KEY POINTS
- Benedict Peters’ Bravura is deploying three aircraft to scan Madagascar’s subsoil for minerals.
- The aircraft can detect mineral deposits up to three kilometers beneath the earth’s surface.
- Bravura will hand all collected mineral data to the Malagasy government at no cost.
Benedict Peters is taking his pan-African mining push to Madagascar. The Aiteo founder is deploying three aircraft fitted with advanced mineral-detection sensors over the island’s subsoil, under a deal his company Bravura formalized with the Malagasy government in December 2025.
The announcement was made during Madagascar’s president’s visit to Toliara, capital of the Atsimo-Andrefana region in the country’s southwest. A ceremony marking the aircraft’s arrival confirmed Bravura will use the planes to scan the subsoil, detect mineral deposits, identify exploitable zones and quantify their economic value.
Two of the three aircraft will begin targeted exploration flights over a six-month period, starting in Toliara.
What the aircraft can do
Colas Rafanoharana, Bravura’s country manager in Madagascar, said the planes are capable of detecting resources up to three kilometers beneath the earth’s surface. Specific contracts with OMNIS, the Office des Mines Nationales et des Industries Strategiques, and Madagascar’s Ministry of Mines still need to be finalized before flights formally proceed.
The data collected will go to the Malagasy state free of charge. That is a significant commitment. Reliable subsurface data has historically sat in the hands of international companies rather than the government, giving foreign operators a structural advantage at the negotiating table. Handing that data to the state changes the dynamic in a significant way.
Madagascar is already an established source of chromite, nickel, cobalt, graphite, sapphires and other gems. Several major international mining projects operate on the island. The Toliara region itself is the site of a long-delayed $3 billion ilmenite and zircon project by Base Resources. Starting the aerial mapping there is a deliberate choice.
Who Peters is and what Bravura has built
Peters, 59, built Aiteo from a petroleum trading company incorporated in 1999 into Africa’s largest indigenous oil producer. Its cornerstone asset is a controlling stake in OML 29, a Niger Delta block acquired from Shell, Eni and Total in 2014 for $2.56 billion. OML 29 sits at the site of Nigeria’s first-ever commercial oil discovery in 1956.
Bravura is his mining arm. Through it, Peters has invested in platinum, lithium, cobalt, copper, gold and uranium across at least 14 African countries, including Zimbabwe, the DRC, Zambia, Ghana and Namibia. In Zimbabwe, he committed $1 billion to a platinum mine. In the DRC, he signed a deal in February 2026 to redevelop the Port of Boma.
His net worth has been estimated at between $3 billion and $7 billion, reflecting assets across energy and mining that are difficult to value precisely.
Madagascar, long sitting on mineral wealth it lacks the infrastructure to fully understand, is watching the Toliara flights as something larger than a technical exercise. It is a test of whether serious long-term capital has finally arrived.
