Motsepe Company Cleared in $195 Million Graphite Dispute
SOUTH AFRICA · MINING
Key Facts
—The ruling: African Rainbow Capital says the Johannesburg High Court found it cannot be liable for breaking a secrecy deal it never signed. That undercuts a $195 million claim in Tanzania.
—The claimant: US-linked Pula Graphite Partners, chaired by former US ambassador to Tanzania Charles Stith, sued in October 2023. The row is over its graphite project in southeastern Tanzania.
—The allegation: Pula says its secret data let an ARC-linked fund buy into Evolution Energy Minerals. Evolution owns the rival Chilalo graphite project.
—The finding: Judge Leicester Adams ruled in April that only African Rainbow Minerals signed the 2019 agreement; Pula later abandoned its appeal.
—What is left: The damages claim survives in the Tanzanian High Court, which is expected to rule at the end of July.
—The stakes: Graphite is a critical battery material, and Motsepe, worth $4.3 billion per Forbes, is South Africa’s richest Black businessman.
The $195 million graphite dispute chasing Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital has lost its legal footing. The company said Wednesday that a Johannesburg High Court ruling leaves the Tanzanian claim without a basis, and the claimant dropped its appeal.
What the graphite dispute is about
The fight goes back to a secrecy deal signed in 2019. The parties were the American-based Pula Group and African Rainbow Minerals, the listed mining company Motsepe chairs.
Pula shared technical data on its Tanzanian graphite project while courting an investment. That investment never came.
Two years later, the ARCH Sustainable Resources Fund took a cornerstone stake in Evolution Energy Minerals. The fund is linked to Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital and run by a UK adviser.
Evolution owns Chilalo, a rival graphite project in the same corner of Tanzania. It was spun out of Marvel Gold and raised 22 million Australian dollars in that listing.
The ARCH fund now owns about a quarter of the company. It placed its own man as chairman.
Pula says that share purchase was the breach. Its data, it claims, let the fund buy into a direct rival.
It sued in the Tanzanian High Court in October 2023. The suit named African Rainbow Minerals, ARC, Motsepe himself and the fund’s Guernsey general partner.
The Johannesburg ruling
The deal is governed by South African law, so ARC asked the Johannesburg High Court to say how far it reaches. Judge Leicester Adams ruled in April that its duties never covered ARC, which had not signed.
Any contract claims lie against African Rainbow Minerals alone. The court then went further.
It ruled that Pula had shown no case for breach of contract against ARC in the Tanzanian suit. It also found Pula had no damages claim over a licence it later gave up.
Pula asked for leave to appeal in May, then dropped it. ARC says that makes the judgment final and binding.
Its advice is that the ruling leaves Pula with no legal basis for any of its Tanzanian claims.
A licence that vanished
A second problem sits under Pula’s case. The exploration right it told the Tanzanian court it held could not be renewed, so it had to be given up.
In August 2023, a new company called Pula Carbon won a fresh right over the same ground. That company signed no secrecy deal and is not part of the case.
What Pula says
Pula is led by Mary Stith and chaired by her father, former US ambassador Charles Stith. It has publicly questioned how the case moved through South African courts.
In January it complained about a late filing by Motsepe-linked firms. In April it questioned the speed of the ruling.
The ruling does not judge who behaved well in the original talks. It decides only who signed what. Critics of the fast-tracked Johannesburg process, however, note that the narrow contractual finding leaves unexamined the broader pattern our reporting has documented across Africa—where resource data shared in confidence has repeatedly ended up benefiting politically connected rivals, from Guinea’s Simandou to Tanzania’s graphite belt.
In contract law, that is usually the whole game. Even so, Pula’s damages claim is not dead yet.
The Tanzanian High Court is expected to rule at the end of July. ARC argues the issues are res judicata — already decided — per Billionaires.Africa’s detailed report.
Why it matters
Graphite goes into the anode of lithium-ion batteries. Tanzanian deposits like Chilalo sit squarely in the global scramble for battery minerals.
Cross-border fights over who owns the data, the licences and the deposits now come with the race. The Rio Times maps that terrain in its Africa: The New Scramble pillar.
The asset itself has cooled. Evolution has cut costs and tilted towards gold, keeping Chilalo for the long term.
Battery minerals run in cycles, and Tanzanian graphite is in a trough. Motsepe founded African Rainbow Capital in 2016 as a Black empowerment investor.
He chairs Harmony Gold and is executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals. He also serves as Sanlam deputy chairman and heads African football’s governing body.
For him, the ruling clears a $195 million cloud. One more judgment in Dar es Salaam is still to come.
More: Tanzania news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the $195 million graphite dispute about?
US-linked Pula Graphite Partners says its secret project data let an ARC-linked fund buy into Evolution Energy Minerals, owner of the rival Chilalo project. It sued African Rainbow Minerals Ltd and three affiliates in October 2023.
What did the Johannesburg High Court decide?
Judge Leicester Adams ruled in April 2026 that the 2019 secrecy deal binds only African Rainbow Minerals, which signed it — not ARC. Pula sought leave to appeal in May, then dropped it. The ruling is final.
Is the case over?
Not entirely. The damages claim remains before the Tanzanian High Court, which is expected to rule at the end of July 2026; ARC argues the issues are already decided.
Why does the graphite dispute matter beyond the parties?
Graphite is a key anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Legal fights over African deposits, data and licences are multiplying as the battery race heats up.
Connected Coverage
Motsepe features in our wider coverage of South African wealth: the treasury just rejected a wealth tax in a win for the billionaire class, while the battery-minerals race runs through Kenya’s critical-minerals talks with the United States.
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