licences, raising the issue at a Mineworkers Union of Namibia Northern Regional roundtable in Tsumeb. The comments extend a warning he delivered earlier in October at the Kunene Mining Summit, where he said companies were cycling workers between contractors instead of creating permanent employment. No measure has been announced; the signal is regulatory attention on labour stability at long life mines, in the same jurisdiction where Bannerman’s Etango uranium build was approved this week.
In Indonesia, the Danantara Development Management Fund said resilient supply chains, coordinated investment and stronger domestic capability are needed alongside processing capacity to capture value from critical minerals. Managing director Rachmat Kaimuddin cited Ministry of Industry figures putting nickel ore at around 30 dollars a tonne rising to 3,628 dollars a tonne as mixed hydroxide precipitate, and a National Economic Council estimate that downstream product exports will reach 50 billion dollars by the end of 2026, about 45 percent above the 2024 figure of 34.5 billion dollars. Battery demand is estimated at 108.2 gigawatt hours by 2030 against raw material capacity equivalent to 373 gigawatt hours toward a 780 gigawatt hour electric vehicle target, leaving what the fund frames as a 407 gigawatt hour investment opportunity.
In Zimbabwe, the Filabusi gold mine case carried in yesterday’s roundup remains single sourced. A corroboration search on October 25 found only a syndication of the same allAfrica report, which describes a December 2024 machete attack on Cowslip Mine owner Andre Coetzee and a court fight over a failed purchase agreement. No independent second outlet confirming the incident was found, so the item stays at grade C and is not promoted to a full story.
In Ghana, artisanal miners at Atwima Kwanwoma said unemployment and poverty pushed them into dangerous underground mining. The item is the ground level counterpart to today’s GoldBod formalisation story: the miners the state proposes to license, finance and monitor describe entering the work because no other livelihood was available.