COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

AfriTin commissions expansion at Uis

The commissioning of AfriTin Mining’s Uis Phase 1 Expansion Project is completed, the African technology metals mining company said this morning.

Production is projected to ramp up from 780 to 1200 tpa of tin concentrate over the next three months, AfriTin said in a regulatory announcement on its website.

According to AfriTin’s CEO, Anthony Viljoen CEO: “The beneficiation plant is performing well, and the production ramp-up from pre-expansion levels is going according to plan. The potential production of lithium and tantalum by-products is also expected to benefit from the expansion of the throughput capacity of the plant, since these minerals will be extracted from the existing processing streams.”

Viljoen added: “Our team has once again demonstrated the ability to deliver value accretive projects. Our development strategy is centred on driving costs down whilst expanding our mineral resource base, production volumes and product portfolio of tin, lithium and tantalum with the concomitant increase in revenue streams. We remain committed to our goal of becoming a tier-one producer of technology metals."

AfriTin Mining Limited is a London-listed technology metals mining company with a vision to create a portfolio of globally significant, conflict-free, producing and exploration assets. The company's flagship asset is the Uis Tin Mine in Namibia, formerly the world's largest hard-rock open cast tin mine.-Staff Reporter





Windhoek on SAA route again

South African Airways (SAA) will be introducing flights to Windhoek before the start of the festive season.

In the coming weeks, the airline will also introduce flights to Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi, Windhoek in Namibia, and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

In statement on SAA’s website, the airline said the International Air Services Council (IASC) has ratified that SAA retains all its historical route traffic rights, following SAA’s voluntary relinquishing of the number of frequencies on the destinations it is not currently servicing.

Together with increased frequencies to Accra in Ghana, Cape Town, Durban, Harare in Zimbabwe, Lusaka in Zambia, Mauritius and Kinshasa in the DRC, these changes represent the second phase of SAA’s post-Covid restart operations which commenced thirteen months ago.

The airline is on course to re-enter some of its traditional regional markets and enter new routes which remain underserved. Plans are also underway to launch SAA’s first post re-start intercontinental route during the first quarter of the new year.

Executive chairman and chief executive officer of SAA, Prof John Lamola, said: “SAA, as a buoyant national airline, has an important enabling role in the South African economy. Those routes and frequencies that are not part of SAA’s medium-term plans will progressively be released to the council for the benefit of the industry.”-SAA

Twitter asks some laid off workers to return

After Twitter laid off roughly half its staff on Friday following Elon Musk's US$44 billion acquisition, the company is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Musk envisions, the report said citing people familiar with the moves.

Twitter recently laid off 50% of its employees, including employees on the trust and safety team, the company's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said in a tweet earlier this week.

Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.

Twitter on Saturday updated its app in Apple's App Store to begin charging US$8 for sought-after blue check verification marks, in Musk's first major revision of the social media platform.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.-Fin24

Apple production hit by China lockdown

Apple warned customers would face longer wait times for iPhones with the holiday season approaching, after Covid restrictions in central China "temporarily impacted" production at the world's largest factory producing the smartphone.



Foxconn, Apple's principal subcontractor, locked down its massive factory in Zhengzhou last month after a spike in infections in line with China's zero-Covid policy.

In a separate statement Monday, the Taiwanese firm said its fourth quarter earnings this year would take a hit from the coronavirus lockdowns.

Panicking workers last week had fled the site on foot in the wake of allegations of poor conditions at the facility, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers.

"Covid-19 restrictions have temporarily impacted the primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly facility located in Zhengzhou, China," California-based Apple said in a statement late Sunday.

"The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity."

Despite strong demand for Apple's products ahead of the holiday season, "we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated", it said.-Fin24