News

By Tshepo Magagane My read – yes, balance sheet is stronger BUT I dont think you can price a Tier 1 asset right now. Will be like trying to sell a stake in an Iron Ore asset in 2003. Price was 30/t – in 05 went up to 65/t – think about that – it […]

By Tshepo Magagane Investing / Commodities lesson! Was having this conversation with a distressed debt investor I worked with around 09 about this. He was linking it to investing – especially a question that he liked in interviews “X is trading at 2 but you analysis says 5” …you buy in and sell at 4 […]

By Tshepo Magagane At this early stage is where the greatest value creation lies! You will hear all this, “we only do feasibility stage projects” – know that the capital does not understand the sector. No one ever made real money in mining by coming in at BFS! You need to do the risk unlock […]

Tshepo Magagane Hudbay sells 30% of the project for an implied valuation of USD2bn – Tier 2 project and focuses on the Cu grades in the attached. Why whoever solves this conundrum of these 0.6-1% projects in Zambia will unlock generational wealth creation multiples of what we saw with Iron Ore in Australia. This is […]

By Tshepo Magagane They are no longer there but remember that they unlocked every project you see out there producing across different commodities. Without them the world of Mine Finance is excessively challenging. NB: remember these stats – our team had a book of USD10bn (I am excluding PF, DL, SL, TF here) to support […]

By Savior Mwambwa I suspect that like me, most African policy makers, thinkers and finance experts must be  watching the US-China trade tensions unfold with a mix of concern and urgency. It’s reshaping global supply chains in ways that could hit African nations hard if we don’t get ahead of it. A fresh piece What’s It […]

Most of us know a man or two who is with a partner that society would say is ‘too good for him’. Fascinating concept, this. To look at two people and decode that one of them is pulling the other down and not that one is lifting the other. At the bar, it’s called punching […]

I will give you this eg of Kumba Iron ore and ArcelorMittal South Africa (Arcelor has these agreements globally). With the Kumba one, the iron ore assets were effectively written-off to zero and spun out… …what the steel operations held on to was the supply of this production to support steel (& expansion) at a […]

By Tshepo Magagane When QE started post GFC, the below was our overriding thesis at the HF – note the emphasis on real assets such as Commodities; it is even more urgent now, the USD is being debased (the US is like an EM country that has been taken over by a military dictator – […]

By Tshepo Magagane Sometimes it is so difficult to really convey the opportunity at hand! The average project can generate an EBITDA margin of cUSD5,000/t (DRC will be higher given the higher grades). Now this about when Copper prices start to move – it is just dropping to the bottom line! I have the attached […]

By Ceaser Siwale Background Astronomer Inc. is a prominent player in the data orchestration space, providing a unified DataOps platform powered by Apache Airflow to enable enterprises to manage complex data pipelines for AI, analytics, and real-time applications. Founded in 2015, the company has grown into a unicorn-status entity but has recently faced leadership turmoil […]

Experts with PhDs framed on the walls of their homes or offices will tell you that opening up is one way of dealing with your problems head on and keeping the beast of self harm or suicide at bay. We must open up as men about the things that are eating us alive. Talk to […]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has emerged as Africa’s leading foreign investor over the past decade, particularly in 2024, pouring billions into critical sectors such as port infrastructure, agriculture, and mining projects. Unlike traditional partners such as China and Western nations, the UAE’s approach is characterised by a policy of non-interference in domestic politics, focusing instead […]

Unless profoundly delusional, a man will know when it’s time to leave the stage. Younger, shrewd executives, faster athletes, edgier, handsome and better dressed men in the club or open plan office. Everywhere you look, you’re yesterday’s man.  This is when a man realizes that he’s no longer the bee’s knees. His moment in the […]

By Ceaser Siwale ⚡️ Price Action Summary Between mid‑June and early July, OST skyrocketed from ~$3.16 to ~$9.02, driven by heavy volume and speculative chatter, only to be followed by a brutal collapse: 📉 Financial Snapshot: Fundamentals in Decline Despite the rally attempt: 🔍 Suspicion of “Pump‑and‑Dump” Key hallmarks appear in trading data and community activity: 🧠 Technical & Volume Behaviour 💵 Business vs […]

It’s lost on us just how much damage we’ve done to one another’s mental health. That we’re constantly in this overt competition for whose is faster, bigger, prettier. The male ego is a dancefloor filler, where every one of us has shuffled to a tune or two.  We like to ask each other: “Where are […]

In our sunset years, sometimes sooner, we stop talking. We only offer an opinion when it is asked of us. We take action only when we are called upon. As we get older, it dawns on us that masculinity is invisible until it’s needed.  Look at how the older, unfashionable men come through in times […]

By Tshepo Magagane Why is the a lack of new MRE Copper projects Globally and especially in Africa? It requires historical context. You can write-off 90s mostly for Commodities and Mining. And then if you bring in the dot-com; you will understand how hellish things were in the early 00s. Assets were being written down! […]

By Ceaser Siwale The recent U.S. military action against Iran marks a severe geopolitical escalation with immediate, far-reaching consequences for global markets and business operations. The primary threat is a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for approximately 20% of global oil and LNG supplies. This is not a moderate risk; it is a […]

Africa capital solutions starting to take shape… We just did last mile capital into PF for a mining project; this was local capital! We are working to unlock the Western Corridor of Zambia – DBSA, FQM, BHL, and others – local & regional capital pools! Why I always say, you need for the GEPF, PIC, […]

By Tshepo Magagane Mining M&A, does it solve anything?  – the biggest problem is that it does not bring virgin ore to the market and worse, the ecosystem of juniors being turned into mid-tier single projects and then being acquired by the majors has totally broken down. In addition, capital from Merchant Banks is lacking […]

By Tshepo Magagane Banking is about creating that deal list! I never really got any reprieve when we joined from the M&M team (was sector agnostic largely) but it was honestly deal after deal! People who made proper money in mining positioned in the late 90s into the early 00s – that is when you […]

By Luu Machila I was over 800 kilometres away from home when, just the first night upon arrival, word reached me announcing the passing of my brother, Cheelo Machila, at only 34 years. The world stopped spinning. My mouth was dry, my brain paused, hands and legs were numb. My faith was put to the […]

Men’s perpetual paranoia that they’re going to lose it all might actually be the reason they end up with much less than they’ve spent years building. Overthinking is crippling. Where your business, health, marriage or career is thriving, the tendency to push the pedal harder is something most of us are guilty of. We’re in […]

By Tshepo Magagane Cap-floor-mechanisms – why did lenders stop requiring hedging as part of the CP for Project Finance? Hedging makes money for the provider, not the producer – see the hedge unwind costs that normally go through the P&L of miners… …well over 2 decades including the last super-cycle – have never seen it […]

By Tshepo Magagane Copper ore shortage – the market does not understand or even begin to appreciate how much lack of ore is already there before we even talk about the Transition. 2 yrs back sitting with a smelter operator (who has now actually put it on C&M), he went “I am getting investor offers […]

By Tshepo Mangagane Zambia alone needs USD12-15bn to unlock the independent projects that will contribute to the 3Mtpa Current AuM in Specialist Funds sits at USD17bn – less than 3% of that focuses on Africa. ZERO percent of Specialist Funds does pre-PFS projects across all commodities. There are not new pre-MRE projects defined globally. How […]

Male loneliness is not the absence of people in our lives. It’s the presence of people that we cannot talk to about our struggles. Sometimes we overthink these things. That there is some future out there that rewards men for being men. Look, the reality is you will have to familiarize yourself with your favourite […]

By Tshepo Magagane Ivanhoe share price – why listed equity is not suitable for developing mining projects! If Ivanhoe was another company without such a strong shareholder base; it would be in serious trouble. Now given that you have long-term holders who understand mining, they are able to step back, understand the issue and then […]

Final Thoughts By Ceaser Siwale (31.05.2025) The recently concluded election for the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB) saw Zambia’s Dr. Samuel Munzele Maimbo mount a determined and commendable campaign, ultimately concluding with the victory of Mauritania’s Dr. Sidi Ould Tah. While Dr. Maimbo’s candidacy was backed by impressive technocratic experience and innovative reform […]