Madagascar Development

Madagascar is expected to start producing crude oil for the first time within the next 3-4 years, the government said on Thursday. Several blocks on land and offshore to the west and south of the huge Indian Ocean island are expected to yield 60,000 barrels a day at the start of production, Elise Razaka, director general of the Office of National Mines and Strategic Industries, told Reuters in an interview. Razaka said Madagascar currently consumes about 10,000 barrels of oil a day, so the expected production would leave it with a substantial export surplus. "There is a very good chance that within 3-4 years, we will have crude oil production coming out of Madagascar," Razaka said. "But much depends on the price of petrol. If it keeps going up, the petrol companies may start sooner." Madagascar, located off the southeast coast of Africa, is known to have oil and gas reserves, but they are inadequately mapped and drilling there is only at an exploratory stage. Howeve...

Some of the world's most impoverished nations, most of them in Africa, moved within striking distance of having billions of dollars in debt written off thanks to a breakthrough agreement at the IMF. International Monetary Fund policymakers meeting here approved a plan drafted by the Group of Eight industrialized countries that would cancel an estimated 40 billion dollars in multilateral debt owed by the poorest countries. About 70 percent is owed to the World Bank, with the remainder due the IMF and the African Development Bank. "Agreement is now reached on all the elements," British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown declared after a one-day session of the 24-member IMF policymaking body. The announcement marked an abrupt turnaround in the plan's fortunes, as IMF and World Bank officials had been warning that approval here was unlikely this week end in the face of disagreements among key donors. But Brown said IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato would now ca...

It is most probable that the processed nickel and cobalt sulphides produced by the planned $2,25-billion Ambatovy nickel project, in Madagascar, will be refined in Springs, in eastern Gauteng. Ambatovy is expected to produce 60 000 t of nickel and 5 600 t of cobalt anually at full pro- duction, with first production taking place in 2009. To accommodate this, the current plan is for the construction of an 80 000 t/y capacity re- finery in Springs, adjacent to, and benefiting from, Impala Platinum’s (Implats’) existing and extensive infrastructure in the Far East Rand town. The refinery’s capacity has been set to allow it to refine the material from Ambatovy and Implats’ current operations. Implats has a 37,5% share in Ambatovy, with Canada’s Dynatec also holding 37,5% and Sumitomo of Japan having the remaining 25%. Ambatovy is located in the central highlands of Madagascar, near the town of Moramanga, some 130 km from the capital city of Antananarivo and about 265 km from the port city ...

PAN AFRICAN MINING CORP. (the "Company") (Vancouver:PAF.V - News) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an Agreement dated September 19, 2005, with L'Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucleairs ("INSTN"), a Malagasy State agency, in connection with its uranium program. The Agreement is designed to ensure environmental and health protection in connection with the Company's exploration, development and exploitation of uranium resources in Madagascar. Specifically, the Company agrees to ensure environmental protection and worker safety at all sites of uranium activities, including proper medical controls, and in transportation of uranium-bearing substances. The Company further agrees to ensure proper radioactive waste control. The Agreement also reiterates that all radioactive substances derived from Madagascar may only be used for peaceful purposes. Previously, the Company entered into a Convention of Cooperation, dated June 25, 2005, with...

Madagascar is victim of its own success in promoting education as thousands of pupils who enrol for primary school have had to be turned down owing to lack of capacity, according to a senior education official. Since coming to power after a political crisis in 2002, President Marc Ravalomanana headed an aggressive campaign to persuade kids to go to school, launching free primary education, including free pens and books. School enrolment on the Indian Ocean island of 17 million -- one of the world's poorest countries -- has risen drastically, to 82 percent in 2002/03, compared with 48 percent a decade ago, according to latest statistics. Analysts say Madagascar, a vast Indian Ocean island off the coast of east Africa, is on track to meet its U.N. millennium development goal of getting all children into school by 2015. But drop-out rates remain high, with only 39 percent of school-going children managing to complete primary school. Officials say they are overwhelmed with the number o...

Council on Foreign Relations New York, NY JOHN CASSIDY: Hi. I’m John Cassidy from the New Yorker. This is Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia and many other places. My first job is to introduce Jeffrey. Just as a matter of interest—I mean, he doesn’t really need any introduction. Is there anybody in the room who doesn’t know of Jeffrey and his work? [Laughter] I’m not—I don’t see any hands up. So, it’ll be a very brief introduction. Jeffrey, as TIME magazine said many years ago, is probably the best-known economist in the world. I first came across him when I was an undergraduate. One of the great things about Jeffrey is he’s always been interested in the big sort of political-economic issues. I remember “stagflation”[economic stagnation and inflation]. I remember Jeffrey made his academic reputation, I think, on that with [economist] Michael Bruno, among others. And that was a big issue back then, obviously. Then he went to Poland, Bolivia—in fact, there may not be a country in the ...

Ten years ago, Friends of the Earth's then Campaigns Director, Andrew Lees died while investigating controversial proposals for a Rio Tinto mine in Madagascar. Andrew was found in the forest having collapsed and died from heat stroke. This year's anniversary on 31st December is particularly significant as Rio Tinto is expected to make a decision about going ahead with the mine in the coming year. The proposals are to develop a titanium dioxide mine near Fort Dauphin on the south-east coast of Madagascar. The project, managed by QMM, a Rio Tinto mining subsidiary, would involve removing coastal forest to extract titanium dioxide, a mineral used to produce white pigment for paints, plastics and paper. Ten years on, Friends of the Earth still has concerns about the proposals which would have an irreversible impact on Madagascar's unique biodiversity and also effect freshwater resources, tourism development, and bring migration to the area. There is a lack of support for the pr...

Sumitomo (Japan), multi-sector company, plans to invest in the extraction of nickel in Madagascar. The firm wants to have a 25% share in the mining project worth USD 2.3 bil

Exploration miner Jubilee has announced the results of its first borehole drilled on the Lavatrafo property (Londokomanana Project) in Madagascar. The Londokomanana Project is located about 150 km north of the Madagascan capital Antananarivo. Drilling intersectd a 70 m-wide multi-metal - nickel-copper-platinum-palladiu - formation at 37 m. Consulting geologist Hennie Blignault said: “This discovery outside the South African Bushveld Complex is extremely significant in world terms.” There is potential for large regional development since the combination of geophysics and sampling in the area suggests the system may extend over 35 km. CEO Colin Bird said: “The size and scope of this discovery bears all the fundamentals required for a world-class resource combining good grades with a suite of metals sought after in the market. “The thickness of the intersection provides the potential for large-scale mining and the confirmation of our evolving model from the recent geophysics programme, su...

"Education is the most effective way to empower the rural poor to get out of poverty and to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are met in sub-Saharan Africa," according to FAO. In a paper to be presented at a ministerial seminar in Addis Ababa (7-9 September 2005), the UN agency underlines the critical role of agriculture and highlights the important contribution of education for sustainable development and for eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas. "Illiteracy is a correlate of poverty and hunger and is mainly a rural phenomenon which hinders rural development and food security, threatens productivity and health and limits opportunities to improve livelihoods -- particularly for rural girls and women," FAO education expert Lavinia Gasperini said. "Since the vast majority of the population in sub-Saharan Africa are rural, and since agriculture is a key sector for rural development and economic growth, more efforts are needed in educating the r...