Business & Tech News
Controversial Coal Mining Development in Northern South Africa Breaks Ground:
Ten new open-cast coal mines to be developed in the untouched Greater Soutpansberg Coalfield located in the far northern Vhembe District of Limpopo Province. The development is set to supply the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ), a 60km2 China-South African state-backed steel manufacturing industrial zone, that will be the largest such industrial development in South Africa’s history. The development will drive extensive strip-mining of the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve for coal. The mining company MC Mining, owned by Chinese coal producer Kinetic Development, has reportedly broken ground illegally, on what it calls its ‘shovel-ready’ flagship Makhado Colliery.
This action was taken, despite the fact that the decision on an appeal against its environmental authorisation is still pending. MC Mining’s commencement of mining activities is considered unlawful and constitutes a breach of Section 24F of NEMA, according to the civic action platform Dear South Africa. The group commented that the development would “turn the wild heart of Limpopo into another Sacrifice Zone for coal and steel… in favour of foreign industry interests”.
Bitcoin Bounces to Two-Week High
Bitcoin traded around $86,000 in early trade today, although it has since droped to around $85600 a coin. There has been a 5,61% grain in price so far this week. The price gain meant the coin hit its highest levels in nearly two weeks during the session, as optimism grew ahead of US President Donald Trump’s speech at Blockwork’s Digital Asset Summit later today. Trump will be the first sitting US president to address a cryptocurrency conference, signaling his administration’s support for the industry. He has pledged to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” and recently established a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile.
GTC 2025 Conference Shows Remarkable Developments in Tech:
Amoung a string of astounding announcements made by Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang at it’s annual summit this week, Huang said that he believes humanoid robots are less than five years away from wide use in manufacturing facilities. He also spoke of the possibility of trillion dollar data centers and the launch of its RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation. Nvidia also revealed it’s Isaac GROOT N1, which it says is, “the world’s first open Humanoid Robot foundation model” with Huang stating that “ The age of general robotics is here”. Among other statements, Huang said it may be “when, literally, humanoid robots are wandering around, which is not five years away. This is not five-years-away problem, this is a few-years-away problem.” The manufacturing industry would likely adopt humanoid robots first because that industry has well-defined tasks that robots can handle in a controlled environment, he said.
“I think it ought to go to factories first. And the reason for that is because the domain is much more guard-railed, and the use case is much more specific,” Huang said.
Gold Keeps Gaining Steady Ground:
Gold is trading at just under $3,050 per ounce this morning hitting annother fresh record. The yellow metal has been hitting consecutive highs all week. supported by rising US rate cut expectations and strong safe-haven investor demand. The Federal Reserve noted increased economic uncertainty but still expects to cut rates by 50 bps this year, matching its December projection and boosting non-yielding gold. The rising tensions in the Middle East escalated as Israel launched “targeted ground activities” in Gaza, retaking part of a key area after an airstrike ended a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. The US also kept striking Houthi targets in Yemen after Red Sea attacks, with Trump vowing to hold Iran accountable for future incidents. At the same time, worries over global trade disputes persisted as new duties are set to take effect in April, following the US’s 25% tariff on steel and aluminum enacted in February.
Google Cloud Data Center Official Launch in Johannesburg
Yesterday saw the official launch of the Google Cloud data facilities in South Africa, where the company confirmed that their new cloud facility, targeting usage from the Southern African Region, was fully opperational. The investment in the facility of $1 billion, is one of several new data center developments across the globe by Google, who have also just purchased the cyber security company Wz for $32 billion this week. Tara Brady, President of Google in the EMEA region and Alex Okosi, MD for sub-saharan Africa, said that the new facility would improve latency and download speeds as well as facilitate rapid AI development growth in the region.
Markets by Numbers
Currencies:
Currency markets are indicating the US Dollar is marginally stronger today against the Euro, and currently at 1.08948 against the Euro, and has also strengthened against the Pound and currently at 1.29916 against the Pound. The Yen is trading weaker against the Dollar, and at 148.25 to the dollar currently. The rand has remained fairly flat against the Dollar, and is trading at R18.13 to the dollar currently.
Commodities:
- Gold prices look set to break above the $3050 level and has hit its fourth consecutive all-time-high record today of $3049 where it is currently trading.
- Copper prices are also bullish this morning, having gained over 12,8% this month so far, and at 5.1210 currently.
- Silver pices have modulated, and at 33.858 currently.
- Platinum prices continue holding above the $1000 mark, while marginally down from yesterday, at $1008 currently, while Palladium prices are currently trading lower at $945.50
- Brent Crude Oil prices are trading upwards at $71.24 currently, with WTI also trading upwards, and at $67.34 currently.
- Cocoa futures continue trading upwards this morning, and with prices currently at $8110 per ton.
- Coffee futures prices have moved upwards in trade this morning, and at $391 currently.
Crypto Currencies:
- Bitcoin is currently trading flat at $85995, up over 6% for the week.
- Ether prices have breached the $2000 mark and currently trading upwards at $2015.10
- $Trumpcoin is trading fairly level again today and currently trading at $11.06
(All prices quoted at approximately 08H30 – Central African Time)
Other News in Africa Today
State of Emergency in Nigeria’s Oil Area:
Nigeria is facing an escalating political crisis after President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency in the oil-rich Rivers state while also suspendeding the governor, his deputy and all lawmakers in the state parliament for six months. In a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday evening Tinubu said he had received “disturbing security reports detailing incidents of vandalisation of pipelines by some militants without the governor taking any action to curtail them”. He added that he could not allow the “grave situation” to continue.But lawyers and opposition politicians are questioning the legality of the president’s decision.
Tinubu made the announcement after one of the country’s major crude oil pipelines, the Trans-Niger Pipeline, was damaged severely by an explosion, believed to have been an act of sabotage by the administration. Between 190,000 and 245,000 barrels of crude pass through that pipeline daily,” an oil worker according to The Africa Report, adding it was too soon to fully assess damage as the fire had yet to be extinguished. Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause and no group has claimed responsibility.
