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Brian Menell is a South African businessman with interests in mining, agriculture, and banking. He is the CEO and Chairman of TechMet Ltd. London. [1]
Menell was born in 1965 in Johannesburg. [2] His grandfather, Slip Menell, was the co-founder in 1932 of the Anglovaal Group, one of South Africa's largest diversified mining and industrial groups of companies. His father was the philanthropist and businessman, Clive Menell, who died in 1996. [3] President Nelson Mandela gave the address at Clive's memorial service in Johannesburg. [4]
Menell attended Rugby School in the UK. He holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Pennsylvania in political science and economics. [2]
Menell established TechMet, a mining and metals investment company in 2017. The firm is currently based in Dublin but also has offices in London.[ citation needed ]
The firm is partly supported by the US government's Development Finance Corporation (DFC) who have an estimated 15% stake.[ citation needed ]
TechMet primarily invests in companies engaged in the mining, processing, and recycling of minerals. Its portfolio includes operations extracting materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt, which are pivotal components in electric vehicle batteries, as well as rare earth metals used in motors and wind turbines. The company's investment strategy focuses on either selling its stakes or pursuing initial public offerings as evidenced by previous investments like Li-Cycle, a battery recycling entity.[ citation needed ]
Notably, TechMet is the largest external shareholder in Cornish Lithium, having invested $30 million in the venture, which is formulating plans to mine lithium in the vicinity of St Austell and extract it from geothermal waters near Redruth, Cornwall. The UK Infrastructure Bank have also backed the project.[ citation needed ]
TechMet is reported to have invested in ten companies. Its interests include nickel and cobalt mining in Brazil and chemical production in Arkansas. Additionally, the firm has stakes in tin and tungsten mining operations in Rwanda. [5]
Prior to joining Anglovaal Group, Menell worked for the De Beers Group in London, Antwerp and Windhoek for eight years. [6] He originally joined the company as a diamond sorter. [7]
Menell was Principal and Executive Director of Anglovaal Mining Ltd. which owned precious metal, base metal, ferrous metal, and diamond interests across Southern Africa. Menell and his brother, Rick, retained control of Anglovaal until its sale in 2001 to create the largest South African empowerment controlled company, African Rainbow Minerals. [8] During his time with Anglovaal he was also a 50% partner in the Venetia diamond mine. [9] De Beers' acquisition of Anglovaal's interest in the mine for $600 million was the largest in the company's history. [9]
Since the sale of Anglovaal, Menell has been a participant in different projects and businesses across sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2017, Menell founded and continues to serve as chairman and CEO of TechMet Ltd, [10] an investment vehicle for a portfolio of technology metal projects. [11] TechMet acquires and manages projects that produce, process, and recycle the key strategic technology metals that go into batteries, electric vehicles, and robotics – cobalt, lithium, nickel, tin, tungsten, rare earth metals, vanadium, and graphite.
Menell is the chief executive officer of the Kemet Group, which invests in and manages mining and other natural resource projects across the African continent and advises certain African governments on resource policy and major transactions. He also serves as Chief Executive of Tinco Investments Limited (an integrated tin and tungsten producer).
Menell is a former Director and Chairman of Shore Gold Inc., [12] one of Canada's largest diamond exploration companies. [13]
In 2004, Menell was a founding partner and Executive Director of the A1 Grand Prix auto racing series. [14] He is a Director and Chairman of Sallfort Partners AG, a private banking joint venture headquartered in Zürich. [15]
Through the SG Menell Charitable Fund, Menell invests in disadvantaged communities in both South Africa and the rest of the developing world. [16]
Menell has been quoted in Bloomberg and the Financial Times on technology metals, [11] [17] and in the Financial Times as an expert on the diamond industry, African resources, African politics, and resource nationalism. [18] He has spoken at The Times CEO Summit, [19] The Mines and Money Conference, [20] [21] and The New York Africa Forum. [22]
He is married with two children.His wife, Emma Menell is the founding Director of Tyburn Gallery in London, UK. [23] [7]
Cobalt is a town in Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. It had a population of 989 at the 2021 Census.
Vale Canada Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. Vale's nickel mining and metals division is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It produces nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, gold, and silver. Prior to being purchased by CVRD in 2006, Inco was the world's second largest producer of nickel, and the third largest mining company outside South Africa and Russia of platinum group metals. It was also a charter member of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average formed on October 1, 1928.
Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. By some estimates, it is the world's largest commodity trader, and among the world's largest companies.
The mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces copper, diamonds, tantalum, tin, gold, and more than 70% of global cobalt production. Minerals and petroleum are central to the DRC's economy, making up more than 95% of the value of its exports.
CMOC or CMOC Group Limited, previously known as China Molybdenum Company Limited, is a Chinese partly state-owned mining company. It is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Asa Resources Group is a mining company based in Johannesburg and London. According to the company's website, it is the first African-owned and African-managed business to be listed in the Resources sector of the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market. Asa was founded in 1987.
An electric vehicle battery is a rechargeable battery used to power the electric motors of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).
Despite being a mineral rich country, Cameroon has only recently begun to investigate mining on an industrial scale. Strong metal and industrial mineral prices since 2003 have encouraged companies to develop mines here. The terrain mainly consists of granite-rich ground with areas of ultramafic rocks that are sources of cobalt and nickel. There are also deposits of bauxite, gold, iron ore, nepheline syenite, and rutile. Alluvial gold is mainly mined by artisanal miners.
The mining of minerals in Nigeria accounts for only 0.3% of its gross domestic product, due to the influence of its vast oil resources. The domestic mining industry is underdeveloped, leading to Nigeria having to import minerals that it could produce domestically, such as salt or iron ore. The rights to ownership of mineral resources is held by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which grants titles to organizations to explore, mine, and sell mineral resources. Organized mining began in 1903, when the Mineral Survey of the Northern Protectorates was created by the British colonial government. A year later, the Mineral Survey of the Southern Protectorates was founded. By the 1940s, Nigeria was a major producer of tin, columbite, and coal. The discovery of oil in 1956 hurt the mineral extraction industries, as government and industry both began to focus on this new resource. The Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s led many expatriate mining experts to leave the country. Mining regulation is handled by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, who are tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the management of all mineral resources in Nigeria. Mining law is codified in the Federal Minerals and Mining Act of 1999. Historically, Nigeria's mining industry was monopolized by state-owned public corporations. This led to a decline in productivity in almost all mineral industries. The Obasanjo administration began a process of selling off government-owned corporations to private investors in 1999. The Nigerian Mining Industry has picked up since the "Economic Diversification Agenda", from Oil & Gas, to Agriculture, Mining, etc., began in the country.
Mining in Afghanistan was controlled by the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, prior to the August 15th takeover by the Taliban. It is headquartered in Kabul with regional offices in other parts of the country. Afghanistan has over 1,400 mineral fields, containing barite, chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, natural gas, petroleum, precious and semi-precious stones, salt, sulfur, lithium, talc, and zinc, among many other minerals. Gemstones include high-quality emeralds, lapis lazuli, red garnet and ruby. According to a joint study by The Pentagon and the United States Geological Survey, Afghanistan has an estimated US$1 trillion of untapped minerals.
The mineral industry of Russia is one of the world's leading mineral industries and accounts for a large percentage of the Commonwealth of Independent States' production of a range of mineral products, including metals, industrial minerals, and mineral fuels. In 2005, Russia ranked among the leading world producers or was a significant producer of a vast range of mineral commodities, including aluminum, arsenic, cement, copper, magnesium compounds and metals, nitrogen, palladium, silicon, nickel and vanadium.
Vladimir Iorikh or Vladimir Iorich or Vladimir Yorikh or Vladimir Yorich or Vladimir Jorikh or Vladimir Jorich is a Russian steel tycoon, president of the Swiss firm Conares Holding, which he formed in 1995, and founded the private equity and a venture capital Zug, Switzerland, based firm, Pala Investments, which was registered at St Helier in Jersey in 2006, with Jan Castro as the Managing Director of Pala Investments AG, which is the exclusive advisor to Pala in 2008. He claims that he is a German-Swiss tycoon who has nothing to do with Russia but controls uranium mining in the United States.
Cobalt is a chemical element; it has symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, somewhat brittle, gray metal.
African Rainbow Minerals Limited is a mining company based in South Africa. ARM has interests in a wide range of mines, including platinum and platinum group metals (PGMs), iron, coal, copper, and gold. ARM's Goedgevonden coalmine near Witbank is a flagship of their joint venture with Xstrata, and produces 6.7 million tons of coal per year. Production is expanding at the Two Rivers platinum mine in Mpumalanga. ARM owns 20% of Harmony Gold, the 12th largest gold mining company in the world with three mining operations in South Africa. Patrice Motsepe is the executive chairman; Phillip Tobias is CEO.
Mining in Zambia produces several minerals and is a critical part of the country's economy. Copper comprises 70% of Zambia's total export earnings, and the country produces about 20% of the world's emeralds. Mineral resources are distributed throughout the country. Zambia produced 763,287 metric tons of copper in 2022.
The Karakul deposit is one of the largest cobalt deposits in Russia. The deposit is located in Altai Republic. The deposit has reserves amounting to 180 million tonnes of ore grading 0.33% cobalt, 1.5% copper, 0.11% nickel and bismuth, 0.4% tungsten, 4.6 million oz of gold and 57.6 million oz of silver.
The rare earths trade dispute, between China on one side and several countries on the other, was over China's export restrictions on rare earth elements as well as tungsten and molybdenum. Rare earth metals are used to make powerful neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium magnets, defense products and many electronics.
Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd primarily operates as a supplier of cobalt and its associated products, such as cobalt tetroxide, cobalt oxide, cobalt carbonate, cobalt hydroxide, cobalt oxalate, cobalt sulfate, and cobalt monoxide. The company is headquartered in the Tongxiang Economic Development Zone of Zhejiang, China.
Anglovaal Group was one of six large South African holding conglomerates that had interests in mining, finance and industry. It was formed in 1933 as the Anglo-Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company Limited with interests initially in mining. In 1981, it became Anglovaal Limited. It was majority owned throughout its existence by the Hersov and Menell families. In the late 1990s, it would form into two separate companies, Anglovaal Industrial Holdings (AVI) and Anglovaal Minerals (Avmin). As a family owned business, all family interests were to be diluted by 2001. By 2003, Anglovaal Minerals became part of African Rainbow Minerals Limited, a listed black empowerment company.
China's mineral resources are diverse and rich. As of at least 2022, more than 200 types of minerals are actively explored or mined in China. These resources are widely but not evenly distributed throughout the country. Taken as a whole, China's economy and exports do not rely on the mining industry, but the industry is critical to various subnational Chinese governments.
