Devils Below

🔴Over 300 farmers say their land was stolen by a Chinese mining firm 🌐 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Lualaba province, more than 300 farmers from Mutaka 2 village are accusing Dirton Corporation Mining of forcibly taking over their fields. The company has allegedly rolled in with security guards, destroyed crops and blocked roads. ➡️ Across the DRC, mining companies have treated community land like a free-for-all, securing permits through obscure agreements with local officials. In nearby Haut-Katanga entire forests have vanished under mining licenses, while on the opposite side of the country a town is being steadily devoured by Canadian Barrick's Kibali Gold Mine. With demand for cobalt and copper soaring, companies are racing to dig up every inch of soil, no matter who’s standing on it. Unfortunately, a mining boom has rarely meant prosperity for the people who live on the land. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Senegal Revokes a Dormant Oil License 🛢 Senegal has officially withdrawn the license of Nigerian company Oranto Petroleum for exploration of the offshore Cayar field, citing years of failure to meet its obligations. 🔵The license was issued in 2008, but the company did not drill a single well — effectively the reason it was taken back. 🔵 Notably, the same company in 2025 entered into the oil sector of Liberia with new agreements for four blocks. These deals drew criticism from civil society and politicians who recalled that in Liberia back in 2007—much like in Senegal—the same Oranto got a license at miserable price, waited idle 3 years, and then resold its assets to Chevron at a markup of around 115,000%. 💵Buying assets cheaply from the government and then reselling them, in whole or in parts, to other companies is one of the most common schemes in the oil sector. In Senegal, however, no new buyer willing to play along with such maneuvers showed up before the government finally acted. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

💥Nigeria is Shattered (Again) Nigerian regions can’t agree on a gold refinery In politics, you never know which event will trigger the next storm and heated debate. In Nigeria, that trigger turned out to be a remark by Minister of Solid Minerals Dele Alake at a forum in Saudi Arabia, where he boasted about the opening ofa gold refinery in Lagos. 🔸 A self-congratulatory comment typical of such gatherings sparked outrage on social media and drew critical statements from several civil groups, including the Northern Elders Forum. 🔸 Voices from the NigerianNorth are accusing President Tinubu’s government of favoritism toward Lagos arguing that the refinery should have been located in the North, where a significant share of gold is mined. Their opponents gloatingly remind that the oil riches of the Niger Delta in the South has long been likewise taken away and distributed across the whole country. 🔸 While a single plant would never have solved the North’s industrial problems in any case, the debate highlights the depth of Nigeria’s regional divide. Some Northerners are dissatisfied with the state's efforts to bring their states up to the national average, while people in the South and Southeast view support for the subsidy-dependent North as unfair. ❗️ And although this problem long predates the current leadership, the fact that Nigeria's President Tinubu has assembled a government composed almost exclusively of representatives from the South West — particularly from Lagos — clearly does nothing to help resolve it. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🌐Weekly News Digest [ January 12 – January 18 ] That was a week full of DRCongo's attempts to indulge its American partners. 💡Here are the key highlights: 🇧🇯 Benin — Singapore-based company will launch oil production at a 56-year old oil field 🇨🇩 DR Congo — DRC to Send 100,000 Tonnes of Copper to the US — DRC is preparing to send the US a list of mineral projects for American investors to take over — State company Gécamines proposes a deal to obtain a mining company, whose sale it has been blocking 🇬🇭 Ghana — Ghana is considering ending contracts that allow companies to keep legacy royalty and tax rates 🇲🇱 Mozambique — The Migration Service detained 5 Chinese and other foreign nationals for informal gold mining and unlawful stay 🇳🇬 Nigeria — Former Warlord Buys American Drones to Hunt for Oil Thieves in Nigeria 🇸🇩 Sudan — 10 Killed in a Collapse of Five Gold Mines in South Kordofan 🇿🇲 Zambia — Two Zambian workers died on January 13 at Mopani Copper Mines’ shaft in Kitwe 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe — Harare creates a monopoly on rehabilitation of rivers polluted by gold mining — The government is taking back a gold mine from a local football club #NewsDigest ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow

Showing Off is Worth More Than Gold 🔥The anti-government group MPLJ has attacked the Tchibarakaten gold-mining site in northern Niger. 💥 The “Movement of Patriots for Liberty and Justice” (MPLJ), led by Moussa Kounai, has been taking part in a fuel blockade of Niger, seeking to sever communications between remote settlements in the north and entertaining itself by blowing up pipelines that help Niamey sell oil abroad. 🏹 The largest site of artisanal gold mining in Niger, Tchibarakaten is located far in the north, in a grey zone right on the border with Algeria. This makes it difficult for Niamey both to control it and to rely on gold production there as a serious source of revenue. 🔫 Given that MPLJ’s overall style of sabotage boils down to hit-and-run tactics, this attack is also unlikely to result in the site falling into their hands. That would mean permanent presence in the area, exposing them to army strikes. Therefore, the essence of this maneuver has more to do with image-building at the expense of local miners. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

📺Who Needs Ancient Covenants? 📺 Contracts with gold companies are no longer Moses’ tablets for Ghana 💸 Alongside a planned increase in gold royalties, the government of Ghana is considering ending stabilization contracts that allow several companies to keep legacy royalty and tax rates as long as they meet their investment commitments. 🔸Stabilization contracts exist to lure investors: regardless of future policy changes, a company will pay thesame taxes and fees as on the day the agreement was signed. For the Ghanaian government this has become an obstacle, as amid record-high gold prices it is planning to raise royalties from 5% to as much as 12%. 🔸 As part of this shift, the practice of extending stabilization covenants will end. This will affect at least three companies — Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti, and Gold Fields — which together produced some 60 tonnes of gold in 2023, roughly half of all gold officially mined in Ghana that year. If these measures are approved by parliament and implemented, Ghana will be able to jump aboard and capture its share of the high gold prices. ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow

🏆 No Gold for a Football Club The government of Zimbabwe istaking back the Inyathi gold mine—but not from a negligent investor, rather from a local football club. Let’s unpack how footballers came to own a gold mine, and why it is now being reclaimed. ⬇️ ➡️ The story concerns one of Zimbabwe’s oldest clubs, Highlanders. It may not shine across Africa, but it is seems to be one of the strongest at home. In 2020, ahead of the club’s 95th anniversary, President Mnangagwa decided to support Highlanders, as their revenues were suffering from COVID-19 lockdowns. No better idea emerged than gifting the football club a gold mine. ➡️ It soon turned out that the club, already struggling with declining income, could not find the funds to invest in gold production—and apparently had little desire to dig it out by hand. In 2022 the club received permission to kick off operations, which apparently never started. The return of Inyathi to the state is directly linked to the club’s failure to start mining as well as to express any intention to renew the license. The first such experiment for Zimbabwe, it can clearly be judged a failure. A populist move on the part of the Zimbabwean President, it had little chance to work out. Still, even though it did not work for Highlanders, maybe it will work for someone else and somewhere else. Independent, Honest, Yours - @devilsbelow

📺 Nationalization that Will Leave People Holding Empty Bag 📺 Another day, another backroom deal over Congo’s cobalt 💸 The DR Congo’s state company, Gécamines hasjust reportedly proposed a deal to obtain Chemaf — a cobalt producer building one of the world's biggest mines — for a miserable$1 million. It then plans to sell at least 75% of its assets to an unspecified partner and supposedly route Chemaf’s cobalt and copper toward US buyers. ⏩ An Indian-based company, Chemaf is building the copper-cobalt mine Mutoshi in southern DRC, described as one of today's largest cobalt mines. However, at one point Chemaf wasn't able to manage its finances properly and dove in the ocean of ever-growing debts, looking for someone to buy its assets. ❗️ Last time someone proposed to buy this company was in early 2025. Then the Chinese Norinco offered a little bit higher sum —$1.4 billion. However, Gecamines itself blocked that deal as it acts as a landlord of Chemaf's licenses. What the Congolese state miner is performing could seem as nationalization — but the already known intention to immediately transfer the assets to another player, highly likely a foreign one, leaves little chance that it will bring any visible profit for the Congolese people. Independent, Honest, Yours - @devilsbelow

ℹ️What Is the "Presource Curse"? [ Policy Review ] 🧭 In 2010–2011 major gas discoveries in the Rovuma Basin turned Mozambique into a future LNG giant and politicians began to loudly promise investments in tourism, security, and infrastructure at every corner. Surprisingly, these were not empty words — the local elites did refrain from looting all the gas on the spot. ▶️Instead, they managed to demonstrate their incompetence in a more inventive way, illustrating an exotic concept known as the “presource curse.” Many have heard of the resource curse: revenues from extraction make the development of the rest of the economy unattractive, resulting in dependence on global prices, freezing the growth of living standards. But there are situations where the mere expectation of high revenues has an already disastrous effect. This is exactly what happened to Mozambique in the early 2010s. ▶️In Mozambique, anticipating future gas income from Cabo Delgado, a group of officials from the Intelligence and Security Service (SISE) and the Ministry of Defence decided to set up 3 shell companies — the Mozambican Tuna Company (EMATUM), Mozambique Asset Management (MAM), and ProIndicus — which were officially supposed to engage in fishing and coastal security. 🌫 In reality, they existed only on paper and were used for corruption. In 2013–2014, the three companies colluded with representatives of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse and raised around $2 billion under state guarantees. The officials behind these companies thought they could siphon off the money and repay the debts later — once gas from Rovuma made the services of their companies attractive to foreign investors. Instead, the scheme was exposed far earlier than planned—in 2016—triggering an investor exodus, the suspension of foreign aid, and a rupture in Mozambique’s cooperation with the IMF. Gas production, originally planned for 2019, was postponed because of the inability to secure new financing after the scandal. 🌐 But there is more to the "presource curse" than Mozambique. The same tendency — focusing on the future resource revenues after major discoveries — could also be seen in the 2000s and 2010s in Uganda and Ghana with their promising oil finds, as well as in other countries. #PolicyReview Independent, Honest, Yours - @devilsbelow

📺Blood on the Blasting Cable 📺 Mine “revival” keeps finding new ways to cost Copperbelt families Two Zambian contractor workers died on January 13 at Mopani Copper Mines’ shaft in Kitwe in an explosion during underground work linked to a blasting cable. ℹ️ This accident stroke during a prolonged reset of the mine. In 2021 the Zambian government bought Mopani for just $1 from its previous Swiss owner Glencore — but as part of this agreement, the mine's production and revenues would be used to repay to Glencore it investments in Mopani, initially acquired by the Swiss trader in the 2000s. The resulting lack of funds to refresh the infrastructure at the site has already turned Mopani into a frontline-like zone, with fatal accidents linked to technical failures occurring almost on a yearly basis. ⏮Independent, Honest, Yours - @devilsbelow🔸

📺 MenuÀ la Carte 📺 The Congolese people offer yet another gift to the US comrades 🤝 As another step within the framework of the December “Washington Accords,” DRC is officially preparing to send the US a list of mineral projects for American investors to take over. ➡️ After the state-owned Gécamines announced a few days ago plans to supply up to 100,000 tonnes of copper to the American market in 2026, this move may become the penultimate step on the DRC’s path toward fulfilling its mineral obligations to Washington. Under the US-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement, signed in Washington on December 4, Congo committed to create a Strategic Asset Reserve — a special fund for resource assets managed by a joint commission. The fund would include a list of projects involving critical minerals and gold reserved for American investors. The DRC also promised to constantly update the fund adding new assets. As Donald Trump increasingly shifts his personality from peacemaker to warmonger, Kinshasa’s growing courtship of Trump — beyond its hope of once again drawing his attention to peacemaking in eastern Congo — can also be explained by a desire to push aside Chinese players who directly or indirectly control up to 80% of mineral extractionin the country. ⏮Independent, Honest, Yours - @devilsbelow🔸

▫️Post-Truth in the Age of Gold Rush ▫️ Mozambique's remote area shows that facts are no more in the age of digitalization ⚡️This week, in Mozambique’s northern province of Nampula the Migration Service detained 5 Chinese nationals and other foreign nationals for informal gold mining and unlawful stay. ⏩ Officials say the detainees carried fake ID papers and residence documents that didn't correspond state databases — which means there might have been created "a parallel machine to that of the State printing documents for nationals and foreigners". Gold thus attracts paperwork of its own. 🔥 This arrest lands inside a tense moment in Mozambique's remote region of Nampula. Since late December civil society groups and the Government have been engaged in an informational tug of war over what the former call deadly clashes between the police and miners in Mogovolas district on December 29. 🏹The government claims the police involuntarily killed 7 people that day in the act of counter-insurgency self-defense, while the interpretation of the human rights activists implies that up to 38 illegal gold miners were murdered. The police in this reading of events had allegedly demanded informal payments from miners, which triggered a violent escalation. Some may see today's endless flow of information as a remedy against clandestine illegal activities or as a tool of bringing unpleasant facts to the spotlight. However, in practice it more and more often helps criminals, governments and interested groups distort the reality in the way they need. ⏮Independent, Honest, Yours - @devilsbelow🔸