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🇳🇬What's Up With Nigeria's Oil Refinery? 🌏 Yestarday Nigeria's Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN)announced a nation-wide strike against the Dangote Oil Refinery starting today. The development, that in short-term may strongly affect country's economy, is just another part of Dangote's brawl with trade unionists that started this September. For you to understand, we've compiled a short chronicle of the dispute: 👉5 Sept. - Dangote announced it will deploy 4000 Compressed Natural Gas trucks to destribute its products across Nigeria 👉In responce Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) announced a strike (apparently worrying that new truck drivers will not be part of the Union) and got the support of PENGASSAN 👉9 Sept. - NUPENG and Dangote signed a deal allegedly making NUPENG the only trade union new Dangote drivers may join ... Next part 👇 Devils Below

🤩How To Polish The Kimberley? [3/3] Long-overdue finale of our series on the Kimberley process. As I've said the international community have long noticed that the Kimberley works well mostly on paper. To improve this, the participants of the mechanism went to great lengths: 👉 They reiterated that the process works well and comprises 99% of world trade in diamonds 👉 They voiced concerns and spoke of the need of reform 👉 In 2022 they finally agreed to create an Ad-hoc Committee for Review and Reforms, charged of devising a new, broader definition of "blood diamonds" 🎉 Finally, in May 2025 the Kimberley was reported to be about to adopt a revised definition (though suggested by the African Diamond Producers Association, rather than the Ad-hoc Committee). Presumably, it will incorporate some notice of diamond-financed state-driven violence and not only rebel groups. How this will work out we'll see at the Kimberley's November 2025 Plenary session. Personal opinion: the real change will come only when Kimberley process will be able to enforce its provisions, not with a decorative new definition. Devils Below

Sorry, But Can't Stop Thinking of Botswana 🤝 Recently we've mentioned that the country is going to strike a deal with major world diamond miner De Beers so that state's stake in the company reaches at least 50%, which certainly means they want a controlling…

Sorry, But Can't Stop Thinking of Botswana 🤝 Recently we've mentioned that the country is going to strike a deal with major world diamond miner De Beers so that state's stake in the company reaches at least 50%, which certainly means they want a controlling share. At first it seemed cool and OK, but then I saw this Bloomberg's interview with pres. Duma Boko of Botswana and thought: actually...why would they do this? 📉 The crisis on the diamond market caused a downturn in Botswana's economy which is now 5% smaller than a year ago and country's deficit budget is itself comparable in full size with the cost of De Beers. “We want effective control of the industry, we want our voice to be heard…” 🤔 Doen't look like a good deal, especially when in August the same pres. Duma Boko had to announce a public health emergency due to the lack of finances to supply medical stores. 👇 Devils Below

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📈Gold's Godlen Years We've already mentioned several times the unprecedented heights of gold prices (GP) in recent years, but we've never posed the question of why gold is ever more expensive. ❓ Since March 2019, the GP per troy ounce has increased by about 280% and currently reaches $3,600 (equivalent to, for example, 76.6 minimum wages in Nigeria). Very good for a measly 33 grams of shiny metal. Basically, there are 3 reasons that explain the endless rise in GP.: 👉 Geopolitical crises, against which gold seems to be the last island of stability 👉 The low interest rate of the US Federal Reserve, with people around the world choosing to invest in gold instead of dollars 👉 No one has figured out how to grow gold in laboratories (unlike diamonds 😁) — It is expected that the GP won't stop and will continue to rise up to $4,000 per ounce and above, unless one of the listed factors disappears. Devils Below

🇨🇩The DRC Reclaims Its $7 Billion 🌏 The new Minister of Mining, Louis Watum, has announced that the country plans to increase its gold production, including by developing mines in the eastern part of the country, which is still in conflict with the M23. ‼️ The government says the DRC is currently losing $7 billion — 60 tons of gold annually — due to illegal and unregulated mining and smuggling of gold through Uganda and Rwanda to the United Arab Emirates. — States around the world are trying to jump on the train of unusually high gold prices. Now, DRC is joining Mali and Ghana, which we wrote about earlier. The country's government is counting on signing an agreement with Rwanda in October and subsequent cooperation with major companies like Barrick to increase legal gold production. Devils Below

🇳🇬Nigerian Oil Is In The Lead 🌏 Nigeria maintained its leadership among African oil-producing countries in August 2025, according to an OPEC report. ❓ So far, the five largest oil producers in Africa are: 👉 Nigeria-1,549,000 barrels/day; 👉 Libya-1,299,000 barrels/day; 👉 Algeria - 940,000 barrels / day; 👉 DRC - 259,000 barrels / day; 👉 Gabon - 226,000 barrels / day. Devils Below

🇧🇼 Botswana Wants De Beers For now, let's look at another part of the continent, where a historic agreement could soon take place. 🌏 The President of Botswana has said his country wants to acquire a majority stake in the diamond mining company De Beers by October. ❓ Once, De Beers occupied 90% of the world's diamond mining and its founder, Cecil Rhodes, was one of the brains behind apartheid and dreamed of making the British colonies all the land "from Cape to Cairo". The company is now in a very difficult situation and its owner - Anglo American Plc - has been wanting to get rid of its stake for a year and a half. Among the possible buyers: 👉 Anglo-South African company Ninety One 👉 Angolan company Endiama 👉 Qatari Funds Mayhoola For Investments and Al Mirqab Capital 👉 Indian companies KGK Group and Kapu Gems and others. In October we'll see if there will be any fight over the assets. Devils Below

🇬🇭 Gold Is Poisoning Ghana 🌏 One year since the start of a joint project by Pure Earth and the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency aimed at measuring mercury, lead and arsenic levels in artisanal gold mining areas, a report has been published on the current results of these measurements. ‼️ In some regions, there are huge excesses of mercury in the soil and in the air, as well as arsenic poisoning in fish and cereals. ❓ This year Ghanahas firmly embarked on the path of regulating artisanal gold mining. — Artisanal methods of gold mining are based on dangerous and anachronistic technologies. Toxic mercury is used to separate gold from other materials, while lead and arsenic are released as by-products that irresponsible miners leave at the mining site or dump into rivers. Devils Below

🇨🇩 The United States Will Not Buy The DRC ❗️ The President of the DRC, Tshisekedi, declared that his country did not intend to "sell its resources at auction". ❓ Our readers know that in October, the DRC and Rwanda are to sign an agreement on cooperation in the extraction of natural resources, in which the US will play a separate role. — The Trump administration, apparently due to its inability to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, decided to also try to pump resources from other countries. Against this backdrop politicians who are able to defend the sovereignty and national interests of their country play a special role. Devils Below

🇲🇱 Mali Regains the Gold Remember the topic of the struggle of Mali and Barrick? 🌏 On September 22, the Malian authorities updated seven agreements with companies in the mining sector to align them with the new Mining Code of 2023. 🤝 The agreements concern in particular the mining assets Sadiola (Allied Gold), Fekola (B2Gold) and Syama (Resolute Mining), Bougouni (Ganfeng). 📈 The new conditions for the activity of miners imply an increase in royalties from 6.5% to 10% and an increase in the minimum state share in projects to 35% (previously — 20%). — We've already talked about the long-running conflict between the government and Barrick. Today's news is good for Mali – even if they can't reach an agreement with Barrick, renegotiating with other companies will ensure the stability of the gold mining industry and make sure more money goes to the government and the people. Devils Below