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Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the clarity that has been provided about what will be prioritised at Eskom as part of government's new energy strategy; the uncertainty that remains on the energy procurement side; the need for clear communication and flexibility as the strategy is implemented; and the persisting threat of load-shedding.

Diversified miner and marketer Glencore is taking steps to progress its decarbonisation pathway, CEO Gary Nagle said on Thursday, when the London- and Johannesburg-listed company delivered exceptionally strong financial results in the six months to June 30. The steps include locking in a number of renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) to reduce the Scope 1 and 2 emissions in its business and managing down its Scope 3 emissions largely through the rundown of its coal business. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Glencore is prioritising capital expenditure towards future-facing metals and not its fossil fuels business. It has a certificated renewable PPA for Antapaccay copper mine in Peru's Cuzco region, extended renewable hydropower arrangements in Kazakhstan, and is progressing renewable energy plans at its ferroalloys business in South Africa. “At the same time, we don't only look inside the fence but we look outside and our supply chains are critical in ensuring that our suppliers and the commodities and inputs that we buy into our business likewise have the carbon footprints not only monitored but reduced as we go forward to ensure that our footprint within the world is reduced,” Nagle told the results presentation covered by Mining Weekly. “We support all sorts of technologies within the decarbonisation drive. We are putting our own money towards carbon abatement,” said Nagle, who reiterated that there would be no deviation from the path of responsibly running down coal. On the recycling front, Glencore is partnering circularity within battery raw material supply chains. The group's record half-year result had adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of just short of $19-billion. A top shareholder return of $4.5-billion was made with $3-billion in share buybacks and $1.45-billion in cash returns, lifting total 2022 shareholder returns to $8.5-billion. Nagle emphasised that global macroeconomic and geopolitical events during the half created extraordinary energy market dislocation, volatility, risk, and supply disruption, underpinning the $10.3-billion, 119% increase in group adjusted Ebitda. Marketing adjusted Ebit more than doubled to $3.7-billion, with energy products the standout, while Industrial adjusted Ebitda increased $8.4-billion to $15-billion period-on-period. Commenting on the half-year results, Barclays analysts stated in a note: “Glencore remains our top pick given its catalyst rich investment case, strong free cash flow and return potential which should ramp up meaningfully over the next 12 months.” Deutsche Bank reiterated its buy rating, and Jefferies pointed out that the record half-year Ebitda of $18.9-billion compares with Glencore's full-year Ebitda of $21.3-billion of 2021, which was itself a record year. Credit Suisse research bulletin analysts hihglighted Glencore's marketing Ebitda as being 10% above consensus, while JP Morgan Cazenove spoke of Glencore's first-half performance being “exceptionally strong”. Looking ahead, tightening financial conditions and a deteriorating macroeconomic environment are presenting some second-half uncertainty for commodity markets. On having commodities needed for today and the future, Nagle said: “We have a coal business which provides the transition fuel as we decarbonise in this world, to allow countries and the world to decarbonise and still maintain reliable baseload energy. “We also have a terrific set of future-facing metals operations around the world, very large copper, very large cobalt, very large zinc, very large nickel and nickel production, providing the solutions that the world needs.” Moreover, the marketing business is being presented with arbitrage opportunities from the dislocations in the market. Despite the higher working capital build, cash generated reduced net funding to $28-billion and net debt to $2.3-billion from prior period levels of $30.8-billion and $6-billion respectively.

The planned construction by Anglo American of on-site solar plants and off-site regional wind farms is designed to create a renewable energy ecosystem that reduces Scope 2 emissions and lays the foundation for green hydrogen production – “a hugely ambitious piece of work, and not one that is completely within our gift to deliver alone”. This was the energy outline given by Anglo American CE Duncan Wanblad, who was speaking during last week's presentation of half-year results for the 12 months to June 30. Wanblad described the planned regional renewable energy ecosystem as an example of leveraging “own capabilities and convening power” to improve the resilience of the local electricity grid and to drive decarbonisation. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) In March, the London- and Johannesburg-listed company announced a 3 GW to 5 GW energy capacity partnership with Paris-headquartered EDF Renewables to provide 100% of its energy requirements through renewables and green hydrogen. “What we're hoping to pull off here is construction of on-site solar plants and off-site wind farms and these would help us to reduce our Scope 2 emissions and provide the foundation for green hydrogen production. “That would not only power our haul trucks, but the other kit that we have on the mine, and potentially create many other economic opportunities in the region, while also helping to support the energy requirements of the whole country, improve the resilience of the local grid, and drive a wide decarbonisation of the economy as a whole, which is today completely reliant on thermal coal,” Wanblad told the presentation covered by Mining Weekly. “This is more than just about energy. This could unlock much bigger opportunities in terms of hydrogen corridors, transport routes, supply chain infrastructure, which would serve not only us, but Southern Africa really well. “It's a big ambition, but we're up for it. The world we're living in is changing and we are well positioned to deliver into that. We have set this business up to be resilient, to be disciplined, and to be opportunistic. We have the assets, and we have the capabilities to deliver sustainable returns. “Right now, though, our feet are firmly on the ground for the tough macro-outlook in the near term. I want us to be ready to come out the other side of this period even stronger and to deliver the metals and minerals that the world so clearly and so urgently needs in the cleanest and the most socially responsible way possible,” the new Anglo CE added. Throughout its diversified portfolio, Anglo is positioned to supply into the demand trends of decarbonisation and the world's growing consumer population. Anglo produces platinum group metals critical to continuing to improve air quality across the world and supplies premium iron-ore to steelmakers intent on managing down emissions. Group company De Beers has considerable sustainability ambitions that reflect the ever-increasing expectations of diamond consumers, and the growth optionality it has in copper could potentially keep it at the level of one-million tonnes of copper production a year. The vast majority of Anglo's portfolio consists of future-enabling products, which exposes the company to long-term demand themes of a cleaner and greener world, with a growing number of people who need homes, food, transport, and quality of life. Decarbonisation of global energy and transport systems will be highly minerals and metals intensive, with another 17-millon tonnes of copper needed by 2040 to facilitate the energy transition in key sectors. The length of time it takes to get projects executed, limiting temperature rise to mitigate climate change commitments is going to be a stretch with substitution and recycling. The lion's share of the required supply of metals must still come from primary-sourced material, and that supply is challenged. Mines are getting deeper, ore more difficult to process, and supply coming from more remote l...

Royal Bafokeng Platinum CEO Steve Phiri on Tuesday applauded President Cyril Ramaphosa's energy plan, which involves the introduction of new generation capacity to the grid as quickly as possible to give Eskom the required headroom to carry out much-needed maintenance on its ageing coal fleet. Royal Bafokeng Platinum is a community-controlled midtier platinum group metals (PGMs) company which owns and operates the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum mine (BRPM) and the Styldrift PGMs project, which is ramping up to steady state. “I think the President needs to be applauded. He couldn't have done it better in the circumstances – freeing up development of green energy and access to the grid, allowing people to develop and help the power situation in the country,” said Phiri during a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Royal Bafokeng Platinum, which released another dividend-yielding set of half-year results on the back of a 4.5% increase in PGM ounces to 225 500 oz, is itself moving steadily towards generating 98 MW of its own clean, green solar power, which will give it energy security and help reduce rising mining inflation. The JSE-listed company is close to completing the feasibility study for the solar plant, which will be outsourced to a third party. “We'll be consuming the power generated and the beautiful thing is that we only have to register access into the grid. I know of quite a number of projects of this nature in the Rustenburg areas, where we are operating,” said Phiri, who expects the cumulative effect of solar plants to alleviate power shortages and spur economic development in the region, “so it's encouraging”. Coming with the solar energy is also decarbonisation, which fits into work being done by the company to draw up a roadmap to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with lower diesel consumption being targeted. GREEN HYDROGEN On green hydrogen being generated on site to power mobility, Phiri said: “Hydrogen, yes, but not now, particularly since we're still ramping up Styldrift to steady state and that is the main focus at this stage. But once it's at steady state, we will bring hydrogen in in order to eliminate diesel consumption gradually.” Mechanised mining is proving more challenging than expected at Styldrift – a mechanised underground mine, with an average mining depth of 680 m. “Mechanised mining does not have a big footprint in this country, where there are very few mechanised mines. The orebody also dictates the manner and complexity of mechanisation. The mining method is there, it is known, but it must fit into the orebody itself and that is where we are finding some challenges with quite a number of geological problems, and that hampers progress towards steady state. “The other thing we are seeing quite frequently is the availability of engineering skills, especially for the fleets and that impacts on the availability of the fleets themselves, and if you don't have availability at the percentage that you require, then that impacts on hoisting. The turnover of skills is also quite high, but we're getting there,” said Phiri. Available to help with training is the test mine at Royal Bafokeng Platinum's Maseve operation. The test mine is a Mandela Mining Precinct initiative open to all mines for the development of mining skills including mechanised mining skills. Still on the education and training front, Royal Bafokeng Platinum is opening a primary school and secondary school on Friday, which it project-managed in record time and which it will also continue to maintain. Mining Weekly: What, in your view, should be the biggest takeaway from today's presentation? Phiri: One of the biggest takeaways is that we exhibited our newest black female chief financial officer, Rotshidzwa Manenzhe, the first in this company since we listed on the stock exchange. Another takeaway is that even though Styldrift is giving us nightmares, problems and what have you, we think we...

African Rainbow Energy and Power CEO and former Eskom CEO Brian Dames concurs fully with the energy plan unveiled by President Cyril Ramaphosa. “I think he's got it right,” was Dames's summing up of the President's energy initiative during a discussion at the Coal & Energy Transition Day, covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) In response to the event's chairperson and mining stalwart Bernard Swanepoel, Dames spoke of achieving optimal performance out of existing capacity and adding new supplementary capacity as being the way to go. “You have to get Eskom working better, and it's doable, it's possible, and you have to add more capacity,” said Dames in highlighting renewable energy as the additional capacity of choice. “With renewables, you can do that in smaller portions, you can do that with the private sector, because renewable energy is investable, and as soon as it is invested in, 18 months later it's useable,” Dames explained. On green hydrogen, Dames spoke of high energy density being among hydrogen's “unique advantages”. Storable for short and long periods, he highlighted hydrogen as being a secondary fuel and green hydrogen being produced using renewable energy. “Hydrogen is very attractive from the sense of the energy density. Small amounts can produce quite a lot,” said Dames, who added that green hydrogen's high cost of production and logistics would, however, need to be carefully looked into. On renewable energy, he forecast that "the world will revolve around renewables, and hence in South Africa we'll need lots and lots of it.” African Rainbow Energy and Power's holding company is described as being the only African company that is a partner to Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which was started by Bill Gates and which includes several global personalities such as Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Ma, Mukesh Ambani and others. The goal of Breakthrough Energy Ventures is to use technology and innovation to provide clean energy that does not contribute to climate change and the ventures company is developing long-duration storage batteries that can store green energy for eight to ten hours. Expanding on electricity storage, Dames also singled out pumped storage schemes as long-duration energy storage schemes that can be used to dovetail with the variability of renewable power to ensure constant power availability. A pumped storage scheme is a type of hydroelectric energy storage scheme with a configuration of two water reservoirs at different elevations that can generate power as water moves down from one to the other reservoir, passing through a turbine. As reported by Engineering News & Mining Weekly earlier this year, a call has been made for the proposed but delayed 1 500 MW Tubatse pumped storage scheme, near Roossenekal, in Mpumalanga, to go ahead as an independent power producer (IPP) project, or as a public-private partnership (PPP), to provide more electricity storage capacity potential in South Africa. South Africa, which is well-versed with pumped storage technology, currently has four pumped storage schemes operating. These are Ingula with 1 330 MW of storage, Drakensberg with 1 000 MW of storage, Palmiet with 400 MW of storage, and Steenbras with 180 MW of storage. Ingula, Drakensberg, and Palmiet are owned and operated by Eskom, Steenbras by the City of Cape Town, and Tubatse would likely be the first IPP or PPP should a decision be taken to go ahead with it. African Rainbow Energy, which invests in renewable technologies including solar, wind, and battery energy storage solutions, has already secured a deep investment pipeline and has partnered on a number of bids in Window 5 of South Africa's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, or REIPPPP. Moreover, African Rainbow Energy and Power and banking group Absa have launched African Rainbow Energy – an African-led, renewable energy investment platform with more than 700 MW of invested capacity in ...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the interventions announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to address South Africa's electricity crisis; what needs to happen for implementation of the new energy plan to start; and when the new plan could start making a positive impact on ending load-shedding.

The percentage that Australia's Queensland government will take from Anglo American in 2023 is set to rise from 48% to 59% at current prices, owing to Queensland dramatically increasing its royalty rates without consultation. Anglo American FD Stephen Pearce decried this as having a significant impact on the competitiveness of Queensland as a destination for long-term investments, “especially as the change was introduced without any consultation with industry”. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Pearce spoke of factors currently influencing government tax policy including “budgetary pressures in some cases and politics in others”, which, he said, are driving governments to raise more tax from sectors that are seeing increased profits in recent years, such as mining. “In many cases, both of these factors are applying, regardless of the economic and social contribution made by these sectors throughout the pandemic, and over the long term,” Pearce outlined during Anglo's half-year presentation of results covered by Mining Weekly. He also drew attention to the Chilean royalty outlook remaining uncertain while it passes through various approval stages, with Anglo having a tax stability agreement in Chile until the end of 2023. “As you would expect, we're actively engaging with a full range of stakeholders, ensuring that they recognise the full value that we bring, which has amounted to more than $12-billion in Chile over the last five years,” said Pearce. “Mining is a long-term industry requiring long-term investment and commitment. Investment decisions are made taking into consideration existing social, political and legal frameworks. “When changes to these frameworks are considered, we support a transparent debate based on the facts in order to make sure that the economic engine of mining is not damaged and is nurtured for the long-term benefit of the country,” Pearce added. Anglo's metallurgical coal business includes five operating mines in Queensland, along with additional development projects and joint venture interests. Its metallurgical coal assets include the Moranbah North and Grosvenor metallurgical coal mines, both with 88% ownership. In Chile, Anglo has been producing copper since 1980. Its main operation is Los Bronces, located near Santiago. El Soldado is its copper mine in the Cordillera de El Melón, 125 km north of Santiago, and the large Collahuasi mine is north of the Tarapaca region of the South American country.

In the six months to June 30, rough diamond production of the De Beers Group increased by 10% to 16.9-million carats, reflecting a strong operational performance and higher planned levels of production to meet continued strong demand for rough diamonds. Underlying earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) increased by 55% on sales recovery and unit costs were flat at $59/ct. “I'm really pleased to report a very strong set of results for the first half of 2022. We reported a revenue of $3.6-billion and an Ebitda of $944-million – and this is on the back of some really strong production from across our portfolio,” De Beers Group CFO Sarah Kuijlaars told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “It all starts with production and safe production, and we produced 16.9-million carats, which is a very strong performance – and up from 2021. We had good operational performance across all our assets, and this is in contrast with the beginning of 2021, when are our assets, particularly in South Africa, were impacted by heavy rainfall, and this year, we've had a really strong operational excellence across all assets. “We're at the at the last cut in the Venetia open pit, so it's a really important part of getting the remaining carats from open pits before we transition to the underground in 2023,” said Kuijlaars. The new diamond recovery Benguela Gem vessel, which come in ahead of schedule, ahead of budget, is contributing markedly to the high quality carats coming from Namibia. “Looking ahead, I think we've got to acknowledge that with inflation and more vulnerability on the macroeconomic environment, there's a bit more uncertainty ahead, so I think we've got a more cautious approach for the remaining six months of the year. Total revenue increased to $3.6-billion with rough diamond sales rising to $3.3-billion as the midstream replenished stocks following strong consumer demand over the holiday season. Rough diamond sales volumes totalled 15.3-million carats and the average realised price rose by 58% to $213/ct, driven by a larger proportion of higher value rough diamonds sold, as well as growth in the De Beers rough diamond price index. The rough price index increased by 28% compared with the same period in the prior year, reflecting positive consumer demand for diamond jewellery as well as tightness in inventories across the diamond value chain. Capital expenditure increased by 22% to $250-million,largely owing to a ramp-up in the Venetia Underground project, ahead of first production in 2023. In Botswana, production increased by 10% to 11.7-million carats owing to increased processing at both Orapa and Jwaneng, as well as planned higher grade at Orapa. The Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers Group have extended their existing agreement for the sale of Debswana's rough diamond production by 12 months until 30 June 2023. Following further positive progress towards a new agreement being made in the first half of 2022, the two parties have agreed to the one-year extension to enable the finalisation of the ongoing discussions. Namibia production increased by 50% to one-million carats, primarily due to continued strong performance from the new diamond recovery vessel, the Benguela Gem, in the first quarter of 2022. South Africa production increased by 20% to 2.9-million carats on the treatment of higher grade ore from the final cut of the opencast mine at Venetia. Production in Canada decreased by 22% to 1.2-million carats, mainly as a result of treating lower grade ore and covid-related absenteeism. Mining Weekly: What are you guiding? Kuijlaars: On the production side, we've increased our guidance to 32-million carats to 34-million carats, and that reflects the strong reduction beginning of the year and reflects our confidence in the longer term market for diamonds. But you're aware we don't give any more forward looking guidance on prices. (Full year unit ...

The pilot world-first hydrogen haul truck launched early in the year, has had some final changes made to it before it heads into the pit and goes into operational mode from August. Meanwhile, the second prototype is already underway, where learnings from the first truck are being taken into the development of the second prototype. “It's important to recognise that as we were driving to get the first prototype out to market as soon as possible, we used existing components and retrofitted them into an existing truck. “The next prototype is already learning some of the engineering design and also the layout. All of that is happening, as we speak. Then we're targeting to have our full fleet replaced, as well as the broader Anglo American fleet, by the end of the decade. “It's a truck fleet of just over 400 trucks, if we look at Anglo American's full truck fleet, with 40 of those at our Mogalakwena operation,” Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Anglo Platinum's underground mines, such as the Amandelbult platinum mine, by way of example, are not as reliant on hydrogen fuel-cell heavy-duty applications, but will be very reliant on the Anglo American group's regional renewable energy ecosystem, which is targeting between 3 GW and 5 GW of renewable power. Mining Weekly: Is there any way that the green hydrogen footprint at Mogalakwena can be extended to provide energy to local communities, or is that out of the question? Viljoen: It's absolutely part of the question, and such an important part of this journey for us, and it supports the just transition that we require in our country. We have announced the first 100 MW photovoltaic plant that we are building at Mogalakwena that will be used to generate green hydrogen, and in that project, we have a 10% free carry for our communities. Our community participation is really important to us, not only for the economic development that it will bring, but certainly also to help decarbonise the broader South Africa. Beyond that, there's probably something that's even more exciting, and that is the potential for SA Inc. to become an exporter of renewable energy. Now, that probably seems a little bit far-fetched if we think about the current challenges that we have. We don't even have enough power for ourselves, let alone to export. The reality is with that kind of new economic sector, I'm hoping that it can create such new potential for us as a country, that we look beyond our current challenges, really drive the renewable energy space, make sure that South Africa is totally energy self-sufficient. It is an opportunity for us to make sure that we are energy self-sufficient as a country, but also create a new energy export opportunity, and then obviously bringing back so many other industries that we've lost over many years, as a result of energy uncertainty and energy cost. Can South Africa's unused mines help our country to decarbonise? That's a good question because there are so many old mines in South Africa. Carbon capture and storage is one of a number of tools that we have available to decarbonise society. It is definitely a potential to understand what can be done in many of our existing old mining operations. But, as Anglo American, there's also work being done in looking at how we capture carbon in some of our own tailings dams, certain mineralogy like kimberlites, for instance, being quite amenable to carbon capture and storage, so certainly, even more opportunities for us, as South Africa, in alternative ways to decarbonise. I used to get taken to a technology company down in Elandsfontein many years ago and told how they would drop mine water down mine shafts from surface and the water would turn turbines on the way down, and, in that way, would generate electricity when electricity was needed. Later, when there was surplus electricity, they would use that surplus electricity pump the wate...

South Africa's 5 000 MW renewable energy storage requirement is seen as providing the critical mass for the creation of a new local energy storage industry that will have the potential to export into the growing global market for energy storage solutions. A new own-value-chain local industry is feasible owing to South Africa's resource base, processing infrastructure and high upcoming local demand. That is the view of Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The head of the London Aim-listed Bushveld sees a mix of short- and long-duration energy storage viably meeting the 5 000-MW-in-three-years challenge set by the National Planning Commission – and highlights vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) as being ideal for long-duration electricity storage. Long-duration batteries support the integration of renewable energy into electricity grids and Mojapelo sees upcoming energy storage demand as providing a generational opportunity that South Africa should not miss. On energy storage being the flexible renewable energy enabler, he notes that sun shines at its brightest during off-peak periods “and, ideally, you want to be storing that energy and using it during peak periods when you're running those diesel generators, which are quite expensive. “Similarly, if you look at wind generation, its peak generation capacity is during off-peak windows from a demand perspective. “Pair that with long-duration energy storage, and you can deploy this power flexibly into the time zones when you need it the most. “Overall, by doing that, you're improving the efficiency of the grid and enhancing the contribution of renewable energy to the grid,” Mojapelo points out. To meet emerging demand, Bushveld has positioned itself for broad-based involvement through its far-reaching vertical integration model, with its downstream business including the construction of an electrolyte manufacturing plant in East London, the development of a hybrid minigrid at its Vametco vanadium processing plant in Brits, and investment into VRFB manufacturing. The company also has the primary vanadium-processing Vanchem facility in Mpumalanga. The minigrid will use locally mined and beneficiated vanadium, demonstrating how vanadium battery energy solutions can provide more local value for South Africa than any other storage technology and thus underpin a just energy transition in South Africa. The project's total cost is estimated at R113-million ($7.1-million). The minigrid project is serving as a renewable energy, VRFB reference site. Mining Weekly: What is the value of long-duration vanadium redox flow battery technology? Mojapelo: The power system has different needs that can be provided by energy storage. Eskom, for example, has identified about 18 different uses. Some of them are what you call ancillary services. They require fairly short bursts of power lasting minutes to one hour and maybe two hours and that's where, again, we're saying short-duration technologies can come in. But there are other uses that require four-hour, six-hour, eight-hour, or ten-hour storage, on a daily basis. If we're talking about shifting solar energy into the evening, or wind, then you need long-duration batteries and as far as those are concerned, we think vanadium flow batteries are the best solution. One of the reasons for that is the fact that within a vanadium redox flow battery, the energy is stored within the tanks of electrolyte, separate from the power unit. If I want to store more energy, I don't need to replicate the entire system, I just need to increase the sizes of the tanks and that's why with longer duration applications, vanadium redox flow batteries are becoming a lot more competitive. The other point is that these are long-life battery systems. They last for 20 years plus, and the electrolyte doesn't degrade over that duration, which means that you can use it at the end of the...

Canadian junior exploration company Tantalex Lithium Resources, which is developing tin, tantalum and lithium projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is looking to raise capital $15-million early next year for the further development of its lithium assets. Tantalex is developing three projects in the DRC's Manono region, in Tanganyika province, and is intent on ensuring operational cashflow positivity in 2023 to highlight the operational success its 120 people on the ground in Africa ahead of the capital raise. The Canadian Securities Exchange- and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed Tantalex is intent on getting Lubule tin and tantalum project into production as quickly as possible. Its three projects are: the near-term Lubule project that is expected to produce tin and tantalum concentrates in the third-quarter (Q3) or Q4 of this year, and which has already secured an offtake agreement with commodity trading house Trafigura; the Manono lithium, tin and tantalum tailings project, where 105-million tonnes of tailings containing lithium, tin and tantalum have been defined; and the funded pegmatite corridor exploration project into extensive hard-rock lithium potential southwest of the tailings project. AfriMet Resources AG, which has to date invested roughly $16-million in Tantalex, is now, as the biggest shareholder, looking to developing the projects with Tantalex, which has: $3-million from commodity trading platform TradeCloud for the exploration planned in the southwest pegmatite corridor; a $5-million prepay and marketing agreement with concentrate offtaker Trafigura; discussions in progress on the offtake of the lithium it is intent on producing; and a plan to raise $15-million for 5% of its equity in the first quarter of 2023. Generating the early cash flow will be Trafigura's offtake of Lubule's 1 400 t of tin concentrate and 220 t of tantalum concentrate a year. Some 10 000 m of drilling has been done across that the Manono tailings' projects dumps, with a mineral resource estimate (MRS) expected this year and a prefeasibility study (PFS) in Q1 of next year. An additional 2 000 t of that resource has been elevated into the measured category, with the rest in the inferred category. The greenfield exploration project, southwest of the tailings project, has 25 km of strike, where 8 000 m of resource-defining reverse circulation drilling and 9 000 m of diamond drilling is planned, adjacent to the lithium reserve of the Sydney-listed exploration company AVZ Minerals. “We've done the geochem work, we've done the aeromagnetic work, and we're looking to develop the area southwest,” Tantalex Lithium Resources chairperson Hadley Natus told Mining Weekly during a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Mining Weekly: How and why did AfriMet Resources AG come to be a major shareholder and supporter of the projects? Natus: In 2016, while I was still ex-Marc Rich, we were looking at the area, mainly around tin and tantalum. We had mapped all the lithium-cesium-tantalum – LCT – pegmatites in the region, and when I got the opportunity 2019, I was looking for a company that held assets in that region. We stumbled across Tantalex Lithium Resources. They had the corporate office in Canada, unfortunately not a big presence in the Congo itself. We have 120 staff in Africa, so we basically joined up with Tantalex because we had, let's say, the on-the-ground knowledge and the expertise and the people, and they had the shell company in Canada. Mining Weekly: What are your production and development plans? Natus: I want to get the Lubule tin and tantalum project into production as quickly as possible. It will get us cashflow positive in 2023 and show the market that we have the knowledge, the know-how, and people on the ground to bring something into production in the DRC. Regarding the tailings project, we've done additional 2 000 m so 12 000 m in total on dumps K and dump G, where the values of are very goo...

While there is commitment from State rail enterprise Transnet to find a solution to bulk commodity logistical disruption, the issue is time, as the challenges need to be overcome with the necessary speed to avoid South Africa continuing to lose out on decent commodity prices. “The State's financial health is directly linked to its own capacity to rail mining products to the ports for exports. It's with this in mind that the logistics problems we're experiencing should not be seen as a specifically mining sector problem. It's a country problem and everyone must be concerned, policy makers, Transnet leadership as well as the rail customers,” Menar MD Vuslat Bayoglu emphasised during a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Menar is a private investment company with an actively managed and growing portfolio of mining assets currently made up of anthracite, coal, gold, manganese and nickel and the hand-in-glove position of bulk commodities and logistics has suffered considerable recent disruption in South Africa. “The problems seem attributable to three sources. Firstly, the legacy of governance problems at Transnet. Secondly, contracting issues with locomotive suppliers and concerns about irregularities, and thirdly the ongoing theft and vandalism of rail infrastructure. “The consequence is that many miners are sitting with increasing stockpiles at a time when prices are good, when both mining companies and Transnet should be making a killing and the government's financial position should be healthier,” said Bayoglu, who answered these questions put to him by Mining Weekly: How have the logistics challenges affected your business in particular? The delays and, in some instances, insufficient availability of wagons has forced us to take some of our products to the road. Our calculation is that at the current coal prices, it's affordable to do so, but if the coal prices were to tank significantly, then we'll have an immediate crisis. Further, taking the product to road is more than twice as expensive as rail – which means we don't realise the full value of what is otherwise a decent coal price. The fuel price hikes already add to the cost burden of trucking. Trucking is also not healthy for our roads as it increases the wear and tear rate. Is government in general and Transnet in particular giving the industry a hearing? I think they have heard industry concerns. The concern has been discussed on various platforms. It came up at the 2022 Mining Indaba. Recently, Transnet convened a meeting with emerging miners where the challenges were discussed. I think there is commitment from Transnet to find a solution. The issue is time. These issues need to be addressed with the necessary speed. If we don't address them, we will continue to lose out on the decent commodity prices. Do you think there is a solution in sight? On the contractual dispute around the procurement of locomotives, Transnet chief executive Portia Derby has spoken about “reverse engineering” to make up for the lack of supply of locomotives parts by the contractor it had contracted. This was done while negotiations are ongoing to resolve the dispute. I believe this needs high-level political intervention by President Cyril Ramaphosa who needs to talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. I think it's not diplomatically sound that a South African State-owned company and a Chinese counterpart can be locked in a dispute that effectively tempers with the logistics of trade between the two countries. China is the biggest importer of our minerals and it has direct interest in the efficiency of our rail system. On the theft of rail infrastructure, I think the government is slow. Out of frustration about the ongoing theft, I once made a suggestion that is not typical of a businessman – that the government should think about nationalising scrap metal trading and put in place strict enforcement mechanisms. But I heard recently that Trade a...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about how Stage 6 load-shedding has led to a lot of behind-the-scenes activity and discussions on the energy crisis; what the President is likely to announce; and whether this will be enough to end load-shedding.

Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo on Friday described the London Aim-listed company that he leads as heading into a future that will be requiring a lot more vanadium for steel and energy. To meet emerging demand, Bushveld has positioned itself for broad-based involvement. “You will struggle to find a company that's as positioned as Bushveld is across the entire value chain,” Mojapelo told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “As a business, we're in a good place for the opportunities that are looking at us going forward,” Mojapelo added. Mining Weekly readers will recall that Bushveld started on its journey to being a vanadium producer when it acquired Vametco between 2017 and 2018. This was quite transformational in overnight taking Bushveld from being an exploration company with a tiny $20-million market capitalisation to being a producer and followed that up in 2019 with the acquisition of Vanchem. With those two assets, it now owns two out of only four operational primary vanadium processing plants in the world. These two plants last year produced 3 500 t, which is just over 3% of the global market and anticipates a run rate of over 5 000 t a year in the not too distant future. These increases are largely on the back of the refurbishment work that has been done at Vanchem, where a much bigger kiln, similar in size to Vametco's kiln, allows Vanchem to operate it a similar scale, which is important from a unit cost perspective. “With all of this work done, we are in a really good position going forward to be generating decent cash flows on the back of improved unit cost performance. We hope that vanadium prices, that have seen significant improvements as well, will hold up going forward. We think there's good reason for prices to hold up. Downstream business is built across three main activities, which are: construction of an electrolyte manufacturing plant, which is under way in partnership with Industrial Development Corporation; development of a hybrid minigrid at Vametco, which will initially supply about 10% of power requirements, utilising solar and vanadium flow batteries; and investment into a vanadium redox flow battery manufacturing. These are some of the questions Mining Weekly put to Mojapelo: Environmental social governance (ESG) has become quite topical for miners, how has Bushveld prepared itself to comply with this, especially given the huge contribution of the mining sector to South Africa's economy? Our overall philosophy is one of beyond compliance. You've got to believe fundamentally in those values around those three elements. In terms of environment, being a responsible steward of the environment, and contributing positively. In terms of your social stakeholders, meaningful partnerships with your stakeholders across the board, which represent shared value in a true sense of the word, and then adhering to the highest standards of governance. We just recently completed a fairly detailed ESG strategy for our group underpinned by that philosophy of wanting to go beyond compliance. One of the things that we will also be doing is putting ourselves through an independent verification process to ensure that we can develop an independently verified ESG scorecard that allows people who look at us as a company to know what our performance looks like. Another point I want to mention is from a sustainability point of view, especially when you're thinking about the environment, it's not just about how we mine and how we process. Yes, we want to mine as responsibly as possible. We want to ensure that in our processing operations, we reduce our carbon footprint, we manage our emissions and putting in place the minigrid certainly also improves our carbon footprint significantly. But beyond that, it's also about making sure that the way our products are utilised, also itself drives decarbonisation. By that I mean that when vanadium is used in steelmaking, it promotes stren...

Going forward, combined renewables plans already in place are poised to slash Scope 2 emissions at Exxaro Resources's Grootegeluk coal mine in Limpopo by up to 90%. The renewable strategy being executed by coal miner Exxaro's wholly owned green energy arm – Cennergi – is the key driver of the JSE-listed company's carbon neutrality ambitions. Cennergi has 200 MW of solar and wind projects at advanced stages of development, much of the megawattage in Mpumalanga, to help catalyse South Africa's crucial just energy transition. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Speaking to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, Exxaro/Cennergi MD Energy Roland Tatnall said of the energy transition: “It's a really critical pillar of what we're doing at Cennergi and it's integral to how Exxaro is approaching the future as well.” At the same time, Cennergi is talking to a number of third-party customers, large industrials and mining companies, to provide bespoke solutions for them. “There's a massive demand for the types of solutions that we're offering in the market,” said Tatnall, who described South Africa's move into the renewable energy space as “a groundswell of change that's only going in one direction”. Cennergi, which has been designing bespoke non-Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) solutions for several years, combines technologies to match large and small offtakers' needs. Earlier this month, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) gave Cennergi the go-ahead to self-generate 80 MW of solar power at Exxaro's Grootegeluk coal mine, in Limpopo. Music to the ears was that Nersa granted this registration in a record 47 days. On local green electron (renewables) and green molecule (green hydrogen) development, Tatnall said: “We really think that this whole green electrons, green molecule revolution could catalyse a significant directional change in South African industry, and be the just transition to enable South Africans to have a new industrial pillar.” Mining Weekly: What does the approval of Cennergi's 80 MW Lephalale solar project mean for Exxaro Resources? Tatnall: It's a major milestone. I think the most important aspect is the 47 days. This is a licensing process that historically would have taken anything up to a year and after the schedule two changes at a governmental level last year, Nersa has managed to bring forward registration processes to under two months, which I think is quite incredible. The 47 days is something that we didn't expect, and in the context of the mine that we'll be supplying, Grootegeluk, it means that we can advance the reduction in carbon emissions and reduction in costs of that mine. What role do these kinds of projects have in accelerating Exxaro's target of carbon neutrality by 2050? The renewable strategy within Exxaro that's being executed by Cennergi is very much the key driver at this point for carbon neutrality. A project like the Lephalale solar project, just one project, can reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions within a two-year period by about a third, so it's quite a significant driver for our drive towards carbon neutrality. When we add additional phases, for example, we're looking at wind projects for Grootegeluk as well, we're looking at potentially 60% plus of Scope 2 carbon reductions. Then latterly, we'll be adding energy storage as well, and we could be getting up to 80% and 90% of Scope 2 emission reductions through our renewable strategy. What plans has Exxaro put in place to begin the just transition journey and what have been the major challenges? That's not just a topical question, I think it's one of the most pressing questions for the country. When we restarted the Cennergi strategy to help decarbonise our portfolio, but also look at the broader South African environment, we realised that we couldn't just drive renewables with a purely commercial imperative. We are really at an inflection point in terms of the way that ele...

High-purity manganese facing phenomenal growth, PDAC hears The commitment of at least six major motor companies to manganese-based batteries for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is elevating the demand outlook for high purity manganese phenomenally, a Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference has been told. CPM Group lead manganese analyst Andrew Zemek highlighted high purity manganese's looming high use in the battery energy market in a special presentation at CPM Group's 2022 PDAC conference in Toronto. Next story, Stage 4 load-shedding extended into weekend as illegal strike disrupts coal plants Eskom has extended Stage 4 load-shedding – initially implemented at 11:00 on Friday June 24, as an illegal strike led to the loss of more coal production – until Sunday and the utility has also refrained from providing a system prognosis for the coming week. COO Jan Oberholzer said the decision to implement and sustain 4 000 MW of rotational cuts was taken after unplanned unavailability across the fleet rose to above 18 000 MW, partly as a result of a decision to ramp down some coal generator as a result of resource constraints triggered by the labour action. In other news, Is it possible to convert old coal mines into successful farms? The rehabilitation of South Africa's closed coal mines has long been a source of contention among miners, environmental activists and affected communities. Numerous old mines were not rehabilitated at all, while many others were rehabilitated to within only the bare minimum requirements of the law, leaving the land looking restored but, ultimately, not suitable for the growing of crops, owing to the plethora of toxic chemicals and metals that remain in the soil and water. Also making headlines, TNPA embarks on ambitious R9.1bn seven-year infrastructure development programme Further to Transnet National Port Authority's (TNPA's) “reimagined” operational model, launched in November last year, and increased efficiency initiatives that are under way, the State-owned utility has announced it will spend R9.1-billion over the next seven years on capital projects in the Central Region ports. The Central Region ports comprise Ngqura, Gqeberha and East London. Next story, Sibanye's Stillwater mine suspended for 4-6 weeks The Stillwater mine, in Montana, will remain suspended for four to six weeks to allow for access to the mine to be restored following recent flooding, precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater reported on Friday. The Stillwater mine accounts for about 60% of mined production from the group's US platinum-group metals (PGM) operations. In other news, SPONSORED POST Strong investment case for country's mining sector, but issues must be addressed There are a myriad of opportunities that can be capitalised on in South Africa's mining sector and there has been notable progress in improving the state of the industry; however, to further enhance this and attract more investment, it is critical that several issues be resolved. This was the message from speakers during the South Africa Mining Investment Forum hosted by Brand South Africa. The South African Mining Investment Forum took place as a precursor to the Investing in African Mining Indaba. Also making headlines, SPONSORED POST Are you planning on implementing a Drone program, but struggle to justify the cost of obtaining and maintaining an ROC? We can assist you to conduct your own legal flight operations with substantial savings Next story, SPONSORED POST Mining and the environment COURSE AIM: To gain an understanding of the theory, concepts and legislation related to mining and the environment so that the student is able to broadly identify and develop plans to address environmental impacts associated with mining activities. In other news, Premier African enters into prepayment deal for Zulu pilot plant Aim-traded Premier African Minerals has entered into a marketing and prepayment agreement in the form of a binding he...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the fresh attention this week on the $8.5-billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) between South Africa and various developed countries; the importance of South Africa finalising a JET-P investment plan before COP27 in November; and other projects in South Africa that may in future be bundled under the JET-P banner.

The detraction of the South African investment market is the uncertainty around approval timelines and the implementation of a deeming provision could change all that by treating applications as approved after the passing of a set period of time. Many want to invest in exploration and mining right now but are put off by timeline uncertainties. A deeming provision has the potential to bring immediate certainty by way of simple amendments to existing legislation. It could significantly truncate timelines, without any control being lost over the level of compliance. NSDV advisory head Mark Gilbert drove these points home forcefully in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly, in which he remarked: “Let's place an onus on the regulator to perform. I don't think it's an unreasonable request. It's a simple amendment to the legislation and it won't be unique, other places have done this.” (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Regulators will have a fixed time to respond, and in instances where they do not, licences are granted – “bang, done. That would bring in an enormous amount of capital,” Gilbert enthused. The law is very clear. You must be compliant, so no control over the level of compliance is lost, while absolute timeline certainty is gained at a time of commodity demand uplift for not only future-centric metals but also traditional ones. “People underestimate how valuable our mineral endowment is. There is so much gold still to be mined in South Africa, along with platinum group metals, chrome, nickel, zinc, rare earths. “We have, with Steenkampskraal, the highest grade rare earths mine in the world. There are five high-quality rare earth deposits in South Africa. We have got lithium deposits here in South Africa. “What prohibits people from investing are these timeline uncertainties, not a lack of appetite. We can propose a complete rewrite of the legislation which will take an inordinate period of time. We think we are going into a commodity super cycle at the moment and that started probably six or eight months ago. It will be volatile. “But we saw the platinum miners last year announcing profits up 200%, 300% 400%, absolutely spectacular numbers, the South African gold companies printing money, so our mines are highly profitable, the environment is good. The detraction of the South African market is the uncertainty around timelines to get all of these approvals,” Gilbert reiterated. “Our laws work, our courts work. The appeal processes work. They may be cumbersome at times and frustrating but if we were to have an absolute deeming provision, it would bring absolute clarity. “If mining companies submit compliance applications, they know within 120 days or whatever the time period is, they can start mining. That would unlock the vast exploration potential and when I say its vast, as a country, we probably have some of the best exploration data in the world," he said. “We had massive mining companies here for hundreds of years with trapped capital and a lot of that capital was poured into exploration. That data sits here in South Africa. I don't think there is a significant mineral deposit that is actually not known in South Africa. “The quality of data is spectacular, so that's not the problem. The problem is unlocking the capital, and people want certainty, but I think we're looking at it the wrong way. It's not certainty of legislation. It's certainty of performance, and that's a relatively easy thing to fix. If I put in a compliant application, and if they don't respond in time, I get my licence, that's pretty attractive. “It's one of the great frustrations for me, as an economist, that we missed the boom in 2008. Post crises, one tends to get huge uplifts in real assets, commodities in particular. We're one of the most mineral-rich countries on the planet, and we risk missing out again, simply due to delays,” Gilbert added.

Large South African gold miner Harmony Gold sees R500-million a year savings from Phase 2 on-balance-sheet renewables projects. This means the estimated R1.5-billion cost of the planned 137 MW second phase solar power projects will be covered in three years. Meanwhile, ground breaking for the 30 MW Phase 1 off-balance-sheet power purchase agreement (PPA) project is imminent. Harmony, which would like to progress its Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 renewable energy rollout over the next four years, is targeting a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2026. Phase 1 is the first step in a far broader picture for the JSE-listed company's deep-level energy-intensive mines, with an energy split of around 30% renewable energy envisaged by 2027. This is what Harmony Gold investor relations head Jared Coetzer had to say in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Mining Weekly: Can you please outline some of Harmony's power project history and why Harmony has chosen sites in the Free State for Phase 1 of the renewable energy rollout. Coetzer: This is a project which has been a long time in the making. The plans for our renewable energy programme actually started around four years ago. We always knew that there was this necessity to transform our renewables or our energy consumption, so the plans really began quite a while back and obviously it's a long time. It's the new science for Harmony when we are gold mining specialists, not typically renewable energy specialists, so we had to do a bit of work in understanding the science behind renewable energy and we decided to go with Phase 1 and put these sites near our Free State operations, Tshepong and the Nyala plant. Those are two big operations. We've got a lot of hoisting, a lot of pumping there and they're typically longer life assets. We tried to align the renewable plants with our longer life mines in the Free State, so that we could get maximum utility from the power from these plants. The original plan was to do an off-balance-sheet structure, given we weren't 100% sure exactly how it would work, but we've done the numbers and we're really happy with what we've seen, and we're very excited that we will be breaking ground imminently on these on these three plants. Who will be building and operating these solar projects? Old Mutual has taken an equity stake in this, along with Mahlako Energy Fund, and they'll be the equity partners and RMB providing the debt financing for this. It's through a third party - we're doing it through a power purchase agreement. After 15 years, the plants will then become Harmony's. They are being built on Harmony land, but they are being constructed, managed and we will obviously have engineering oversight given they are being used to power up our operations. We've started clearing the sites and were looking forward to putting the panels in and getting things underway within the next few weeks. What is Harmony's decarbonisation strategy and how do these contribute towards Harmony's strategy? We've got quite a robust decarbonisation strategy. There are a number of factors at play. First of all, we've got a clear plan to decarbonise over the next few years with our ultimate goal of being net carbon zero by 2045. We'd like to have a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2026. We would then like to progress with our renewable energy rollout from Phase 1 to Phase 2 to Phase 3 over the next four years as well. Phase 1 is a 30 MW renewable plant. Phase 2 will see us rolling out an additional 137 MW of solar renewable energy. Phase 1 is really the first step in a far broader picture. We've also got to understand the types of assets we own. They are deep-level energy-intensive mines so what will typically happen is as some of our older assets such as Bambanani and Masimong reach the end of their lives – Bambanani is closing at the end of this month and Masimong will probably close towards the end of the next financi...

Small diamond miners want to lock arms with all stakeholders through the South African Diamond Producers' Organisation (Sadpo) to recover a large number of lost jobs and to realise the full potential value of alluvial diamonds. “The role of Sadpo is to take on those big conversations and make sure that we not only have the right regulations, but also the right and the best relationships between the key stakeholders, not just government, but also that the big licence holders like De Beers are built in, so that we can grow the sector together and create jobs,” new Sadpo CEO Yamkela Makupula told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video with introduction by Sadpo chairperson Gert van Niekerk.) As has been reported by Mining Weekly, the average value of the mines in which Makupula is personally invested is around $3 000/ct and sometimes upwards of $3 000/ct. Sadpo has regularly pointed out that alluvial diamond mining has the potential to uplift rural communities in some of the poorest parts of South Africa by creating much-needed employment along with wealth. It is an organisation set on taking the burden of compliance, bureaucracy and organised crime off the shoulders of small operators to enable them to do what they know best – find diamonds. There has been a 90% decline in the number of small South African alluvial diamond miners. In 2004, there were 2 000 of them employing around 25 000 people compared with the current situation of only 200 small operators employing 5 000 people. Makupula spoke of most of the communities around the well-endowed Middle Orange River, for example, being doomed without alluvial diamond mining, which has a potential lifespan of another 100 years, especially in the West Coast, and contributes a reported 25% of diamond gross domestic product. “We're hoping with the new proposed policy that is coming from government that we can start looking into some of the quick wins,” Makupula said. In the past few months, Makupula and Van Niekerk have been speaking to the key licence holders on the West Coast and found the biggest issue to be illegal mining. “We've been on sites where you walk in with a licence holder who is not able to do anything,” said Makupula. The licence holder would be with them but fearful because of the visibility of guns. “It's organised crime that is affecting a lot of people who ask how they are going to enter this industry when it's that risky,” she said, adding that current bureaucracy results in it taking more than a year to go through a licence application process, at a cost of about R200 000, with no guarantee of operation owing to organised crime. Mining Weekly: When will the sharp decline in small South African diamond mine operators be reversed from its lowly 200 operations employing only 5 000 people? Makupula: We're hoping with the new proposed policy that is coming from government that we can start looking into some of the quick wins. we need to be able to get to a point where the one blanket approach is no longer on the table. I'll just give you an example where Sadpo got involved with a previously disadvantaged individual who was actually looking for a mining permit on a 5 ha farm. When we looked into the process, we found that he had to pay R130 000 to get the licence. It took him 13 months to 15 months and that was with Sadpo involved on a day-to-day basis, assisting. That needs to go on the table. Our people don't have R200 000 odd that they can put up front before they even open doors. Those are the types of issues that we are having and that are now affecting the employment rate. What steps are being taken to ensure that diamonds are recovered in a responsible manner that protects the environment? Currently, I can safely say, from all the meetings that we've had with our members, that we are not using any chemicals to extract our diamonds. We have been very compliant from a health and safety perspective. Hence, you have not seen ...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about warnings that load-shedding could become much worse if urgent action is not taken, proposals by Meridien Economics and other experts on how to end load-shedding and the need for political will and coordination in the energy sector.

Namibia has the potential to become the Pilbara of new age battery metals. That is the view of AfriTin CEO Anthony Viljoen, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “We've been prospecting and developing tin projects for the better half of 20 years almost and what I must say is that there's something unique about Namibia. “Not only is it one of the best destinations in Africa to invest in, but also the geology is just phenomenal, and I think it's very much an overlooked province that has the potential to become, let's call it, the Pilbara of new age battery metals,” said Viljoen. The Pilbara is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia that is known for its vast deposits of particularly iron-ore. Taken back to first geological principles, Viljoen highlighted how Namibia's remarkable pegmatite belts extend for hundreds of kilometres, both inland and up the coast – “and they are basically blessed with a smorgasbord of different battery elements, all of which happen to be the flavour of the month”, he added. London Aim-listed AfriTin has itself got tin, lithium, tungsten and tantalum, all of these elements playing into the new battery hypothesis. Recent drilling results reinforce the company's belief that its Uis mine is host to one of the largest lithium resources globally. “The scale of these pegmatite belts is just something that we've never seen before. We've had numerous visitors. One of our directors is a professor of geology at Oxford University, and according to him, these are some of the biggest pegmatites he's ever seen. As we get stuck into the historic data, it just becomes more and more apparent how big this resource can actually get to,” Viljoen emphasised. As a former mining operation, Uis has been extensively drilled but historic assaying has focused solely on the tin with no regard for the lithium or tantalum in the deposit. The Phase 2 project now under way is increasing the confidence of the current lithium and tantalum estimates and is part of AfriTin's strategy to bring these two commodities into production alongside its tin operation. Preliminary assessment in April pointed to the potential of these by-product elements being potentially game changing. The construction of the new lithium pilot that is scheduled to be completed this year will potentially allow AfriTin to progress to commercial production phases much faster than a new greenfield lithium resource elsewhere. Mining Weekly: What makes AfriTin better poised to go commercial with lithium than would be the case with a greenfield find? Viljoen: We took what's a bit of an unorthodox approach, although if we were mining 30 years ago, it would be a very straightforward approach. Rather than mining on an Excel spreadsheet, we took the historical data and we reconstructed the old Iscor mine. We started getting to grips with the orebody, understanding, firstly, how the tin and tantalum mineralisation occurred, but then, when we were doing the confirmatory drilling programme, we tested for a variety of different elements, and lo and behold, we actually found that associated with this orebody is an incredible blessing of lithium – and this lithium occurs throughout the orebody. What we're doing now is an infill drilling programme. But what really adds to the value here is that we're already in production and the lithium is busy reporting to the waste, so we simply need to add a module on to our existing circuit and we can be can start producing lithium concentrate, which is way ahead of just about every other lithium junior out there. What about your tin discovery, development and now production, we're not hearing as much about that as we used to? We tend to gloss over that now, but the thing is that the tin is making great money. Just on our existing operations, we're looking at about a 50% Ebitda margin on a month-to-month basis. The orebody is really fantastic in terms of it...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the progress being made with the registration of distributed generation projects; load-shedding; Eskom consulting with experts about possible energy sector solutions; and President Cyril Ramaphosa's six-point plan for dealing with the country's electricity challenges.

The first in-person listing of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange since Covid heard the African kudu horn serenade an opening bid of R6.90 a share for platinum group metals (PGMs) company Southern Palladium, which on Wednesday took its place on the JSE's main board as a secondary listing under the SDL code. It did so shortly after the JSE recounted its rousing journey from a mining tent 135 years ago to a trading pace that now averages 300 orders a second and 20 million orders a day. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Community members, labour union mineworkers and investors closed ranks below the big screen after JSE CEO Dr Leila Fourie had expressed great excitement at being able to list Southern Palladium, which is chaired by seasoned PGM campaigner Terence Goodlace. Southern Palladium MD Johan Odendaal highlighted the newly listed company's tight arm-locking with the admirably persevering Bengwenya community, of the Steelpoort and Burgersfort area, which hosts one of the largest remaining shallow platinum deposits on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex. Bengwenyama-ya- Maswazi is a major partner with a 30% direct interest and further indirect ownership through a 12.3% shareholding in Southern Palladium. The timing of the tide-turning listing coincides with a world needing PGMs cleans up its act still further by transitioning to clean and green energy. Alicia Greenwood, the CEO of JSE Clear – the entity within the JSE group that is responsible for the risk management, clearing and settlement of all transactions in the equity, currency, interest rate and commodities derivatives markets – emphasised the JSE's deep liquidity – “which means that which means that a lot of people are interested in trading the companies on our exchange”. JSE trading operations manager Martin Koch spoke of exchange's trading engine literally functioning as fast as the speed of light and how the R6.90 a share orders for Southern Palladium were being sent across for the rest of the world at a maximum speed of 300 milliseconds. “We hope that listing on our main board is the beginning of another prosperous chapter in your company's history and that it serves as a springboard to your next phase. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial journey,” stated Fourie. “At the JSE, we remain very committed to creating an effective environment for companies such as Southern Palladium to raise capital and to grow,” Greenwood said at the event covered by Mining Weekly. While Koch conceded that the JSE was more technology orientated than it was in the tent back in the day, he remains adamant that its main function of facilitating the buying and selling of shares in the best possible manner continues to be firmly intact. “These are the celebrations that really get to the crux of what we do at the JSE,” said Greenwood, who added that the JSE tam had returned from last month's Investing in African Mining Indaba “so pumped up and excited by the level of debate and the plotting, planning and activities that the mining community has for its sector” – a sector that is responsible for the JSE coming into existence.. Certainly, us at the JSE were very excited coming away from those forums to play a role in supporting mining to reach those goals, to play a role in providing a platform for mining companies to raise the capital and the money that you need to drive those dreams into realities. The JSE is a robust exchange, we've been around for over 130 years, starting out with the gold mines in the centre of Johannesburg, and we are the largest exchange in Africa, with deep liquidity, which means that a lot of people are interested in trading the companies on our exchange. We're also a very good venue of choice for companies like yourselves that is seeking a secondary fast-track listing, particularly when those companies already are in jurisdictions such as Toronto, the UK and Australia. JSE head of origination and deals Sam Mokorosi, who served as master ...

Like all other key industries, mining is having to advance along a net-zero path as part of the global decarbonisation drive. Gone are the days when innovation and financial improvement can be sold on their own without a carbon advantage. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Technology is available that cuts carbon and ups financial performance by looking inside processes with the help of artificial intelligence and deep learning prediction solutions. Pushing efficiency into the top quartile to advance net-zero emissions is in; tolerating unexpected shutdowns that increase carbon emissions is out. Think of ‘rock' and ‘soul' and that will provide insight into Finnish company Rocsole, which advocates the use of the highest levels of efficiency to help the world achieve the lowest levels of carbon. Amid this, Mining Weekly conducted a Zoom interview with Mika Tienhaara, the CEO of Rocsole, an academic-spinoff cleantech company intent on supporting operational teams to meet zero-emission targets. The company's imaging and data analytics accelerate the net-zero road map by enabling improved energy efficiency and actionable insights that also lead to operational cost savings, energy improvement and emissions reduction. Mining Weekly: Companies across countless industries have pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. What steps should mining companies take to meet their carbon reduction promises? Tienhaara: Net zero is so important and today with any type of technology, it's no longer just about going to a customer and saying that with this technology you can innovate, you can have some improved financial performance. You actually have to link it with a carbon advantage. We talk about carbon capture, for instance, which is necessary but also has a sense of trying to postpone activities. We have to do something now and fast-track the net-zero path, and we can do that with especially operational efficiency, push efficiency or operational excellence to the top quartile. That is key in terms of advancing the net-zero path. How can newer and cleaner processes help operational facilities to run in a manner that does not contribute to rising carbon emissions? Such an important question. First of all, look at carbon emissions, the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from two major industries. Energy production accounts for 34% of the emissions, manufacturing accounts for 24%. The mining side is, of course, key here and many times in processes, when we looked at the data created for insights in processing, it's actually one of the most critical things to improve, because so many unexpected shutdowns happen due to faulty sensors, and when you have unexpected shutdowns in processes, that creates more emissions. Also, when you don't have the correct insights from processes, because also in mining you can't really see all the activities happening, you're dealing with liquids and solids. Separation processes are very critical and also sensitive to having good insights. That causes bad processing or bad product quality or you have to use excess chemical treatment, but we're commercialising electrical tomography that gives insights from emulsion layers, solid deposits and solid production, and in combination, and that's one of the key areas to improve, in terms of process monitoring, to accelerate to net zero. How can process optimisation increase productivity while at the same time ensuring that carbon emissions are reduced? This goes hand-in-hand because when you improve efficiencies, that also means that you might go into optimisation, you get predictive models, and when you go that route, you can also see that if you have certain process complexities or need to do some maintenance activities or improvements to the process, you can plan your shutdown, for instance, and that brings you a controlled environment in terms of handling your process. Research shows that efficiency increases also reduce the carbon footprint, which i...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the latest developments in the Risk Mitigation energy procurement programme, what the prospects are for all the energy procurement projects that are under way, efforts to streamline processes for both utility and embedded generation projects and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe's announcement that the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 will be updated.

Sedibelo Platinum Mines, in South Africa's North West province, will be playing a very important part in South Africa's green hydrogen effort to ensure that it contributes to a greener South Africa, chairperson Arne Frandsen assured Mining Weekly on Tuesday. Frandsen is the managing partner and co-founder of the Pallinghurst Group and the leading light of the New York- and Toronto-listed Nouveau Monde Graphite, of Canada, businesses that work in close collaboration with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa and the IDC equivalent in Québec, Investissement Québec (IQ). Together, they are bringing no-compromise green mining to South Africa through sun and wind energy that will energise the smelterless Kell process at Sedibelo's Pilanesberg Platinum Mines, and the North American battery materials platform to Québec. (Also watch Creamer Media video.) In Canada, Frandsen has spent years co-developing a strategy to deliver a zero-carbon battery grade graphite, and in South Africa he is overseeing the process building at Sedibelo's platinum group metals (PGM) operation that is poised to be South Africa's greenest yet. This month, yet another boost for Québec graphite was brought about by Nouveau Monde Graphite and Mason Graphite concluding an investment agreement, which brings together two North American deposits of world-class size in North America. “What it will allow us to do in North America is to provide the battery platform with green graphite for use in batteries,” Frandsen told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. The Pallinghurst Group now has within its fold all the key elements needed for lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells and the green hydrogen economy. “We've been very active in Québec. We formed a very good relationship with IQ, the government equivalent of South Africa's IDC. “It's been a lot of hard work involving a lot of great cooperation with the government of Québec,” he said. Already built is the first part of Nouveau Monde's graphite anode material plant and the starting ribbon has been cut for Nemaska Lithium. Both materials are critical for battery making, and both activities that we are commencing there will ensure that the battery materials platform in North America for electric vehicles will be based out of Québec. Late last year, it also brought nickel, copper and cobalt into the group. Mining Weekly: To what extent do those critical metals round off Pallinghurst's overall offering to the unfolding green economy? Frandsen: Nickel, copper and cobalt were the missing parts. You can't have a battery without an anode, and an anode can't be made without graphite, and we ticked that, and in virtually whatever form of chemicals you want to have in the battery, lithium is going to play a very critical role. You could just look at the periodic table, you see where lithium sits (lithium is the third-lightest element of the periodic table after hydrogen and helium), and unless you start finding new elements in the world, then it will always be a very critical part of any battery, and in securing, we secured the cathode part of the battery, one of the critical building blocks, and, as you have seen how lithium has performed, it has been the sterling outperformer of all commodities, so I think we got that one right. What we missed were really the other elements of the cathode, which were the nickel, copper and cobalt. We spent a lot of time on this. The Pallinghurst team has been ploughing around in Canada and in the US to find the right deposit and in Talon Metals and the underlying Tamarack nickel/copper/cobalt project that we are part of with Rio Tinto, we have found what is for sure the best US deposit of those polymetallics. As you saw earlier in the year, we made the first-of-its-kind offtake agreement with Tesla, which means that Tesla's Austin plant will benefit from the material that we're going to mine in Minnesota, where carbon capture is planned. Turning to South Africa, how much of t...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the progress being made to advance the 100 MW reform and the efforts to simplify the registration process for these projects.

South Africa must reform its regulatory environment and make itself investor friendly – simple. That is the straight-forward view of Dr Mathews Phosa, who was speaking to Mining Weekly in his capacity as the nonexecutive vice-chairperson of the high-flying Jubilee Metals Group plc, a London Aim- and Johannesburg AltX-listed company that is rolling out an investment of R786-million in South Africa and Zambia. Mining Weekly has watched Jubilee being built from the ground up in the last 18 years. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) In Zambia, Jubilee is targeting copper and cobalt through its Project Roan concentrator commissioning and Sable Copper and Cobalt Refinery, while in South Africa, its new and expanded Inyoni Operations is exceeding chrome and platinum group metals (PGMs) throughput targets. In line with its drive to expand globally, Jubilee on Thursday announced the appointment of new South American-experienced chairperson Ollie Oliveira, as well as key executive committee changes under the leadership of long-standing CEO Leon Coetzer. Oliveira takes over from outgoing chairperson Colin Bird, who will be returning in a special projects advisory role. To give focus to its global expansion drive, Pedja Kovacevic has assumed the role of chief strategy officer, and Peet van Coller is the new group CFO. This is the gist of the question-and-answer Zoom interview with the anti-apartheid activist and former Mpumalanga premier. Mining Weekly: Jubilee is an eye-catcher but South Africa is very badly short of mining companies like Jubilee, which was prepared to launch from small beginnings in 2004 and then grow determinedly for the benefit of all stakeholders. In your view, what lessons can new mining startups learn from Jubilee's dogged journey? Phosa: Jubilee was a mere idea at some point. Leon Coetzer and I started with a company called Braemore. We just had an idea which we took to Mintek. You won't believe it. It took eight years of waiting for that idea to be validated. Tells you a story of good leadership, patience, perseverance, commitment, focus and vision. That's what drove us to be able to wait for those eight years and when it was validated with fanfare, we had to go to London in the cold winter to do a roadshow to the big investors, to sell them an idea, a concept. There was no money on the table. I think the company was only worth R45-million at the time. It was a startup, but we had hope, we had faith and confidence in what we were doing. We were driven by our integrity, honesty, transparency and a willingness to put in as much effort as possible, and to know that no one will get anything for nothing. You need to sweat and toil to create something new for South Africa. There was nothing which you could imitate or emulate. We had to create a new example for South Africa, and today I can say for Africa and for the world. South Africa is well endowed, but no longer well invested when it comes to mining. You are not only well versed with emerging miners through Jubilee, but you are also very familiar with South Africa's political and private sector environment. What does South Africa Incorporated need to do to return its minerals potential to far more positive account? First of all, I need to mention that one of the things we do, which I think government should try and encourage, we build junior miners, black junior miners, and we've built quite a few in the areas where we are in Brits. We're proud of them. We finance them because they don't have capital, but they've got assets that need to be monetised. We're doing that to ensure we never run out of feed. We rely on our own feed and the feeds of the small junior miners. I've discussed this with the Minister of Minerals and Energy that unless there's a focus on junior miners, they will not exist. It will just be a pipedream and a good-sounding political speech. South Africa needs to liberalise its mining environment. There are too many regulatory hoops to jum...

The proof-of-concept of the platinum-boosted advanced alkaline electrolyser – the AAE ­– has been successfully completed by Hydrox Holdings of Randburg in a pioneering achievement that offers the potential for South Africa to enter the fray as world demand for hydrogen electrolysers goes through the roof. “The future of green hydrogen looks great and we intend to play a leading role in this,” an upbeat Hydrox CEO Corrie de Jager enthused to Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The wonderfully cost-effective, locally conceived AAE electrolyser uses the latest technology to achieve high current densities at low operating voltages, resulting in excellent hydrogen production efficiencies. Attracting a favourable response is Hydrox's offtake concept, which involves customers paying only for the hydrogen, a potential game-changer in the unlocking the hydrogen economy. The Hydrox team is confident that it will outperform existing alkaline electrolysers and take green hydrogen down the cost curve as Africa's first original equipment manufacturer of electrolysers. “The vast experience we gained through the development of various innovative electrolysis systems has been of major benefit,” said De Jager. Hydrox engineers designed the AAE system from the ground up, using state-of-the-art components. More than 70% of the electrolyser is locally manufactured/sourced, a local content that will undoubtedly increase once a South African hydrogen supply chain is in place. De Jager hailed the commitment of mining company Anglo American to reach carbon neutrality through the replacement of its mining fleet with hydrogen fuel cell trucks, an area in which Hydrox sees itself playing a major role as a preferred supplier of electrolysis systems, at a time when electrolysers are being imported as fully manufactured units. While established global electrolyser manufacturers are focused on the large 3 MW-plus systems, the focus of Hydrox is on a fully containerised 1 MW system, which simplifies installation and deployment, especially in remote areas. With the single biggest factor influencing the price of hydrogen remaining the cost of electricity, access to renewable energy will have major price and greenness benefits for the AAE unit. At an electricity price of R0.50 kWh, Hydrox is confident that its electrolyser will generate hydrogen at a cost of US$3/kg, giving clients with curtailed or excess renewable energy the ability to store such energy as hydrogen. EXPANSION AND JOB CREATION The next step for Hydrox is AAE's scale up to larger sizes, which implies increasing its own capacities and employing specialised engineering firms to complete full system engineering processes. This will be followed by the commissioning of 100 kg/day, 200 kg/day and 400 kg/day units. “We foresee huge expansion and job creation possibilities,” said De Jager, with the prospect of Hydrox technology being licenced to facilitate roll-out in other countries. Moreover, the operational and maintenance requirements of AAE electrolysers will create further opportunities. AWARD-WINNING TECHNOLOGY Hydrox became known to the scientific community by developing the world's first totally membraneless electrolysis system. However, further development of the award-winning Shell-funded DEFTTM hydrogen technology was temporarily halted, owing to a lack of financial resources as well as the urgent need to focus on the completion of the AAE. But with global interest in DEFTTM resurging once more, Hydrox is in talks with various parties to fast track its development once more. Hydrox is confident that it will be able to slash 25% off the produced cost of hydrogen by moving to higher temperature operation of 200 °C and 250 °C, allowing for better usage of power and heat inputs, and thus targeting higher production efficiencies. Current electrolysis systems can waste up to 40% of the electrical input through heat production and removal. As a privately funded company Hydr...

Several reports published during Platinum Week indicate that in 2021, platinum jewellery consumed anywhere between 1.6-million ounces to two-million ounces of platinum, which makes it still the second demand source after automotive, coming in at around 25% of total platinum demand. Positive momentum for platinum jewellery is being maintained in the US, which shone like a star in 2021, and Japan, where platinum jewellery commands more than half of all jewellery sales. This year, US and Japan are already above pre-covid levels, exceeding 2029 data in terms of total ounce consumption – and India has seen quite strong V-shaped post-covid recoveries. In those three markets, continued 2022 strengthening is in sight, with only China the big concern. “We expect China to remain in negative territory, unfortunately,” Platinum Guild International CEO Huw Daniel told Mining Weekly during a Zoom interview, but India is seen as having considerable potential. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) "India is a very, very exciting market. That saying ‘don't put all your eggs in one basket' is a good thing here. When we see China demand continuing to be soft, it's really important that we're doing what we can in India, because that really is the next frontier for platinum," said Daniel. Platinum Guild International has contributed more than 80-million ounces of platinum demand since being established in 1975 by first identifying opportunities for platinum in jewellery and then develops them with partners. “It's interesting, when you come to something like Platinum Week, there's obviously a lot of energy around auto, a lot of energy around hydrogen, and what I would say is 'that's all very well, but platinum jewellery demand is demand in the hand, today and tomorrow'. “When it's very important that the industry plans for the next generation of demand, let's not forget that we already have 25% of platinum demand coming from jewellery, and that doesn't happen automatically. “Our sponsors have been amazingly committed to platinum, led by Anglo American and Impala Platinum, with contributions also from Northam and Royal Bafokeng. “Those four companies really have stuck by us, and I would just say there's so much potential for platinum in the jewellery space. The world needs a high quality pure white precious metal, there's a market for that, and it's up to us to develop it,” Daniel emphasised. Platinum Guild International's just-released 2021 report shows that platinum is continuing to create sustainable business for jewellery brands. During height of the pandemic, in those markets that did not experience a complete lockdown, platinum was able to benefit from the significant shift in consumer spending towards watches and jewellery. In addition, the platinum price is in a favourable position compared with gold, certainly for Western and developed markets, not so much for China. “The Chinese really need to see a bull market when it comes to the price of platinum for them to really get in there and commit to it. But certainly in the US, Japan we've not seen such favourable pricing for a while, so there has been quite a bit of substitution of platinum for 18 carat gold, which is our main competitor in those markets,” said Daniel. To boost demand still further, Platinum Guild International is working with the bigger players who are the market makers. “We find we get a lot of traction when we partner very closely with these big companies and get their C suites to focus on platinum,” said Daniel. “The main brands are the retailers, so we've made a concerted effort to leverage branded collections as a way to offer retailers a product that's differentiated and a product that's got a story,“ he said. A In China, Platinum Guild International has pivoted upstream to work more closely with the jewellery industry to promote faster innovation. In Japan, where it is highly dependent on an aging consumer base, it has made concerted efforts in the last couple ...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about whether the steel master plan is delivering; the lack of demand that is negatively impacting on the industry and how localisation could help to boost demand; and the electricity supply and rail and port challenges that remain key areas of concern for the industry.

"My genuine sense is that we are going to see a growth in the mining sector of an order of magnitude we haven't seen. "I also think that we're going to find that the need for minerals is going to force the world to think that if we can't get minerals on our shore, where else do we get them from? "When we think about the electric vehicles and their batteries, we are thinking about as much as 30 years of supply of matters based on today's demand. "When we started to industrialise, we started with people being poor, and as we became more affluent, demand grew. "We are affluent now. We want and can afford our cars now. We want and can afford our appliances now. We just want them wired differently. "This is demand of the order of magnitude we have never seen and therefore it is unlikely that we have enough minerals to meet that demand. So, the question of where else do we find them is the biggest question that we have yet to answer." These are the words of Sheila Khama, a nonexecutive director at Tullow Oil plc (FTSE 250) and The Metals Company (NASDAQ), and former CEO of De Beers Botswana, former director of Debswana, and former policy extractives adviser at the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Khama spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Included in her in-depth responses were: the need for Africa to step up minerals exploration; the need to counter the perception that the regulatory environments are unstable and therefore unattractive for miners who take a long view; the need for Africa to benefit by being part of the ripple effect that the new critical mineral economic wave has the potential to generate. Khama foresees that for some African countries, the benefit will be from scale-up rather than a change of direction, while for others, it has the potential to be nigh transformational. These are the questions and responses. Mining Weekly: Firstly, what do we mean by critical minerals? Khama: I think this is an important question to answer because it's not self-evident. When we speak about critical minerals, we are talking about metallic substances whose supply is critical to a particular industrial innovation or particular industrial development phase, in our economic development. We mean that for us to achieve that end state industrially, the contribution of those minerals is central. That's basically what we mean by a mineral being critical. It is not inherent, and it is not in the nature of any one specific mineral. What is the difference between critical minerals and rare earth elements? When you listen to some, they use critical minerals and rare earths as being interchangeable. The first thing is that they're not, though they're also not mutually exclusive. You could have some rare earth elements that are critical to some development, but rare earths themselves really are part of if you think about your school days, the periodic table and they sit in the purple space. They are rare, not because they are rare in their occurrence, but they are rare because they very rarely occur in economically feasible quantities, and they include substances like plutonium, and they tend also to have certain qualities like being magnetic and have certain applications that are strategic, but they are not necessarily all critical in nature. So, does this mean that minerals are not inherently critical? Yes, it means that minerals are not inherently critical. It means that the critical nature of minerals is driven by demand and sometimes scarcity, and sometimes technological trends that suddenly put that mineral at the centre of industrialisation. For instance, in our time, minerals like nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium are critical for the decarbonisation of the world's economy because they're critical to the manufacturing of batteries to store energy. They have become critical because we made a decision to move away and then somebody innovated. If this innovation changes, a...

Lack of expertise about getting giga-scale hydrogen projects off the ground is a big problem in the industry, say Allen & Overy South Africa's Alessandra Pardini and Alexandra Cluver, who believe they know how best it should be done from experience gained through project managing three of the world's largest green hydrogen projects. Mining Weekly can report that all three of the projects referenced are in the Middle East. These are projects that Allen & Overy teams in the Middle East have been working on, in terms of bringing green hydrogen to market. As a firm, Allen & Overy is involved globally in a number of green hydrogen efforts, including projects that have taken place and are in process across Europe and now in America and Australia. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) As global appetite for giga-scale green hydrogen projects grows, the business risks associated with getting this promising industry out of the starting blocks are considerable. Still, they believe that green hydrogen has the potential to transform many sectors, including shipping, aviation and power generation. “This is thanks to its long-distance transportability from warm and windy locations like South Africa, to energy-hungry markets such as Europe who are at the forefront of exploring its potential as a climate-friendly energy source,” Pardini and Cluver state in a release to Mining Weekly. “It's an incredibly exciting time to be involved in the green hydrogen industry, but in order for it to reach meaningful global scale, as it should, it's necessary to address some of its start-up challenges,” they say, adding that it is absolutely vital to prepare a solid go-to-market strategy that tailors procurement processes to meet the demands of bankers, equity investors, offtakers and other key stakeholders. They believe the starting points should centre on whether or not the green hydrogen/ammonia plants should be built under a single engineering, procurement and construction contract or under multiple contracts, the manner of tailoring the required procurement processes and ascertaining the plant's long lead items. HOW TO FINANCE GREEN HYDROGEN They foresee giga-scale projects in the nascent sector more than likely involving multi-sourced financing, in which commercial banks combine with development finance institutions and export credit agencies. “It is necessary to put clear thought into how those parties will come together to serve the best interests of the project. “It is also necessary to put careful thought into the greater business and financial plan of the project, especially considering that most such projects take several years to become fully operational and a clear revenue strategy is critical in order to ensure that it is bankable,” they emphasise. ADVISORY TEAM BUILDING Giga-scale projects, they point out, require the best global expertise as well as local depth of knowledge. On green hydrogen, they say: “It's a new industry – real expertise out there is limited and one wants to work with experts who really know what they are talking about in terms of international requirements and local nuances. Also seen as crucial is solid regulatory advice to ensure that the project meets global green energy standards but – very importantly – also bring in advice on project development aspects such as procurement and construction, and project finance aspects such as banking, investment and funding models. OFFTAKE STRATEGIES AND AGREEMENTS Pardini and Cluver point to the importance of the structuring of any large-scale energy project being right from the get-go and place emphasis on the ultimate buyer of the green hydrogen and green ammonia and how the buyer intends to use the products. “Not all hydrogen is made equal. What is the offtake strategy and who is the offtaker? What is legally possible to achieve within the budget, timeframe, business plan and available resources?,” they ask. Unlike ‘brown hydrogen' produced from fossil fuels, ‘grey hyd...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the outlook for load-shedding this winter, why the electricity system is in a precarious state, power utility Eskom's heavy reliance on its open-cycle gas turbine plants and the utility's calls for additional generation capacity.

South Africa would do well to highlight its key iridium supply status to gain the full confidence of a world that requires this very rare platinum group metal (PGM) to advance the fast-moving hydrogen economy. Iridium is a potent co-roleplayer with PGMs stalwart platinum when it comes to electrolysing hydrogen from water. Because of South Africa's solar power potential, land availability and PGM endowments, SFA Oxford CEO Henk de Hoop expresses the view that the country should raise its flag to highlight the key role it can play in fostering global decarbonisation. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) De Hoop, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, believes that South Africa could play a leading role in getting the first big green hydrogen projects off the ground, particularly against the background of the long grey hydrogen track record of technology-smart South African synthetic fuel producer Sasol. Money, he says, is available for hydrogen development and South Africa, he believes, should strive to be at the front of the green funding queue. Scale, he emphasises, will eventually ensure the competitiveness of the now costly green hydrogen and he sees advantage in South Africa Incorporated participating in hydrogen development at pace. Mining Weekly: Do you detect an acceleration in the momentum of the hydrogen economy? De Hoop: Absolutely, and we shouldn't underestimate the capital and the broadness of the capital that is now being committed to making it all happen. I guess in the past the focus was very much on fuel cells and the future of fuel cells, but it has moved a lot now into the production of electrolysers and the production of hydrogen from those electrolysers – and that has become a lot more exciting for particularly the PGMs sector because we need some very critical materials for that to happen. Iridium is one of them and there are very few places in the world where you find iridium. As with many other minerals, South Africa is blessed with unique resources and will be a key source of iridium. So yes, we're seeing lots of momentum behind the green hydrogen economy – and one can see that in the capital budgets that have been committed, in the subsidies committed by governments, and the money being committed by companies to make this happen. There have been a whole range of exciting announcements and it's quite difficult to keep track. Is it important in your view that the world should be focused on green hydrogen that makes use of renewables? Yes, but I think we should also be realistic about the size of the challenge. Green hydrogen, ideally, is obviously generated from either hydropower or solar power or wind power, and hydrogen production from the green energy is one aspect. I think the focus should initially be more on access to hydrogen in the first place because that moves development away from the chicken-and-egg situation. We need hydrogen first before we can commit to technologies, and I think we've started to get there. There are a lot of commitments being made to see what processes can be run on hydrogen, even if, in the short term, it's from grey hydrogen, for example. Once proven, the next stage will be ramping up green hydrogen production to the scales required. The big challenge for green hydrogen, in the short term, is cost. Producing other colours of hydrogen is still a lot cheaper but the technologies for those hydrogen consumption patterns to emerge are ramping up quite quickly, and I think the volumes of demand will ramp up quite quickly and that will, in turn, help the green hydrogen economy to develop. Which countries are furthest advanced when it comes to green hydrogen? We see particularly Western Europe putting real capital in the ground, providing subsidies, putting lots of big windmills out in the Atlantic to make it all happen. The reality is that the scale of the challenge is still very large. It's a long, long road. It needs an enormous amount of capital but it's als...

Coordinated industry intervention is required to create sustainable platinum group metals (PGM) markets, with hydrogen key for platinum in the long term, said outgoing SFA Oxford head Stephen Forrest in a swansong address. “Promote PGMs heavily as platinum's structural surplus helps adoption and will unlock mission critical iridium and ruthenium supply too,” Forrest told the 2022 PGMs Industry Day covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Other key points highlighted by Forrest in his keynote address included: Africa's solar energy potential providing the continent with a great opportunity to adopt a low emissions policy and be the model to the world; non-negotiable net-zero policies being implemented regardless of cost, and despite their impact on gross domestic product (GDP); the essential need to address, on a global scale, the pressing issue of deteriorating air quality and decarbonisation; the overall number of internal combustion engine vehicles being poised to continue to increase over the next decade, with corresponding growth in PGM demand; platinum, ruthenium, iridium being highlighted as the mission-critical metals for hydrogen production and fuel cell deployment, but ruthenium and iridium are not at the forefront of mine planning, which raises the question of whether there will be sufficient supply of these metals in the future; rising global data storage requirements, such as cloud storage at data centres, being poised to lift demand for hard disk drives, and thus platinum use in electrical devices; longer-term platinum demand being projected to increase steadily to 2050, with expanding silicone production in China, and the rest of the world continuing to raise catalyst requirements in the chemicals sector; the huge uncertainty around the rate and speed of penetration of electric vehicles and potential growing demand for hybrid vehicles requiring PGMS begging the question of whether there will be sufficient rhodium to service the hybrids; rhodium supplies being on the way towards halving by 2050, when it is estimated that there will still be 44-million vehicles requiring PGMs; even with lower hydrogen market demand than expected, the platinum market still being potentially in deficit, owing to the decline in production; many of today's PGM mines being exhausted by 2050, with implications for associated processing infrastructure and jobs; South Africa's northern limb of the Bushveld Complex and Russia being poised to make up tomorrow's PGM's supply base, given the high palladium content of their ore; and Russia becoming the largest producer of all PGMS by 2050. SFA Oxford has been able to draw on its 20 years of in-depth industry experience to identify the important future trends, which enabled the company to state that, from the middle of this decade, unless new projects come on stream, mine depletion means that primary supply will contract and secondary supply from recycling will be insufficient to avoid a significant deficit by 2050. AUTOMOTIVE EMISSIONS Automotive emissions legislation was described as remaining positive for PGMS in the nearer term. Tightening emission standards will be key to the continued acceptance of the internal combustion engine and hence the use of PGMS in autocatalysis. In the mid to the late 2020s, the catch up in emission standards in some of the less well-developed regions, offers some cushion for PGM-based autocatalysis against the migration from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles. Globally, there is a clear timeline to roll out tighter emissions legislation as much more stringent future emission standards are now under discussion, a reference to Euro 7. Whatever the outcome of legislation, personal mobility will continue to be a non-negotiable requirement across all regions of the world. Looking further out at the types of vehicles that we will be driving, helps us to see the future shape of PGM markets. To address the pressing issue o...

Platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company Northam Platinum displayed graphs during Thursday's presentation of half-year results, which indicate that PGMs supply is on a hiding to nothing on the way to 2040. “There's a systematic global primary supply problem and the scarcity of both new PGM resources and new mining projects will bite hard,” Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne warned during the presentation of results covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The graphs focus on primary mining supply of platinum, palladium and rhodium across the next 18 years. “For platinum, we forecast continuing contractions in supply over this period,” he said. (Also see attached image.) “For palladium, we forecast essentially flat supply through to 2027, and for rhodium, we forecast a very similar profile to that of platinum. “This bottom-up analysis has been constructed on a shaft-by-shaft, half-level by half-level basis, from resources through to reserves and then finally through to final production, and includes all announced projects,” Dunne said. In displaying the slides, Dunne highlighted that Northam's view of the future of PGMs differed from what is understood to be the current market consensus, contending that the dearth of mining investment over the past decade would have supply consequences. He did so in the same week as 17-page analysis by independent precious metals consultant Dr David Davis pointed to China's importation of platinum having shifted the platinum's supply balance into deficit – even though a platinum surplus continues to be assumed across a broad front. Speaking to journalists during a media roundtable in which Mining Weekly participated, Northam expounded what it also described as a non-consensus view: “We do not hold the view that internal combustion engines (ICE) will be replaced by battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Let me say it absolutely bluntly. Internal combustion engines of one form or another will be around across the world for many decades to come. “On that basis – it's like a double-edged sword in a way – we acknowledge that BEVs have a role to play. However, we do not believe they will completely replace the ICE. What that means is, if you do produce an ICE, or a hybrid ICE, it must be clean. The public and the social environment across the world will not accept less than optimal exhaust solutions,” he said. He spoke of one hybrid vehicle range “literally running on thin air” of five litres of fuel per 100 kilometres travelled. “It's incredibly efficient, and I think the list price is somewhere around R420 000. It's a very, very cost-effective motor car, both from a capital point of view and on running costs. “On that basis, we do not believe that we're at peak PGM, as some people have portrayed. In our analysis, hybrids will do very well, and on that basis, PGMs are absolutely essential. We see strong demand into the future for the automotive metals – palladium, rhodium and platinum. “The hydrogen metals – platinum, ruthenium, iridium – the same, and you've seen our graphs on depletion. The body of work behind those graphs is extensive,” Dunne said (These are shown in the attached Creamer Media video.) Mining companies could only produce PGMs from the assets they had and those not reinvesting in mining would consume what they had rapidly in view of expected demand. Meanwhile, during the long period of underinvestment by PGMs mining companies, costs had escalated substantially. “When you don't do things for ten years, you forget what it costs, and then when you wake up one morning and decide to build something, the cost of it is going to hit you in the face. It inhibits the decision to do a new build because of what it now costs to replace some of these PGMs assets. “We have depleting mining assets. We have a lack of capital investment, a lack of build for at least a decade. The cost of that build today is difficult to swallow. In turn, that means that the existing asset b...

The board of directors of Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) has approved a R7-billion investment into the Gamsberg Phase 2 expansion project in the Northern Cape, which will double the mine and plant capacity from four-million tons to eight-million tons a year. In metal terms, it will increase output from 300 000 t to half-a-million tons of metal a year. This will make VZI and South Africa the largest zinc producer in Africa, says VZI executive director and CFO Pushpender Singla. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Vedanta is committed to producing ‘green' zinc from this expansion to make the province emission free and the company is at an advanced stage of locking in a renewable energy contract, to ensure greenness and decarbonisation. Singla, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, says construction of the project will take 18 to 22 months and bring significant socioeconomic benefits to the Northern Cape, including 2 000 to 2 500 jobs during construction and 800 to 1 000 permanent jobs upon completion. This is in addition to the 2 700 people already employed at the mine. It will form part of the Namakwa Special Economic Zone, which government is expected to approve soon, and contribute to secondary industries and downstream beneficiation. Apart from the Gamsberg Phase 2 investment, which starts immediately, VZI last year also approved a magnetite project investment of around R600-million. “We are trying to convert our tailings into one of the best quality high quality magnetite. So, on the one side we will reduce the impact on the environment, on the other side we will create another product line and employment for another 250 people in the Northern Cape,” said Singla. Of the company's R21-billion investment pledge of three years ago, it has reached beyond R12-billion investment level. Phase 2 will require 18 months of construction and three months of commissioning and ramp-up. “So, 21 months from now, we'll have first production,” says Singla. “In terms of funding, we always believe that we must earn the money to invest the money, so our first focus is to fund this project from internal funds. But we always want to ensure that we have enough flexibility, so all the South African banks, together with RMB and Nedbank, are working closely with us on this project,” he adds. A prefeasibility study is under way for the setting up of a smelter and refining in Namibia remains on the cards, with the cost of power being key. Underground and opencast mining activities currently require 45 MW and Phase 2 will require another 25 MW, taking the complex's total power requirement to 70 MW. A smelter would require another 130 MW, which would take the requirement to a new total of 200 MW. Logistics to the Port of Saldanha, which is 600 km away, are described as being very good. In the absence of smelting, concentrate is moved to the Middle East, China and Europe, with transport having to be expanded to match growth. Vedanta Limited is reportedly the world's sixth largest diversified natural resources company and the largest natural resources company in India. With a market capitalisation of $20-billion, Vedanta Limited operates in India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Namibia, Australia and Dubai. BIODIVERSITY AGREEMENT Unique succulent Karoo biodiversity covers 83 000 km2 of arid South Africa and Namibia and contains the largest number of succulents for a region of this size. Conservation and nursery work have thus been under way to ensure that all plants are replaced during the rehabilitation process. VZI, which has signed a biodiversity agreement with government, prides itself on being fully compliant. Vedanta Group chairperson Anil Agarwal is an adviser to President Cyril Ramaphosa on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Investments in South Africa. In July 2015, Mining Weekly reported on the first blast taking place to signal the start of VZI's Phase 1 at Gamsberg. Phase 1 involved the development of the 250 000 t/y opencas...

South Africa's historic metals sector employer organisation on Wednesday urged all the sector's employer bodies to roll up their sleeves on May 19 and 20 and get their teeth into the Steel Master Plan, which is seen to have promising reindustrialisation elements. President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the Steel Master Plan in last month's State of the Nation Address. An upbeat Lucio Trentini, in his capacity as the CEO of the nigh-80-year-old Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa), described the challenges faced by the metals and engineering sector as being “quite daunting” and highlighted the amazing resilience that members had displayed in the last 12 to 18 months. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Seifsa has a combined membership of more than 1 200 companies that employ more than 170 000 personnel. Formed in 1943, its members range from giant steelmaking corporations to microenterprises employing fewer than 50 people. “The message that I want to put out is that this industry stands ready to make its contribution to translating government's vision of reindustrialising the metals and engineering sector, and to start translating visions, promises and policy into action and deliverables “What we need is for the government to roll out its promised infrastructure spend, which is absolutely central to the reigniting of industrial capacity in the sector. I can assure you, if we see half of what government has promised, the sector will ignite, move forward and create the much-needed economic growth and consequent jobs and job opportunities that this country so sorely needs. We're ready, we want to do our bit,” said Trentini in a Zoom interview with Engineering News & Mining Weekly. The knock-on effects are felt throughout the economy owing to the sector's role as supplier and customer into the mining, automotive, motor, construction and other manufacturing sub-industries. “Because of the nature of our economy and its size, the major sectors of our economy are all interrelated, so when one cog in the wheel experiences a stutter, the effects are felt throughout the value chain,” said Trentini. During the three-week stoppage of the sector last year, more than R300-million in lost wages and more than R600-million a week in lost revenue was shed by the sector – and those are very conservative figures. “The knock-on effect into mining, construction, automotive component manufacturers, automotive assemblers was felt very deeply,” said the head of the organisation that sets out to foster mutually-beneficial relationships between employers, labour and government in creating a business environment conducive to growth. When Trentini joined South Africa's metals and engineering sector from JCI Gold and Uranium Company 30-odd years ago, it employed more than half a-million blue-collar workers. Sadly, it is now down to half that number. “Jobs are scarce and we need to hold on to the jobs we have and allow the government to create an enabling environment,” said action-orientated Trentini. He sees the Steel Master Plan, already signed by representatives of business, labour and government, as being an integral part of the new enabling environment that the government is heralding, and urges all relevant organisations to put their shoulder to the plan's wheel at its upcoming conference on May 19 and 20. “It's not going to create any miracles overnight but it's the first time that government, through Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel, has come to business to ask what it can do together with labour, to address the challenges that we face as a sector,” he said. Localisation and designation without having to compromise on cost and quality is the plan's focus. “We now know that there are going to be massive increases in the price of steel because of what is happening in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the price of steel, which is a major input into all of this industry, is a major issue up...

The appointment of mining stalwart Sipho Nkosi to cut red tape is crucial to encourage new investment and expand existing investment in South Africa, says Menar MD Vuslat Bayoglu, whose private investment company has about R1.5-billion worth of investment being delayed by regulatory processes. While Nkosi was appointed to reduce government red tape in general, Bayoglu believes that his background and skill would be better used in the mining regulatory space. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “There are huge bottlenecks in mining approval processes, from prospecting rights, where it is relatively easy, to water use licences (WULs) and environmental authorisation, where things get harder,” said Bayoglu in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. “Often, different government entities contradict each other. Some NGOs take advantage of the red tape to block mining investment. They don't care about the taxes that the state is losing when it delays mining investments, exploit this to their own advantage and to the detriment of the country,” said Bayolu, who pointed to Minerals Council South Africa's members having R90-billion worth of ready-to-execute projects being stalled by red tape. “South Africa cannot afford to lose out on the current upswing in the commodity market. It is only during such times that investors have appetite to expand existing operations and develop new mines from scratch. “If we don't take advantage of this now by cutting the red tape, we should kiss goodbye to employment creation and the prospect of reducing poverty and inequalities – all of which are the key priorities of President Cyril Ramaphosa's administration. The President clearly knows this. We hope various departments will support him,” said Bayoglu. His second takeway from last month's State of the Nation Address (Sona) is that reforms are under way in the field of logistics. “Allowing third party access to the rail infrastructure is key to solving the logistics bottlenecks. While Transnet has performed better than many SOE's over the years, it has experienced challenges lately and this has impacted on mining exports. So, the President's initiatives, which Transnet has already embraced, are also a welcome development,” Bayoglu added. His third Sona takeway was the President firmly stating that business is responsible for creating jobs and the government should create an enabling environment. “I think if he can act on this statement and ensure that government takes decisions quickly, then we can succeed in creating economic opportunities,” he said. GROWTH STRATEGY DEVELOPMENTS The company's latest growth strategy development includes the commencement of mining at Kangra Coal's Udumo mine in February, marking the beginning of the extension of the life-of-mine (LoM) at Kangra, through the mining of the Kusipongo reserve of around 41.9-million tons, which could extend the LoM by more than 20 years. Kangra is targeting a production rate of 1.5-million tons a year from the underground mining sections for the duration of the LoM, with 360 000 t/y of anthracite being produced from available opencast areas. Located in Saul Mkhizeville, Mpumalanga, Kangra employs 549 people including contractors. The extension of the LoM of Kangra is described as being critical for local communities that derive employment and business opportunities from the mine. In addition, negotiations are continuing with stakeholders at Canyon Coal's fully licensed but yet to be developed Gugulethu colliery, which will create 430 jobs. Through Canyon, some R600-million is being invested in the Phase 1 development of Gugulethu, which is near Hendrina, also in Mpumalanga. The project has an estimated LoM of more than 35 years based on a run-of-mine (RoM) production of about 200 000 t/m from opencast areas and 150 000 t/m from underground sections. Mining will take place through underground and opencast methods. Phase 1, which will entail opencast mining, has a reserve of 14.3-million...

The equivalent of a Koeberg power station is arising in the form of new largely mining-linked private-sector solar power photovoltaic projects across South Africa, according to AmaranthCX director and founder Paul Miller, whose company is working on the second edition of its electronic map of the utility scale power projects in the region, where there has up to now been an absence of particularly non-technical data required for investors, financiers and traders. “Increasingly, the more recent projects are all coming out with battery storage as well,” said Miller, who was speaking to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) AmaranthCX has effectively produced a Google Earth map of all the Southern African developments, prompted by very strong demand for the data it is compiling, even from people in government. “It's because there's no central authority collating or publishing the information,” said Miller. Although there have been some big programmes announced that do not have specific projects detailed as yet, many projects are going ahead with some already in the construction phase. “We do a lot of work assisting companies that sell to mines, and we discovered when putting together the addressable market of all mines in Africa that there are, of course, there are no street addresses. “So, immediately you're having to geo-locate mines and mining projects, and once you've geo-located something, it's not long before you have a map,” said Miller. AmaranthCX thus produced a range of maps, particularly during the darker days of Covid lockdown. “People were very interested in chrome, coal and manganese. But when we surveyed all the buyers of those maps, they often turned out to be traders, rather than suppliers, in other words, people buying commodities rather than people selling things to the mines, and a strong response came back that they needed more information on the power situation,” said Miller. This resulted in AmaranthCX mapping all the power stations and major substations of the Southern African Power Pool, taking in South Africa and many of its neighbours. “That turned out to be a somewhat shifting terrain, because in mining, you can make a judgment call on what an advanced project is. In other words, a mine that's likely to be built based on public or historical information on the geological resource, and you can say, okay, well, actually, there's likely to be a new colliery here or new manganese mine there, and you can add it to the mines so that people who are interested in perhaps buying the commodity or supplying that mine, have a fairly reasonable understanding. “But when you start mapping power projects, it's quite different. In South Africa, for example, there are hundreds of permitted sites for renewable projects. In other words, there's lots of information online of basic environmental studies that have been done to get permitting for projects,” Miller pointed out. Those are the projects that compete in the different rounds of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) aimed at bringing additional megawatts onto the country's electricity system through private sector investment in wind, biomass and small hydro, among others. “Now, if the projects don't win in one of those rounds, they might never be built. So, in South Africa, you can take a view that if a project has been awarded preferred bidder status in one of the REIPPPP rounds, it's quite likely to be built. Not all of them have, but it's quite likely to be built and you can map it.” But since South Africa's self-generation embedded power cap was lifted to 100 MW, very positive and widespread development of projects outside of the REIPPPP have arisen rapidly. Mining Weekly: Is it something of a free for all out there? Miller: From an information point of view, it is because there's no central authority collating or publishing the information. As we went into mining company results...

The ratio between green energy and brown energy in South Africa needs to move very rapidly in favour of green energy, says Climate Adaptation Lead to the South African Presidential Climate Commission and Institute for Security Studies Africa senior research associate Dhesigen Naidoo. Naidoo was speaking during a Canada-hosted webinar organised by Fasken and covered by Mining Weekly. Also taking part in the webinar on the topic of the transition from brown to green energy and its impact on the South African mining industry were Johannesburg partner and moderator Mmaphuti Morolong, a member of Fasken's global mining group, Department of Mineral Resources and Energy director-general Advocate Thabo Mokoena, Nedbank energy finance principal Sanjeev Mungroo and Fasken Johannesburg partner Francois Joubert. Naidoo drew attention to the stark current impact of climate change on the world outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) He spoke of it being explicit that more the 3.6-billion people in the world today, including many in South Africa and certainly many more in the Southern African region, had already been adversely affected by climate change, and that the Secretary General of the UN talked about the IPCC report as being an atlas of human suffering. “We cannot ignore this,” said Naidoo. Differentiated responsibility was not only a global phenomenon, but also a regional phenomenon, he added in highlighting the comparison between South Africa and neighbouring countries, and the relative impact of greenhouse-gas emissions of each of these countries on climate change in the region. “In fact, it's fair to say that the loss and damage discussions are going to be very difficult. A lot depends on how fast the world moves because that will have implications for where South Africa and countries like South Africa see themselves. “If you look at the ambitious targets of very high emitters in the developing world, like China and India, they are giving us a strong indication of where some of those players are going, and we should not be too far behind. “The issue of the just transition is a very important one. It is a recognition that the South African economy by and large operates on the mineral energy nexus. We can philosophise about it if we want to, but that is the grim reality. “It is the core of our economy, it is the core of our financial system, it is a very important mechanism for livelihoods for a fair number of people,” said Naidoo. “The key point I want to make is that we need to move towards the diversification of energy very rapidly. This is not the same as giving up on brown energy altogether but the ratio between green energy and brown energy needs to move very rapidly in favour of green energy. “But recognising all of this, the Presidential Climate Commission is investing in the just transition framework which the Department of Minerals and Energy (DMRE) is taking care of but there's a much bigger transition that needs to be engaged around the socioeconomic movement and as we speak, the first of the consultation workshops on that just transition is happening in eMalahleni today, because the reality is that people are in a particular circumstance. “In our quest to move towards decarbonisation, we can't deliver a double whammy, particularly to the poor and vulnerable in those places. “The concept of restorative justice is a very strong prevailing factor in that engagement and the idea is to develop either a formula or a series of formulas and interventions that organise for those people who are currently highly dependent on the fossil fuel value chain, and the coal value chain in particular, to not be worse off in the future than they are now, that they must be a transitionary element around it, including things such as skills and reorientation and movement to green industries, reorganising for the most arable agricultural land in Mpumalanga to ...

South Africa's only rural community-owned mining company Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat), which delivered record dividend-yielding earnings and production in 2021, is close to completing its renewable energy study on the building of an embedded 30 MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant. “It's almost complete.we're almost there, into renewable energy,” RBPlat CEO Steve Phiri said of the company's planned modular PV initiative, for which an application for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is being lodged. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) On the time expected to be taken for the EIA approval, he said: “That's the only thing that could cause a delay because it's out of our own hands and in government hands. But given what President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared, we think that the red tape will be cut because it's so important for the national economy itself,” Phiri added during a Teams interview with Mining Weekly. Identifying opportunities to diversify into green energy supply is one of the key operational objectives of the JSE-listed company. On the confidence in platinum group metals (PGMs) being generated by far-reaching international government strategy announcements on widespread uptake of green hydrogen, Phiri said: “The world is changing. This is a hydrogen world, looking forward at it. The world is decarbonising. We're going to clean hydrogen and that clean hydrogen needs the PGMs. We're going to go into fuel cells, and they need PGMs, particularly platinum, so there's a bright future for platinum. “I've got absolute confidence in platinum's bright future, and if you listen to my peers, they're all singing the same song, because the world is moving in that direction. “You hear government declaring hydrogen policy and Europe, with the European Union, declaring hydrogen policy. The president of the US is driving it. China is developing fuel cell vehicles quite exponentially. The world is moving in that direction,” he added. Questioned on his view of the best outcome for all stakeholders of the interest of Implats and Northam Platinum in acquiring RBPlat, he said: “It's quite a difficult one to answer because we have taken a conscious decision, and correctly so, that we do not want to be seen as taking one side or the other. We don't want to be partial.” The company would be looking at the best interests of the shareholders and the stakeholders. “We've got two options, one Implats, the other is Northam, with different characteristics and delivering different synergies, with the Northam transaction being the combination of two good management teams and two good assets, and therefore bulking up the cash flows and their return to shareholders quite quickly and easily. They are distant from the area and therefore it lacks those operational synergies when compared with Implats, which is contiguous with RBPlat and the question of access from one mining area to the other and combining management teams becomes easy. This also extends the life of the lease area, and that will help to sustain jobs. “Both have strong cash flow potentials that will increase the dividend flow. So, it all depends on what you are looking at, but as the board, we're dictated to by what is on the table, as not only a credible, but also an executable, transaction. “But what is important to repeat is that we only have one offer on the table, which the shareholders are considering, and that offer is from Implats. We should not pretend that there are two competing bids on the table for the shareholders to consider, there's only one offer on the table and that's the Implats offer. When the other offer comes, depending again on how good it is for shareholders, we'll make that decision. WATERKLOOF HILLS ESTATE AND SCHOOL An impressive RBPlat legacy is the Waterkloof Hills Estate, where more than 5 000 people are living, and the primary and secondary schools, where 95% of the 750 pupils who have enrolled are RBPlat employees, who own homes in the esta...

The platinum surplus in 2021 is forecast to reduce by 47% in 2022 as Covid-related and operational disruptions gradually settle, the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) states in its Platinum Quarterly. Covering the fourth quarter of 2021, along with a full year review of 2021 and revised forecast for 2022, the WPIC's Platinum Quarterly states that Covid--related factors and operational disruptions played out particularly during the second half of 2021, having a huge impact on both the supply of and demand for platinum. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Despite significant demand growth in most sectors, strong supply levels – boosted by a production surge from the accelerated processing of the backlog of semi-finished material – combined with the reduction in Nymex stocks and net negative exchange traded funds demand saw a platinum surplus of 1 232 000 oz, with total platinum supply increasing by 21% and total demand decreasing by 9% year-on-year. As these issues normalise in 2022, this surplus is forecast to reduce by 47% in 2022 to 652 000 oz, as demand increases 7% (+520 000 oz), while supply declines 1% (-61 000 oz). The quarterly refers to the role of green hydrogen as being more widely accepted for decarbonisation, which has benefits for platinum owing to its use in both electrolysers to produce green hydrogen, and in hydrogen fuel cells. It reports that investors are becoming increasingly aware of platinum's key strategic role in unlocking hydrogen's crucial contribution to achieving global net zero targets. Furthermore, the role of green hydrogen in reducing European gas imports could drive a strategic acceleration of electrolyser construction, which would benefit platinum directly but also support the infrastructure needed for broad-based commercial adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles Mining Weekly is able to point out that 20% of green hydrogen into the existing gas infrastructure would halve Europe's reliance on Russian gas, now of key concern owing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There are also early indications that supply disruption of palladium from Russia may well enhance platinum demand. Imports into China have exceeded the Asian giant's visible demand needs with unwrought platinum alone amounting to 2.75-million ounces, an increase of 45% on the already elevated levels in 2020 - and more than twice the average annual flows over 2016 to 2019. Increase in platinum supply in 2021 is forecast to plateau in 2022, as the last of additional semifinished material is processed. Significant rises in automotive (+11%), industrial (+27%), and jewellery (+5%) demand in 2021 set to remain strong in 2022. In a Zoom interview Mining Weekly put these questions to WPIC director of research Trevor Raymond. Mining Weekly: Your Platinum Quarterly release mentions Covid-related and operational disruptions in 2021 that have had an effect on supply – can you describe more specifically what these have been, and why they are likely to settle in 2022? Raymond: We had two real issues that played out in 2021. Firstly, we saw operational disruptions due to Covid in 2020, and those were less so in 2021. But certainly there was some operational impact – absenteeism, etc – so supply was reduced slightly at the at the mining level. The second big issue that played out – in 2020, you'll recall that the Anglo American Platinum Converter was offline for a couple of months earlier, and then later in the year. That resulted in quite a large backup of about 560 000 oz of platinum. We saw that starting to come out in 2021. But it really accelerated towards the end of the year, and by the year-end, that was almost all processed. What we had was mining still at levels potentially a little bit below pre-Covid levels, but a massive boost to refined production that came out, and a lot might have assumed that the high margins being made by the platinum group metals miners caused that, but it was actually the release of that material ...

The platinum surplus in 2021 is forecast to reduce by 47% in 2022 as Covid-related and operational disruptions gradually settle, the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) states in its Platinum Quarterly. Covering the fourth quarter of 2021, along with a full year review of 2021 and revised forecast for 2022, the WPIC's Platinum Quarterly states that Covid--related factors and operational disruptions played out particularly during the second half of 2021, having a huge impact on both the supply of and demand for platinum. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Despite significant demand growth in most sectors, strong supply levels – boosted by a production surge from the accelerated processing of the backlog of semi-finished material – combined with the reduction in Nymex stocks and net negative exchange traded funds demand saw a platinum surplus of 1 232 000 oz, with total platinum supply increasing by 21% and total demand decreasing by 9% year-on-year. As these issues normalise in 2022, this surplus is forecast to reduce by 47% in 2022 to 652 000 oz, as demand increases 7% (+520 000 oz), while supply declines 1% (-61 000 oz). The quarterly refers to the role of green hydrogen as being more widely accepted for decarbonisation, which has benefits for platinum owing to its use in both electrolysers to produce green hydrogen, and in hydrogen fuel cells. It reports that investors are becoming increasingly aware of platinum's key strategic role in unlocking hydrogen's crucial contribution to achieving global net zero targets. Furthermore, the role of green hydrogen in reducing European gas imports could drive a strategic acceleration of electrolyser construction, which would benefit platinum directly but also support the infrastructure needed for broad-based commercial adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles Mining Weekly is able to point out that 20% of green hydrogen into the existing gas infrastructure would halve Europe's reliance on Russian gas, now of key concern owing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There are also early indications that supply disruption of palladium from Russia may well enhance platinum demand. Imports into China have exceeded the Asian giant's visible demand needs with unwrought platinum alone amounting to 2.75-million ounces, an increase of 45% on the already elevated levels in 2020 - and more than twice the average annual flows over 2016 to 2019. Increase in platinum supply in 2021 is forecast to plateau in 2022, as the last of additional semifinished material is processed. Significant rises in automotive (+11%), industrial (+27%), and jewellery (+5%) demand in 2021 set to remain strong in 2022. In a Zoom interview Mining Weekly put these questions to WPIC director of research Trevor Raymond. Mining Weekly: Your Platinum Quarterly release mentions Covid-related and operational disruptions in 2021 that have had an effect on supply – can you describe more specifically what these have been, and why they are likely to settle in 2022? Raymond: We had two real issues that played out in 2021. Firstly, we saw operational disruptions due to Covid in 2020, and those were less so in 2021. But certainly there was some operational impact – absenteeism, etc – so supply was reduced slightly at the at the mining level. The second big issue that played out in 2020, you'll recall that the Anglo American Platinum's converter was offline for a couple of months earlier, and then later in the year. That resulted in quite a large backup of about 560 000 oz of platinum. We saw, they're starting to come out in 2021. But it really accelerated towards the end of the year, and by the year-end, that was almost all processed. What we had was mining still at levels potentially a little bit below pre-Covid levels, but a massive boost to refined production that came out, and a lot might have assumed that the high margins being made by the platinum group metals miners caused that, but it was actually a the release of that mat...

Platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) CEO Steve Phiri on Tuesday criticised the sell-off of RBPlat shares by Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH) to Northam Platinum as an undermining of the direct significant influence of the 300 000-strong Bafokeng community on regional job sustainability – plus the giving up of a heritage that Bafokeng sweat and blood had helped to enable. “You do not give up that kind of heritage, even for the most tempting price,” said Phiri after announcing RBPlat's stunning set of record-breaking financial and production results for the 12 months to December 31, when the JSE-listed company increased its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) by 28% to a best-ever R8.5-billion on 22%-higher revenue of R16.4-billion. The Ebitda margin rose 51.9% from 49.7% in the previous comparative period. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) On the decision of RBH to sell to Northam Platinum while RBPlat was negotiating with suitor Impala Platinum, Phiri said: “This was in contrast to what we would have expected, which is for RBH to remain invested in its RBPlat creation, and convince all the parties to participate in a consolidated merger," he said during the presentation of 2021 results, covered by Mining Weekly. “Sadly, RBH's approach resulted in a messy contest between two strangers in the lounge area of the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN), leaving RBN spectators in their own house, which RBN can do nothing about, and which will take some time to resolve, if any,” said the RBPlat founding CEO, who has led South Africa's only rural community mining company to its current peak together with RBH. Phiri spoke of RBH having missed a golden opportunity to become a catalyst for job-sustaining and consolidation, a road which would have made an important contribution to the consolidation of the PGMs mining industry, while still ensuring that RBH and the RBN retained their role at the boardroom table. RBPlat's listing on 8 November 2010 was so successful that it was oversubscribed four times – “and RBH were there, they actually took RBPlat to market”, said Phiri, who recalled that shortly before year-end “something happened that I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined taking place”. This, he said, involved RBH not only selling off its defensive role shareholding in the company that it had created, but the sale was to one of RBPlat's competitors, which, he added, had abandoned shareholders who invested alongside RBH, and who had made “an enormous contribution to the formation, growth and maturity of RBPlat, which as the record shows, has started delivering strong dividends to patient shareholders. The RBPlat board has declared a gross cash final dividend of 535c a share, equating to R1.5-billion. This is in addition to the interim dividend of R1.5-billion, declared in August 2021, bringing total capital returns for the year to R3.5-billion. “One would have thought that by creating this company and growing it, they were creating a long-term sustainable cash flow platform from which they would not divest especially at harvest time,” he said. Still South Africa's only listed rural community-owned company, RBPlat is a top-100 JSE company by market capitalisation. “This at least should have made anyone who was part of its formation, think deeply before divesting. “The trust large institutional investors had in RBH meant that they were comfortable to invest in RBPlat because of RBH and with RBH. Their huge support alongside RBH made it possible for us to successfully construct Styldrift. ANGLO AMERICAN PLATINUM FORESIGHT PRAISED “We also acquired Maseve with the support of our institutional investors alongside RBH. Our institutional investors also made it possible for us to acquire 100% of the BRPM joint venture, when, with RBH, we were able to persuade Anglo American Platinum to divest from the remaining 83% shareholding in the joint venture. “At this j...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The electrolyser that will generate renewable hydrogen for the world’s largest hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle project has been delivered to site by Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser AS, as part of the joint partnership with ENGIE and Anglo American, announced last year. ENGIE is providing the renewable hydrogen solution for Anglo American, which is taking steps to reduce the emissions associated with mining mobility by putting the hydrogen haul truck into operation. The 300 t truck being developed at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena platinum group metals mine, in Limpopo, is on track to make its debut next year, when the 3.5 MW alkaline electrolyser will provide the required hydrogen, Senior Vice President Business Development David Bow informed Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview on November 19. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The electrolyser will split water into hydrogen and oxygen and the excess hydrogen will be stored for use at night or when solar radiation is poor. “What’s exciting to us is to see Anglo American taking this big decarbonisation step. Clearly, Anglo gets the hats off and for us it’s an amazing opportunity,” said Bow, who also paid tribute to ENGIE, the electricity utility multinational that is providing the renewable hydrogen solution, Ballard Power, the provider of the fuel cells, and Komatsu the provider of the truck being retrofitted. The long-term target is to convert the entire fleet of haul trucks at Mogalakwena to hydrogen and to also introduce decarbonised hydrogen mobility at other Anglo American mines. “It’s important to understand that just one of these trucks, when diesel powered, consumes over 900 000 litres of diesel fuel a year, which equates to enormous amounts of carbon emission. “If you look at the total installed base of 28 000 mining trucks around the world, the emission from those trucks is equivalent to the entire emissions from a country such as New Zealand or Finland. “If you decarbonise those 28 000 trucks that are in the hands of open pit mining companies around the world, you are roughly removing an impact of 150-million cars off the roads,” said Bow. Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser has installed more than 3 500 electrolysers globally and supplies both alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers as well as hydrogen fuelling stations. Editor's note: PEM electrolysers have catalysts that contain platinum group metals (PGMs). The cathode of a PEM electrolyser contains platinum and the anode iridium, which is a PGM.

An Mpumalanga coal mine is on the point of entering into an agreement before year-end to have its acid mine drainage water curse turned into potable water at no cost, Mining Weekly can today report. Recovered potassium nitrate, which retails at about R15000/t and which is marketed at about R11000/t to R11500/t, pays for everything – and a return on investment of about 30% is achieved. The system recovers water at a negative -R2 per cubic metre, said Trailblazer Technologies director John Bewsey in a Zoom interview on Monday, November 23. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “In other words, each cubic metre of water that we recover brings us in R2,” he reiterated. Not only mines, but also an organisation in the US and power utility Eskom are also showing interest in the Proudly South African development, which has been assisted by a grant from South Africa’s Technology Innovation Agency. The grant has enabled Trailblazer to build what Bewsey described as a “world-class” demonstration plant at the company’s premises in Krugersdorp. As part of the development, acid mine water has been trucked in from various mines and Trailblazer has been able to turn potable waters polluted with as little 3 000 milligrams per litre right up to water with as much as 50 000 milligrams per litre – “that’s 5%, which really is horrendous. We’ve been able to achieve greater than 99% recovery and the water is so pure it’s actually demineralised quality water, and nearly always below 20 milligrams per litre,” Bewsey enthused. The system is attracting exceptional interest because of its: exceptionally high recovery rate of at least 99% of the water, which is a major improvement on any other water recovery process, including reverse osmosis, which generally recovers about 60% of the water and can only remove the salinity; absence of a brine to store, which is always hazardous and expensive; and ability to turn unwanted salinity into very-much-wanted end products which when sold ends up showing a profit. Because of the expense of storing brines, what many of the mines are doing is to have an electricity intensive process of spraying the brine into the air. In this way, the water evaporates and the solid lands back on the soil “like snow”, spreading the pollution far and wide, and actually achieving nothing, except removing the problem of having to have a dam of brine. But what actually happens is that rain redissolves the pollution, which is put back into the ecosystem. “It doesn’t achieve anything at all other than waste a whole lot of Eskom’s rather scarce power,” said Bewsey. Instead, Trailblazer’s system separates the pollution into cations and anions. “The major pollutants, then, are sodium chloride and sulphate, which is what you get in any saline water, so we can not only treat acid mine water but also saline water, which can be recovered profitably as well. “On the sodium side, we regenerate using nitric acid. From that we make sodium nitrate, which has got very little use. We then add the fertiliser potassium chloride and that precipitates out the least soluble salt, which is sodium chloride, and leaves us with potassium nitrate, which we separate out, and the sale of that potassium nitrate then pays for the entire process. “On the anion side, we’ve then got a mixture of chlorides and sulphates and it depends what that mixture is. On quite a lot of the mines, the chlorides are fairly low and the sulphates are very high, so we turn that into ammonium sulphate, which is the fertiliser that we sell, and convert the chlorides into sodium chloride and add that to the stockpile of sodium chloride that we make from the cation side. “That sodium chloride is a solid material so the cost of trucking it to the coast to put it back into the sea, where it belongs, is a minor cost because we’re trucking solids. We can use a flatbed truck and you’re paying 100% of its weight for transport. In the case of trucking a bri...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s non-integrated chrome ore exporters want to discuss ways of solving the existential threat to South Africa’s struggling ferrochrome industry to avoid the need for a tax being imposed on the export of locally mined chrome ore. But steadfastly in favour of a chrome ore export tax are South Africa’s ferrochrome industry spokespersons, who fully support the October 22 announcement of the Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu, that the Cabinet has proposed that a tax be imposed on the export of chrome ore from South Africa. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Currently 84% of cross-border chrome ore is exported from South Africa, with lower-percentage participants including Turkey at 9%, Albania at 3%, Pakistan at 2% and rest-of-world countries at another 2%. ChromeSA representatives David Kovarsky, Phoevos Pouroulis and Alistair McAdam presented a collective suggestion to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview that the stuggling ferrochrome industry should be given a special affordably price electricity dispensation rather than export tax protection. But they cannot say much beyond that as they are not legally permitted to enter into holistic discussion on additional solutions until they receive an applied-for but not-yet-granted exemption to do so from the Competition Commission. In the meantime, ChromeSA’s firm collective belief is that a special electricity tariff would allow the ferrochrome industry to regain the market share it has lost. “The benefit of a chrome ore tax is just going to be whittled away by increasing electricity tariffs,” Kovarsky, a seasoned former ferrochrome producer, who now speaks on behalf of chrome ore exporters, contended. “Introducing a tax will not, in the longer term, give ferrochrome any benefit at all. It’s like prescribing the wrong medicine for an illness,” McAdam, also a former ferrochrome executive of long standing, concurred. And even if an export tax on chrome ore were imposed as a temporary measure, the damage to the non-integrated chrome ore mining companies would be permanent and result in job losses, Pouroulis warned. But ferrochrome industry expresses strong views in the exact opposite direction: “We need temporary relief in the form of a tax to survive,” Richards Bay Alloys CEO Andries van Heerden emphasised in a written response to Mining Weekly. ChromeSA’s contention that significant volumes of South African chrome ore would be displaced with supply from other sources were fundamentally wrong, Van Heerden contended. "China cannot simply replace South African ores. There are no economically viable sources of chrome ore internationally that can replace the volume of South African ore,” he said. Also supporting the imposition of a tax on the export of chrome ore are: South Africa’s six other ferrochrome producing companies, which consume 8.2-million tonnes of chrome ore a year, employ 6 851 people directly, support 68 000 jobs overall, contribute R41-billion to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), pay R14-billion a year to Eskom, have pay-as-you-earn tax payments of R1.4-billion, buy 2.5-million tonnes of product a year from 20 South African reductant mines, and accord R42-million a year in social support and local enterprise development; the 1 177-employee Tendele Coal Mining, along with another five South African anthracite producers, which collectively provide jobs for another 3 800 employees; and the 1 500-employee Columbus Stainless of Mpumalanga, which produces stainless steel locally from the locally produced ferrochrome. Already five of South Africa’s ferrochrome smelters have either been shut down, liquidated or placed in business rescue. These smelters supported more than 31 000 jobs along with a yearly contribution of R11-billion to South Africa’s GDP. Direct employment lost in the past five years totals 1 139 jobs. Another 1 608 jobs are currently at risk under Section 189 of t...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The amount of iridium required to electrolyse green hydrogen has been drastically reduced, a breakthrough that is a significant boost for the upcoming green hydrogen economy as well as South African platinum group metals (PGMs) mining. Heraeus Precious Metals has achieved a material thrifting success with its new electrocatalyst that requires only a fraction of the iridium previously required by proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “We took up the challenge to come up with new iridium catalysts for PEM electrolysers,” Heraeus Precious Metals executive VP new business development and innovation Philipp Walter told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also see attached graphic.) Iridium, one of the six elements of PGMs, plays a key role as a catalyst on the anode side of PEM electrolysers and what Heraeus did was acknowledge very early that there was a need to be more cost effective with iridium catalysts and for lower-iridium containing catalysts to make PEM electrolysis work at the scale foreseen. The new Heraeus catalyst not only contains significantly less iridium but has far higher catalyst performance at significantly lower cost. However, if left to conventional catalysts, the global availability of the mainly South African supplied iridium would have been insufficient to meet the targets of the European Union Commission, which has a strategy that will drive demand for 40 GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030. The standard iridium electrocatalyst uses iridium black, a finely divided iridium powder that can be used as a precursor for iridium oxide and as a catalyst in hydrogen sulphide sensors and fuel cells. A high 1 g/kW to 2 g/kW of iridium black was required for standard PEM electrolysers, but Heraeus Precious Metals has succeeded in slashing the iridium required to as little as 0.3 g/kW to 0.4 g/kW for the new ultra-low-iridium-loaded electrocatalysts for PEM electrolysis. Nevertheless, iridium recycling remains pivotal: “We’re in the midst of defining our recycling strategies with key stakeholders in the industry,” Walter told Mining Weekly. While the low cost of renewable energy is one of the main drivers of the world’s transition towards green hydrogen, reducing the cost of PEM electrolysis is also key. “With the new lower iridium containing catalyst, we did our part and this is only a small step towards more affordable hydrogen. What has to happen still is automation and the greater economy of scale. “The general message of the industry is that step by step the cost of green hydrogen will go down, assuming also that the renewable energy will go down too and the trend is already actually apparent. The cost of renewable energy has come down significantly over the last decade, and it will not stop,” Walter added.

South Africa's unemployment rate jumped to 30.8% in the third quarter from 23.3% in the second quarter, the country's statistics agency said on Thursday. The unemployment rate was artificially low in the second quarter because the statistics agency only classifies people as unemployed if they are actively looking for work, which many people were unable to do in the April-June quarter because of a strict coronavirus lockdown. Statistics South Africa put the number of unemployed at 6.5 million people in the third quarter, compared to 4.3 million in the previous three months. To watch Creamer Media's latest video reports, click here

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The current strategy of Kore Potash is to focus on the Dougou Extension (DX) project, a 400 000 t/y selective solution-mining project in the Republic of Congo (RoC), rather than the considerably larger Kola underground mining project. Kola, as the first project of the AIM-, ASX- and JSE-listed Kore Potash, proved difficult to fund, with its large capital budget of $2-billion-plus, and was on the back burner following the completion of a definitive feasibility study (DFS). “After completing the DFS for Kola it was decided that we needed to find a smaller startup project to get us into production quicker so that we’d be seen as not just a junior miner but as a producer,” Kore COO Gavin Chamberlain told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview on Wednesday, November 11. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “That basically caused us to focus on the DX project, which is a solution-mining project, extremely high grade and effectively fairly shallow. “It’s a really exciting opportunity for us. Effectively, we’ll be mining sylvinite and over the last year and a half we’ve been focused on DX,” said Chamberlain. The DX scoping study was published in 2019, the prefeasibility study (PFS) in May and the updated DFS this week, which extends the life-of-mine from 18.4 years to 30 years at a production rate of 33 000 t a month based on probable ore reserves. The updated PFS follows the completion of a review of the production target for DX, which is situated in the RoC’s Sintoukola basin. The scheduled extraction includes 34.5% of the inferred mineral resources which contributes 20% of the life of project. These factors mean the approximate post-tax payback period from first production is 4.3 years. This is accounting for a net present value of $412-million and an internal rate of return of 23.4%, based on a real post-tax basis at a life of project average granular potash price of $422/t, Kore stated in a media release to Mining Weekly. Following a review of the strategic options within the Sintoukola district, Kore formed the view that a reduced-scale potash development at DX had strong potential to expedite the company’s path to cash flow generation and consequently accelerate the subsequent development of the bigger Kola project, also in the Sintoukola basin. In terms of project resource estimates, the original PFS mine schedule was comprised solely of declared sylvinite ore reserves of 17.7-million tonnes, at a grade of 41.7% potassium chloride. The updated PFS left these reserves unchanged, with all key assumptions and modifying factors remaining valid. The production schedule in the updated PFS includes 2.43-million tonnes of potash from indicated mineral resources and 2.31-million tonnes of potash from inferred mineral resources that were not part of the PFS mine schedule. “In our original PFS, we only focused on effectively getting an ore reserve approved and published, which we did. But with the production target, we looked at the indicated resources, which weren’t included in the original mine layout,” said Chamberlain. “We also looked at a small portion of the inferred resources and on the back of that, effectively using about 20% of the inferred, we get a mine life of over 30 years. “There is potential growth for more than that but at the moment we’re actually doing Phase 1 of the DFS, which is really focused on the geology and the mine design. With that, we’re hoping to get a little more clarity on the actual resource. “We raised funds to do the DFS Phase 1 in September. We just kicked off with two parts of the DFS Phase 1, the one part being a drilling campaign of five new holes in the resource and the main driver behind the drilling campaign is really to focus on a risk that we identified in the PFS around making sure that we have measured resources and proved reserves for the initial five to ten years of the mine life. “Three of the holes will be focused on tr...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The long value chain of green hydrogen economy has the potential to create a multiplicity of jobs and open up the market for investment possibilities for the Southern African region into what is expected to become a multi-trillion-dollar global decarbonisation market. Forschungszentrum Jülich corporate development unit project manager Dr Solomon Nwabueze Agbo spoke to Mining Weekly from Germany in a Zoom interview on Tuesday, November 10. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “It’s the right technology, it’s the right time and it’s important for us in Africa that we also join the rest of the world in this whole green hydrogen initiative, to help us to decarbonise our own energy sector, and also to key into the global trend of revolutionising the global energy market,” said Agbo, who is currently coordinating Southern Africa’s Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa project. The Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa project, to which the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has allocated €5.7-million in funding, is placing Southern Africa on the road to contributing meaningfully to the global Sustainable Development Goals. It is taking place at a time when South Africa is drawing up a Hydrogen Roadmap for itself and South Africa’s University of Pretoria has begun training technical college graduates in hydrogen fuel cell systems, in partnership with Bambili Energy, the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation and the Energy and Water Sector Education Training Authority. “The aim is to develop competent, capable and work-ready technicians for the deployment, installation and maintenance of hydrogen fuel cell systems in South Africa and beyond,” said University of Pretoria Professor Raj Naidoo on the university's hydrogen fuel cells training. Meanwhile, the Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa is scheduled for completion by the end of next year at the latest, when it will become the starting point of a process of firming up Southern African’s renewable energy data and validating green hydrogen sweet spots. Green hydrogen has a zero-carbon footprint and is generated by using renewable energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. THE ROLE OF PLATINUM GROUP METALS The current global focus on green hydrogen as the next universal energy carrier has served to highlight the value of Southern Africa’s huge platinum group metals (PGMs) endowment, which goes hand-in-hand with the green hydrogen economy, both in terms of the PGM metals used in the electrolysers that produce green hydrogen, but also in terms of the platinum used in the hydrogen fuel cells that provide mobility, stationary power generation and heating in a very wide range of industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential applications. Nigerian-born Agbo emphasised the importance of international collaboration and government-private sector partnership in the development of the green hydrogen economy, which is very much larger than the local green electricity market, Thomas Roos, a senior Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) researcher, who has been leading CSIR work on green hydrogen export opportunities for South Africa, stated in the recent Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & the Green Economy feature in Engineering News & Mining Weekly. The German government is partnering African institutions in West Africa and Southern Africa to explore the potentials of generating green hydrogen in these regions on the understanding that the green hydrogen economy will be a sustainable part of the future of energy for Africa and Germany. “In this context, it is important to address the issue of generating hydrogen from a point of view of international collaboration because to generate green hydrogen, you need renewable energy and this requires collaboration with different partners across the globe where there are renewable sources,” said Agbo. “It is in this understanding that the German government is partnering ...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Copper explorer Arc Minerals, which has done extensive exploration drilling in Zambia in its study of a near-term copper opportunity, has signed an exclusivity agreement with Anglo American, Arc Minerals executive chairperson and CEO Nick von Schirnding has reported. The UK Aim-listed Arc Minerals holds former Anglo American copper assets in the north-west part of Zambia, which remains largely unexplored, and Von Schirnding is himself a former Anglo American plc and De Beers executive. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “Obviously, because of the exclusivity with Anglo, we are not able or, in fact, desirous to enter into any other discussions with any other group, but I can say that we have had further follow-up approaches by two major miners, which obviously we are not able progress at this stage. We’ll have to see what Anglo decide to do by the early part of next year, but we’re in a very good place, we're in a very sweet spot, with a lot of interest,” Von Schirnding told last week’s Junior Indaba, chaired by mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel and covered by Mining Weekly. “We’ve done a lot of drilling with phenomenal results,” said Van Schirnding. More than 17 000 m of drilling at a cost of $3.5-million has identified 14 copper targets and Arc’s market capitalisation has grown from roughly £2-million three years ago to nearly $50-million currently. “We really do believe we’re sitting here on very valuable exploration assets, and that says everything in terms of our valuation today,” said Von Schirnding, whose father, Kurt von Schirnding, was South Africa's former Ambassador to the United Nations. “Our game plan is to exploit as many of these targets that we’ve identified to make it as attractive to a potential suitor. Now that suitor could be a major, like obviously we’ve just signed up with Anglo American; it could be a mid-cap; or it could be any other potential funder, including private equity, who have also reached out to us. “We’re not here to simply keep drilling for the sake of drilling, as I think many junior companies do without really an end game in sight. We're equally not here as a lifestyle company. We know exploration is a very tough game. You've seen the lack of really any major success with the majors over the last 25 to 30 years and that, I think, in many respects is because they are not focused enough and they don’t incentivise enough, and I’m a huge believer in incentivisation. So, we incentivise our people based on success,” Von Schirnding emphasised. “We’re really going for ideally some sort of commercial relationship with a much larger company that can drill this out as it should be because, truth be told, on any of these 14 targets, we really should be spending $4-million to $5-million per target. It is what I call the butterfly approach; we identify, on an opportunistic basis, as many key targets for a partner to come and develop them, either exclusively or jointly with us,” he added. Arc has two major licences with 66% interest in Zamsort and a 72.5% interest in Zaco, which collectively cover 872 km2, which are close to First Quantum’s Sentinel and Kansanshi, and Barrick’s Lumwana mines. The licenses were previously explored by Equinox Minerals and Anglo American Prospecting Services by way of the Zambezi Joint Venture through Anglo’s affiliate Zamanglo Prospecting during the late 1990s as part of the Kabompo project.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – New midtier gold aspirant Shallow Reefs Gold is in the process of being built in South Africa to mine the shallow reefs of South Africa’s historic Witwatersrand Gold Basin. Shallow Reefs Gold has former Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu and former Exxaro chairperson Sipho Nkosi on board and is taking steps to leverage well-known shallow deposits, some of them already served by mining infrastructure. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Shallow Reefs Gold is targeting 200 000 oz/y gold production over the next decade from a pipeline of “well-known, high-quality shallow gold deposits” in the Witwatersrand Gold Basin and there is a firm belief that South Africa’s significant endowment has the capacity to create growth, jobs and community upliftment at a time of desperate need as a country. “We fully anticipate that we’re going to see a continued acceleration of the gold price, both in US dollars and in emerging market currencies. We’re seeing an incredibly strong emerging bull market in precious metals and we’re seeing huge pressure on the rand,” said Shallow Gold Reefs’ Mark Gilbert, the CEO of Nupen Staude de Vries and former MD of Macquarie Bank in both South Africa and Europe. He was addressing day two of 2020 Junior Indaba Online, covered by Mining Weekly. “This is not purely a South African-based trend. This is happening across the continent. All emerging markets are struggling with currency pressures right now,” he said, adding that real tangible assets such as gold, platinum, copper and mining assets – “anything that is not denominated in its fundamental form in currency” – were likely to outperform materially over the medium to long term, said Gilbert. “In our opinion, this represents a huge opportunity for South Africa, potentially the largest economic windfall of our lifetimes for mining companies. We’ve missed the 2008 commodities boom, largely due to the political environment. In our opinion, we cannot miss it again. We’re going back into another boom market, particularly for precious metals, but again for all real assets. As a commodity-rich economy and continent with significant need for economic growth, this is a windfall that we cannot afford to miss. “In South Africa, we’ve got some of the best underground mining people on the world. We’ve got the skills and the resources. The critical third leg is capital. I’ve personally spent a huge amount of time outside of the country trying to raise capital. It’s not easy, but we believe the winds are shifting simply by virtue of economics. “The risk and reward equation is moving in South Africa and Africa’s favour, in our opinion, and again we’re starting to see that in the share price performance of our listed miners. All parties need to come to the table – government, unions, mines. If we do, I believe capital markets will reward South Africa because the economics will just simply make sense and at the end of the day, economics trumps. “On gold, we need a new strategy for tackling the Wits. We have to view the Wits through a different lens. In South Africa, if you find a five-million-ounce gold deposit with a grade of 4 g/t in situ, it is considered uneconomic. In the rest of the world, if you find the same deposit, you’ve got a listed mining company,” Gilbert pointed out. “A lot of it is regulatory, the environment and the narrative, but geology and economics don’t change. So, those deposits are as mineable in South Africa as they are anywhere else in the world. “South African gold mining has developed down two paths. We see ultradeep-level mining at Mponeng and South Deep and others. They are technological marvels and profitable at these gold price levels but with massive sunk capital behind them and hence absolutely committed to their strategy, and it is the right strategy for that mining capital. The marginal capital deployment to continue those mines to extend their lives makes sense. “In the ...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa should be an exploration site that contributes to gross domestic product growth and employment creation. “Exploration is the way to go and a priority ,” Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told the 2020 Junior Indaba in his keynote address on Tuesday. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The Minister assured the conference of the commitment of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to strengthen its administrative capacity to ensure transparency and short turnaround times for the processing of mining and prospecting licenses. He said the future development of South Africa’s mining and minerals industry rested with the junior mining sector. “We invite the industry to work with us,” Mantashe told the virtual online conference for explorers, developers and investors in junior mining, which was moderated by mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel. Mantashe has set a target for South Africa to move from 1% of global exploration dollars to an ambitious 5% within the next five years. Mantashe said that sterile mines should be revived and new minerals discovered. To support this, the quality of geoscience information available for investors was being improved, a comprehensive exploration implementation plan being developed and R268.3-million had been allocated for the geoscience research library and geological mapping for exploration of mining. “We would like to encourage junior miners to work with the Council for Geoscience,” said Mantashe, who gave recognition to the critical attributes that support junior mining exploration activities including: regulatory certainty, transparency in licensing system; investment in precompetitive geology; and tackling the barrier of access to funding, including potentially through the flow-through shares concept. Black economic empowerment ownership had been omitted at the exploration phase and the Council for Geoscience had been directed to: Artisanal mining was being formalised to create an avenue to mine sterilised deposits and the small-scale mining framework implemented as part of the economic recovery plan. “As we develop a comprehensive programme to support junior miners, we will finalise work underway with development finance institutions and the private sector,” Mantashe told the conference covered by Mining Weekly. DMRE had, as of April 1, had approved R38-million for rehabilitation costs, exploration and the capitalisation of small-scale projects.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Coal mining companies need to start looking at creating their own profitable circular economies around existing coal assets because it is possible, says African Source Markets CEO Bevan Jones. African Source Markets provides the Weekly Coal Index Report, which is published to provide weekly commodity indices for standardised grades of coal, together with a brief market commentary, historical pricing and prevailing forward curve. “There are lots of ways at looking to different coal waste streams and turning them to our advantage,” Jones said in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) As the world moves away from fossil fuels to curb climate change, it is envisaged that coal mines, coal mineworkers and members of coal mine communities could transition to new sustainable revenue generation across the energy, biomass and agricultural spectrum. Areas of business that could be embarked upon – as part of the required just transition as Eskom closes coal-fired power stations and mineworkers are offered occupations outside of coal mining – include: producing biochar from coal; producing activated carbon from coal slimes; generating brown hydrogen and electricity from underground coal gasification (UCG) operations; turning disused underground coal mines into hydropower pumped storage schemes; recovering water from acid mine drainage; growing and recovering precious metals and minerals from phyto planting; developing myco remediation to grow food and textiles; and growing forests on mine property to mitigate against climate change enabling companies to lower their Scope 3 emissions under the Paris agreement on climate change. All of these opportunities create a diverse range of jobs with multiplier effects with the finite horizon of coal mining being given a new infinite horizon on the same land, which creates a potentially much-improved business environment for communities. “I think the future is potentially very bright but coal miners need to think beyond what they’re currently just focussing on,” Jones commented. Coal mines would themselves potentially transition from being coal mines to being integrated energy, agri and higher-priced product producers. “Top soil, water and hydrogen are the commodities of the future that we’re all going to rely on because food, ultimately, is one of our core requirements. Agri jobs are going to be around forever whereas a coal job is only going to be around for as long as somebody needs to burn coal, which is not that much, unfortunately, I don’t think,” said Jones. “One of the big things for me is what’s happening with biochar, for instance, and we’re finding that carbon in the soil is really where it belongs and where it has belonged for billions of years in terms of drawdown of carbon dioxide (CO2), specifically through plants." FINES AND SLIMES TO ACTIVATED CARBON On the coal mine side, there is a major waste issue with coal fines and slimes waste streams, which can be pyrolysised. Even fairly moist slimes can be put through a pyrolysis process, which drives off the volatiles and increases the fixed carbon to about 85%. Biochar, a very high form of charcoal able to hold a significant amount of water, is the outcome. Biochar can be used in compost and can be inoculated with efficient microbes. It can be taken a step further to produce activated carbon, which sells at many times the price of coal and which is used in water purification and to clean up oil and chemical spills. The structure of biochar and activated carbon also has the capacity to store hydrogen. “As a hydrogen storage mechanism, it’s a fantastic tool as well. As the hydrogen economy gets under way, we can probably find there is a significant role for coal and coal derivatives to play,” said Jones. PHYTO REMEDIATION AND NICKEL Coal mines and coal processing plants tend to be very acidic and heavy-metal intensive...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The struggling electricity-intensive South African ferrochrome industry, which has taken significant strides to increase its efficiency and reduce its electricity consumption, needs urgent steps to be taken to enable it to restore its competitiveness. The most far-reaching of these is the proposed imposition by the Cabinet of a tax on the export of chrome ore, coupled to the industry itself adopting energy efficient cogeneration and self-generation technologies at smelters to lessen its dependence on Eskom, which has increased the price of electricity by 523% in the last decade. “The South African ferroalloys industry is closing shop on a daily basis,” Richards Bay Alloys CEO Andries van Heerden stated in a Zoom interview on Wednesday. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) This is despite the huge effort to increase the efficiency of South African smelters, which, outside of Eskom power, are very competitive. In the past two years, nearly 40% of South Africa’s ferrochrome production has either been closed or mothballed, Minerals Council South Africa said in a media release this week. As reportedly by Mining Weekly in August, the global ferrochrome business itself remains solid and there is still a large amount of ferrochrome required in the world, but most of the production of ferrochrome occurs in plants in China that use mainly South African chrome ore owing to South Africa not being competitive in respect of electricity prices. The ferrochrome industry has for long been doing everything it can to cut its electricity consumption through the use of alternative electricity sources, green energy and increase its own operational efficiencies. But beyond that, there is not much that it can do, which is why the chrome export tax is seen as being essential as a means of levelling the playing field. Mining Weekly can report that China, which does not host any chrome, imported 79% of its chrome ore in 2019 from South Africa, compared with 76% in 2018, with 99% of the ferrochrome produced being used in stainless steel, production of which grew from 51.4-million tonnes in 2018 to 51.9-million tonnes in 2019. Approximately 3.6-million tonnes of the world's ferrochrome production of 14-million tonnes was supplied by South Africa in 2019, and more than 72% of the world's chrome reserves are held by the South African chrome industry, which at one stage provided 200 000 direct and indirect jobs and was a major contributor to South Africa’s gross domestic product. PLANT CONVERSION IN RICHARDS BAY For Richards Bay Alloys, it is not really the high price of electricity that concerns it most but rather the extent to which South Africa has lost market share to China. In 2012, South Africa was overtaken as the biggest ferrochrome producer and Van Heerden estimated that by 2021, two-thirds of the world’s ferrochrome would be produced by China, while the South African ferrochrome industry, in contrast, just keeps getting smaller and smaller. It was also further disturbing, Van Heerden said, that upper group two (UG2) chromite ore, mined by platinum group metals (PGMs) miners, was being exported at prices significantly cheaper than the LG6 and MG4 ore supplied from companies engaged primarily in chrome mining rather than PGMs mining. “Our opinion is that the export tax proposed on to ores will have no detrimental effect on the local miners in South Africa. The only thing that will happen is a portion of their market will move back to South Africa. “It’s also interesting that some of these producers actually wish to beneficiate in South Africa. However, due to the risk in South Africa in terms of Eskom pricing and labour the easy way out is to export rather than build smelters or close down the smelters that they have. That’s why we believe tax on ore would be beneficial to the South African community and South Africa as a whole," Van Heerden contended. Richards Bay Alloys, whi...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A flow-through share model is being tailor-made to stimulate badly neglected mining exploration in South Africa, Minerals Council South Africa junior and emerging miners leadership forum chairperson Errol Smart said on Tuesday. Speaking to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, Smart expressed excitement at four large South African legal tax accounting firms arriving at a proposal that has drawn an initial tentative nod of approval from the South African Revenue Service (SARS). (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Intensive discussion has been under way with the Council for Geoscience and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, whose director-general Advocate Thabo Mokoena earlier this month pledged at the Joburg Indaba that a comprehensive exploration strategy would be developed in the next three months. In addition, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has set a target for South Africa to attract 3% to 5% of global exploration dollars within the next five years. Without an efficient tax incentive system in place this will not be possible. “We have to kickstart exploration. Mining is slowly but surely dwindling in South Africa because we’re basically exhausting the discovered mineral resources. For the last 25 to 35 years, there haven’t been virgin discoveries made, because nobody has been exploring,” said Smart, who as CEO of the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed Orion Minerals is engaged in mining development and exploration in the Northern Cape. Minds have been applied to ensure the support of Treasury and SARS. “We can’t take away their tax earnings from those making taxable profits but we need to somehow incentivise people to invest in the high-risk world of exploration and exploration development,” Smart said. What the flow-through share model does is create a contract between the exploration company and the taxpayer wanting to invest and SARS. The example given is that a taxpayer, who makes R1-million in taxable profits, elects to invest that R1-million in the flow-through shares of a junior exploration company that spends the R1-million on allowable exploration, and sacrifices R1-million of future tax shield. When a discovery is made that leads to the development of a mining project, this will have a positive impact across the fiscus as well as on job creation. THE STATUS OF EXPLORATION IN SOUTH AFRICA South Africa’s mining exploration budget has decreased from $404-million in 2007 to considerably less than $100-million in 2018 and South Africa’s share of global exploration budgets has decreased to 1% in 2018. A country that does not explore for new minerals runs the risk of being marginalised as a mining jurisdiction. Exploration is a high-risk activity. Large mining houses largely engage in brownfield exploration, however most greenfield exploration is conducted by junior mining companies, which rely on venture capital raised in capital markets. Tax incentives are necessary to attract investors into exploration ventures. The Canadians have been highly successful in developing these specialist junior exploration companies largely by using the flow-through share tax incentive model to attract equity investors into the sector. S&P Global estimates that exploration spend grew beyond $10.5-billion in 2019. Using data from a topical junior mining company to calculate the economic contribution of the exploration stage, two scenarios were modelled, one based on South Africa’s exploration budget increasing by 1% and another on it increasing by 5%. On a 1%-higher exploration budget of R1.8-billion, 5 500 jobs could be created at a total potential impact on tax revenue of R532-million while on a 5%-higher exploration budget of $8.8-billion, 27 700 jobs could be created at a total potential impact on tax revenue of R2.7-billion. Mining is a significant driver of the South African economy. For example, in 2019 mining contributed 7.8% t...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The definitive feasibility study for the installation of a revolutionary new electricity-slashing processing plant at Pilanesberg platinum mine in the North West will be completed next month in time for an investment decision from the shareholders in KellTechnology South Africa, which are Pallinghurst’s Sedibelo Platinum Mines, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Lifezone Limited. The electricity consumption of the amazing Kell process is 20% that of the electricity consumption of smelting, the current conventional method of processing platinum group metals (PGMs). (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Southern Africa’s current PGMs processing infrastructure is massively energy intensive, primarily through the use of the high-temperature smelting that originated more than 100 years ago. The significant lowering of this colossal energy intensity would be of great assistance to South Africa’s struggling economy, as this country’s electricity shortage is one of the most prominent obstacles to a faster economic recovery, the South African Reserve Bank has categorically stated. South Africa’s current PGMs smelting/refining sector uses 5 000 GWh. In a hypothetical scenario where Kell replaced the current pyrometallurgical processes, nearly 4 000 GWh could be returned to the South African power pool – virtually the capacity of the new Medupi power station, which is the eighth largest coal-fired power station in the world. The far-reaching Kell process comes at a third of the capital cost of smelting/refining and at half of its operating cost. End products can be customised and the proposed Sedibelo Kell plant will be producing refined 99.95% PGM metal products. Locked up ‘work in progress’ PGMs inventory is 90% lower, releasing working capital and shortening payment pipelines from several months for smelters down to a month or so. In fact, for a mining company that is currently selling concentrate, the release of locked up working capital can pay more than half of the cost of a Kell plant. Kell’s ability to recover cobalt has resulted in discussions with potential South African companies that are interested in manufacturing electric vehicle (EV) batteries domestically in South Africa. Kell’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from concentrate to final refined metals are only 19% of the CO2 emissions caused by the current smelting/refining route. Kell emits zero sulphur dioxide (SO2) and converts the sulphide minerals into a stable and benign gypsum product and its water consumption is negligible. Insensitive to the chrome content in the concentrate, Kell ensures that there are no harsh penalties when chrome levels are exceeded. Kell produces refined metals at the mine site and thus generates more skilled jobs at the mine site. Overall metal recoveries are comparable with traditional smelting-refining and in some cases higher. The proposed Pilanesberg plant has already obtained its environmental approvals. HYDROMETALLURGY ECLIPSES PYROMETALLURGY Kell is essentially a hydrometallurgical process, involving key elements being leached and re-leached. There is a little pyrometallurgical bit in the middle involving material being put through a kiln to render the precious metals leachable again after having taken up base metals, but this involves only heating and not smelting. Essentially, the pyrometallurgy, through smelting, is the big sledgehammer being used to crack a nut by smashing it to smithereens as a way of extracting benefit out of it. “What we do is, with a pair of nutcrackers, just open it up and then extract the kernels out,” Lifezone director Keith Liddell explained to Mining Weekly during a Zoom interview in which he let it be known protection of the technology has been enhanced by four new patents granted globally, one for refractory gold concentrates that enables production of refined gold at the mine site without use of cyanide. Lithiu...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The upcoming platinum demand of Hyundai alone could come close to taking up the total annual production of one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines. Hyundai has stated categorically, in a double-page advertisement in The Economist of London, that it will be making 700 000 fuel cell stacks a year by 2030. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) While Hyundai has not given exact platinum loadings for the fuel cell stacks, it is estimated that each fuel cell stack will require about 1 oz of platinum, which would total 700 000 oz of platinum per year, just for Hyundai alone. "That’s almost equivalent to what Rustenburg produces annually, so it’s a significant amount of demand,” World Platinum Investment Council director of research Trevor Raymond commented to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. “If you talk 2030, there’s a debate on whether you’ll have either one-million or five-million fuel cell passenger vehicles on the road, and that’s ten years out. What Hyundai is saying is that a third of the 700 000 stacks will go into trucks, with two stacks per truck, or about 2 oz per truck, which still leaves 500 000 oz going into cars," said Raymond. At the moment Toyota's Mirai and Hyundai's Nexo cars also use about an ounce, which should come down with mass production over time. "So, what Hyundai is saying is that they probably believe that they’ll be somewhere between 300 000 or 500 000 vehicles that will be fuel cell Hyundais as part of a larger global fleet, and that fleet is growing quite aggressively in China,” he added. The likely demand for platinum in the short term comes from heavy duty trucks. Hyundai Xcient fuel cell trucks are being rolled out in Europe. Toyota has put the Mirai content into Class 8 fuel cell trucks and these are being trialled at the Port of Los Angeles, in the US. There are many bus fleets around the world, particularly in Shanghai and Beijing and in the north of China, that are converting to fuel cell. “That demand is quite good but from heavy duty trucks, you’re probably looking at 100 000 oz to 300 000 oz of platinum demand in the next three years, so that suddenly becomes material to short-term interest,” Raymond pointed out. HYDROGEN PRODUCTION IS SECOND BIG CHANGE Most hydrogen has been produced by stripping the hydrogen from fossil fuels in a process called steam reforming, which is not decarbonising. To make green hydrogen, electrolysis can be used. If that electrolysis is powered by a coal-fired power station, it is also not decarbonising. But when solar power, wind energy and renewables are used to generate hydrogen through electrolysis, green hydrogen is produced. “If we can sustainably use wind and solar to generate hydrogen from water, that’s really the sustainable route into the future, and that’s really the game-changer,” said Raymond. One route uses the fuel cell for the electrolysis, with platinum and iridium cathodes and with iridium also a platinum group metal (PGM). Until recently, the amount of iridium required was far more than yearly iridium but a new iridium catalyst made by German company Heraeus contains 50% to 90% less iridium than conventional products – plus up to three times higher catalyst performance, Heraeus said. The lower precious metal content of the Heraeus product reduces costs by up to 43%, rendering green hydrogen affordable. “What we do see in the generation of this green hydrogen is maybe another 100 000 oz to 200 000 oz in the next few years, certainly in the order of 500 000 oz by 2030, of platinum used to generate the electrolysis. “The Heraeus announcement is really a breakthrough because it means you can generate green hydrogen quite effectively. So, certainly short-term platinum demand from trucks and electrolysis and longer-term demand from passenger fuel cell vehicles,” said Raymond. STILL NOT REFLECTED IN THE PLATINUM PRICE Despite the few hundred thousand ounces of plati...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – If you under-invest in environmental impact, it will come back to bite you at some time in the future, just like cutting back on development used to do in the old days, former Eskom, Gencor, Billiton, Xstrata and X2 Resources mining doyen Sir Mick Davis said at the Joburg Indaba. Davis said this in conversation with Rothschild & Co senior mining adviser Fiona Perrott-Humphrey after criticising the current dividend focus of mining majors, which was placing their companies on the road to share price decline through their lack of capital investment in value replacement: “Every single day that they take something out of the ground, that value disappears forever, and unless you do something to replace that value, you are going to end up withering and dying,” said Davis, who pointed to South Africa’s former Rand Mines as an example of no longer existing because of the absence of investment in rebuilding and recreating value. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Perrott-Humphrey’s response was that she is in total agreement with Davis on the gulf that has to be bridged between mining majors and investors on the dividends-ahead-of-capital-investment emphasis: “I totally agree with you, there is a fear at the board level now in big groups of having been accused of excess capital spend in the past, and this complete focus now on no capital spend.” Perrott-Humphrey then went on to draw attention to cutbacks on environmental, social and governance (ESG) having a similar negative impact. “There has also been the cutback, when paring costs, on things like ESG, which is why we’ve seen some of the disasters that have resulted. So, do you think part of the conversation also has to be, if you want us to do proper ESG, there is also a cost there and there is less coming through because of the dividend?” she asked. “The answer to that is yes,” said Davis. “When you have the urgent need to cut costs, clearly the things that you cut generally are not really good for you in the long term. “In the old days, the easiest way of actually improving your receipt from cut costs was to cut back on development, because you don't actually see the negative aspects of cutting back on development until maybe a year or so later – but you can have an immediate impact on costs. “If you under-invest in environmental impact, and safety, and stuff like that, again, it comes back to bite you at some time in the future, so invariably those things require investment. “But, you know, I’ve generally found that improvements in productivity and output go hand-in-hand with investments in these areas, so I don’t think that because you have the appropriate amount of energy of investment in things like ESG, and ensuring that your maintenance regimes are right and your development’s right, actually is an increase in costs, with no benefit,” Davis said. “I actually think it goes hand-in-hand with improvements in productivity and I think you finally get that back. So, I don’t actually think that ultimately there’s a trade-off. I think you need to make the case for why you do it, but I think you gain almost immediate benefit, aside from the direct aspect of ensuring you’re not creating the risk by under-investing in those areas. “But the bigger challenge is that, as you say, mining companies have always been accused of excessive investment and destroying capital, and it is true that that is what has happened, over many years. “When you and I were starting out in this sector, you as an analyst and me as a young executive, we were right at the heart of the era when mining companies, controlled and dominated by engineers and geologists, were spending huge amounts of money, which was never ever going to be returned, and there certainly wasn’t going to be a return on that investment. “And then we go through cycles, and then some of the accountants take over and they focus on return on investment, and things get better, bu...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – As the world’s largest marketer of platinum group metals (PGMs), Anglo American is investing in South Africa’s hydrogen economy, including through a joint venture with the State-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani said on Wednesday. In a keynote address on day one of the Joburg Indaba, Cutifani described South Africa’s (PGMs endowment as being of unique advantage over many other mining jurisdictions. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The investment with the PIC would, he said, develop the market for PGMs by providing startup capital to businesses that use PGM-based technologies in their products and processes. “This substantial investment is geared to stimulate and sustain the demand for South Africa’s PGMs in the long term, while preserving the mineral wealth of all South Africans, and how we do this together is both an imperative for the industry, for all South Africans, for the government, and together we’ve got to partner and do things differently,” he told more than 300 attendees of the virtual event chaired by mining personality Bernard Swanepoel. Cutifani encouraged all major PGM producers to “put up and become part of the development of the future for our products and not simply take the benefits of mining in of itself”. As has been reported by Mining Weekly, Anglo and the PIC market PGMs through their support of the independent venture capital fund, AP Ventures, which is also backed by the Mitsubishi Corporation, the Toyota-linked Mirai Creation Fund and Plastic Omnium. Mining Weekly can add that South Africa’s abundant supply of PGMs is critical to the success of many existing and emerging technologies. Showing development and growth particularly is the hydrogen sector and it is now commonly accepted that hydrogen has a significant role to play in decarbonising energy, which is positive for the PGMs industry as it is set to be a major source of new demand. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is a versatile, zero-emission efficient energy carrier with a high energy density. It can be stored in large quantities and for long periods of time, characteristics which make it an ideal solution for optimising the integration of renewable energy. The Hydrogen Council, of which Anglo is a founder member, estimates that hydrogen could represent 18% of global energy demand by 2050. PwC African mining leader Andries Rossouw said during the virtual release of the professional services firm’s twelfth edition of SA Mine on Tuesday that hydrogen had the potential to be a game-changer for the South African economy. Cutifani said that a project that signalled Anglo’s commitment to particularly green hydrogen is its hydrogen truck, being developed in partnership with global energy company Engie. He pointed out that Engie would be the provider of the hydrogen generation solutions and Anglo the developer of the huge haul truck. “This collaboration marks the first time a truck of this size – about 300 t – and load capacity has been converted to run on hydrogen,” Cutifani told the Joburg Indaba. The initial development of this hydrogen-powered truck in 2021 will be followed by a testing and validation programme at Anglo American’s Mogalakwena mine, in Limpopo, after which the trucks are expected to be deployed at Anglo’s other operations. “We chose Mogalakwena as the right place to start this work, in terms of PGMs, being at home using hydrogen and demonstrating in South Africa that we’re at the forefront of mining research, which is what we should be about,” said Cutifani. “The haul truck use case is compelling from an economic, environmental and technical perspective. Using solar energy to produce the hydrogen – in other words green hydrogen – it will also allow us to more easily expand the use of hydrogen into other parts of our operations once established – and it also provides us with a pathway towards carbon neutr...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Hydrogen has the potential to be a game-changer for the South African economy, PwC African mining leader Andries Rossouw said on Tuesday. Speaking during the virtual release of the professional services firm’s twelfth edition of SA Mine, a series of publications that highlights trends in the South African mining industry, Rossouw said for the mining industry to succeed in the future it needed to be cost-competitive and a big part of being cost competitive was the liberalisation of the energy environment. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Key findings of the SA Mine report were: in 2020, total market capitalisation increased to R1280-billion from R840-billion. This total is a R439-billion, or 52%, year-on-year increase from 2019, largely attributed to the increase in market capitalisation of companies within the gold and platinum group metal (PGM) sectors; the total revenue generated by the South African mining industry for the year ended June 30 grew by 4%. This was mainly driven by PGMs, gold and iron-ore, which saw increases in revenue for the 12-month period; and production decreased by 8% year-on-year, with a 44% decrease in production noted in April as a result of the pandemic – the most significant of which was owing to reductions in gold, diamonds and PGM outputs. On the energy front, Rossouw said it was an ask from both Eskom and the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy for mining companies to start investing into energy, following major pre-Covid electricity outages and load-shedding. “We’re starting to see that come through with more mining companies announcing that they are considering investing into solar and wind in order to support their operations and reduce carbon taxes that will required in the future. “Storage is still an issue when you’re only working with renewables and we do believe that hydrogen can actually be a game-changer for this in our country. We’ve got the PGMs to support the hydrogen economy, we’ve got the renewable energy to support green hydrogen and we believe hydrogen can be a game changer for our economy in the future,” Rossouw said. There had been wide recognition during Covid that there was an absolute need to “build back better” and the mining industry would be an essential part of “building back better” for the country. PGMS OVERTAKE COAL AS SOUTH AFRICA’S BIGGEST REVENUE PRODUCER Over the 12 months, PGMs overtook coal as South Africa’s biggest revenue generator for the first time since 2010, with gold in third position followed by iron-ore. In response to Mining Weekly during question time, on whether PGMs have the legs to stay in the lead, Rossouw said there was just not enough rhodium at the moment despite the need for it in the regulations to control nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions. Close to 90% of all the world’s rhodium is produced from the upper group two orebodies, which exist predominantly within South Africa’s Bushveld Complex, and rhodium’s shortage has caused its price to soar well beyond that of gold. “If you look at the regulations for NOx, it’s particularly on the rhodium side that there are increased loadings. Technology is not catching up fast enough in order to reduce the amount of rhodium. So, while we’ve got vehicles driving, fuel vehicles and also hybrid vehicles, the demand for rhodium will stay high. “At the current price levels, that’s not deal. I think everyone in the industry would recognise that when prices are that high, perhaps it’s not ideal. But that will continue to drive rhodium for some time. “The palladium side is really a catalytic converter play at the moment, it’s a focus on that, and the big move from diesel small vehicles to fuel vehicles in Europe is also a big part of it. There is some success in studies around substitution, with Impala and Sibanye mentioned in some of those, and that substitution in the long run will eventually have to move things back to equilibrium...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s one-size-fits-all mining legislation is losing vital jobs for the country in the job-intensive alluvial diamonds space that requires regulations tailored to junior mining to survive, South African Diamond Producers Organisation (Sadpo) reiterated on Monday. Because there are so many alluvial deposits in South Africa, Sadpo is asking for alluvial diamonds to play a more prominent role in the economy in general and job creation in particular. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The problem is that the regulations have always been written for the big kimberlite mines that produce a very specific population of diamonds – and the number of marginal alluvial miners are diminishing under the strain, along with worryingly high unemployment rates in rural areas. In a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly, Sadpo chairperson Gert van Niekerk and Sadpo deputy chairperson Lyndon De Meillon outlined the rich rewards South Africa could harvest with the right regulations that lowered the cost of doing business. Compared with its heyday between the 1990s and early 2000s, today’s alluvial diamond mining sector is but a shadow of its former self, but with the potential to boost many times over the 5 500 people currently employed in it, provided the legislative framework is corrected. In today’s market, one would have to typically mine 60 000 t/m of these low-grade 0.25 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) diamonds, found routinely in the Northern Cape. To achieve that, 50 people need to be employed in a two-pan set up that will yield about 150 ct a month or about 50 stones a month, the typical production of a junior diamond miner of this kind. Displayed by Sadpo was a group of a typical monthly production output – with one large stone. “If you don’t find the one large stone, you're in trouble. The rest of the smaller stones will not cover expenses. “So, in a nutshell, that’s what our business is about – volume and special stones – but the current legislation makes it very difficult for us to mine in this way,” said De Meillon, an independent diamond producer and owner of Paleostone Mining, which has two operating alluvial diamond mines. De Meillon is a geologist with an honours degree in geology and a master’s degree in oceanography. He has been in the diamond business for 28 years. He assures Mining Weekly that South Africa’s globally unique and exceptional deposits can be successfully exploited with robust geological modelling, experience, low-cost operations and technology advances. But a faster enabling environment must be established and legislation introduced to open the way for the country’s small and junior mining sector to create wealth and jobs. Sadpo’s emphasis is that the situation should not be as dire as it has become, given the remaining widespread and voluminous alluvial diamond deposits in Namaqualand, the Northern Cape and the North West province. New technologies are now able to detect undiscovered greenfields and ensure that significant alluvial gravels that were previously unworkable are now workable and marine wise, the surface has barely been touched, Van Niekerk emphasised. “There’s a huge deposit still lying off our shores on the West Coast,” Van Niekerk said. Bulk X-ray units have made diamond recovery more efficient, and the high-tech, containerised recovery systems and closed-circuit camera systems can be observed and managed remotely. They have also assisted in limiting product theft and shrinkage. Sadpo has 130 members and is also affiliated to Minerals Council South Africa, which is campaigning for government to make it easier for new small mining entrants. “The smaller the operation, the higher the job creation ability,” Van Niekerk said. But the mere application for a small 5 ha mining permit, before the applicant has even bought a pick and shovel, costs R150000. In Sadpo’s opinion, this should not cost more than R5000. Alluvial op...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The unlisted Sedibelo Platinum in South Africa’s North West province is closer to finding a stock exchange listing date, says Pallinghurst managing partner and co-founder and Sedibelo chairperson Arne Frandsen, who is absolutely bullish about the prospects for platinum group metals (PGMs) in the medium to long term. “Yes, at some stage we should be listed. Are we closer to finding a listing date? Yes, we are. Is the market better? Yes, it is. So, the ducks are quacking, I accept that. We’ll definitely look at it out of the notion that a listing will be something beneficial for the business and not just listing for listing’s sake,” Frandsen stated in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “I’m an ex-banker who feels that being listed is good, so, yes, there was a desire at one stage to be listed. But again, when markets were bad and platinum companies were trading at very low valuations, why would you be listed if you didn’t need the money? So, we slowed our pace and focused on being profitable, even at these very low platinum prices, and, yes, that’s not conventional. Typically, you’d like to be listed and all of that, but our shareholders are very patient,” said Frandsen. Among Sedibelo's key shareholders are the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela community and the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). Currently producing 150 000 oz/y, Sedibelo has the resources to double, treble or even quadruple that output. Through ten years of PGM permafrost, Sedibelo managed not to go to shareholders a single time and has remained debt-free. Now that it is growing muscles, it is expected to start flexing those muscles by producing more ounces. In South Africa, Pallinghurst is invested in PGMs and manganese and, in Canada, it is invested in graphite and lithium battery materials. In Canada, it works with Investissement Québec in a similar fashion to the way it works with the IDC in South Africa. On whether the Johannesburg Stock Exchange would likely feature as a stock exchange of choice should an initial public offering eventuate for Sedibelo, Frandsen retorted: “Guaranteed, it will be one of our listings, hundred per cent.” Pallinghurst sees the demand for battery raw materials expanding in a manner not dissimilar to the steel raw materials super-cycle of a decade ago – and foresees PGMs following suit through fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and green hydrogen development. Driving battery electric vehicles (EVs) and FCEVs are increasingly stricter government regulations and consumer demand for green energy options. In the global public sector, China, Germany, Japan, Korea and California have adopted far-reaching climate-mitigation measures, including PGM-boosting hydrogen strategies, while in the global private sector, several large automotive manufacturers have proclaimed their strong commitment to fuel cell production, the most vocal of these being Hyundai, which in a double-page advertisement in this week’s Economist shouts from the rooftops that it will be making 700 000 fuel cell stacks a year by 2030, nearly a third of which will go to trucks, shipping and even home appliances. This is the comment of Hyundai fuel cell centre head Dr Saehoon Kim: "The driver of a FCEV can refuel quickly at a road-side station and this same fuel cell technology can also power heating systems, generators, machinery and heavy transport. As FCEVs become more common on city streets, the growing availability of green hydrogen will make them a reliably zero-emission option." One kilogram of hydrogen powers a Hyundai Nexo crossover special utility vehicle (SUV) for 100 km compared with some crossover SUVs using nine litres of petrol to go the same distance. Pallinghurst has committed $1-billion for investment and recently concluded financing transactions totalling C$20-million with Toronto Stock Exchange-Venture-listed Nouveau Monde, which is developing ...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Doing the ordinary tasks extraordinarily well is the current short-term tactic of platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) under new CEO Natascha Viljoen, who is intent on stretching the company’s existing assets to their full capacity. “We don’t deserve the right to grow unless we know that the assets we have are absolutely optimised,” Viljoen said during a Coronation Fund Managers webinar, covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) In the last four months, going back to basics had produced rich returns, despite Covid, Viljoen emphasised under questioning from Coronation’s Pallavi Ambekar about where she would be taking the company in the next five to ten years. The best starting response to the question, she said, would be to give credit to her predecessor Chris Griffith and his team for having already strategically simplified what was a very complex business, during very challenging times of low commodity prices. Viljoen credited Griffith with turning the business around by reducing in all-in sustaining costs significantly and, in spite of fundamental business restructuring, increasing production. As there was no longer a need for hard decision-making and tree pruning, the opportunity now was to make sure that the assets in hand were stretched to their full capacity, she emphasised. What was needed now was to maximise the gains already made, something that was not strategic but very tactical and exemplified by drilling holes for blasting in the right place and at the right depth. “People have that in their heads, but we haven’t institutionalised it and made it part of the DNA of the business. In the last four months, despite Covid, just by going back to basics, we’ve seen record productions month-on-month at our openpit Mogalakwena mine. “Going back to basics, first point, making it part of who we are and how we work, through our operating model, and then putting technology and digital as overlays in that to make sure that we don’t lose that capability again,” Viljoen said.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining Weekly on Wednesday watched a cabinless emission-free next-generation mining vehicle autonomously load, haul and dump in an underground mine, without a human in sight. The cabinless design places emphasis on the extent to which human operation is becoming a thing of the past and the emission-free electric power highlights the urgent need for underground mining to clean up its act. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The AutoMine Concept Vehicle is Sandvik’s comment on where it thinks underground mining must head and it was made forcefully at the company's virtual event aimed at showcasing mining innovation. Remarkably, the concept vehicle is able to analyse more than one-million points every second, which enables it to self-sense the environment in three dimensions (3D) and take its own decisions. In pitch black darkness, it knows how to react. When a human pedestrian did eventually appear in its path, the prototype machine came to a perfectly safe halt. This type of vehicle must be able to work among people and manual machinery, without the need for area isolation or safety gates. Its onboard collision detection system is based on what it sees. Obstacles and collision risks are continuously analysed, without the help of tags or external systems. It travels at its own safe speeds, according to the traffic rules and the situation. If it spots collision risk, it slows down, coming to a complete halt only if it needs to. To set new tasks, the machine’s image is dragged across a screen in the direction it is required to go. All this is carried out on a map created by the machine itself. At Sandvik’s Tampere Test Mine in Finland, digital attendees went on a virtual tour of the control room, where the machine’s 3D and all-angle vision of the world were highlighted. The vehicle designs its own trajectory in accordance with given tasks, using what it has learnt about the underground environment in which it operates. If it needs to turn, it self-decides how best to do that. “The machine shows us very clearly what it’s planning to do and then does exactly that. The system is very transparent and predictable and springs no sudden surprises,” Sandvik research, technology and digitisation lead Jussi Puura assured the virtual audience. With no diesel engine on board, it is fully emissionless, with the battery-electric driver providing a new level of precision and control. “For the first time, we’ll probably reveal the concept for what the future of underground autonomous mining will look like,” said Sandvik global product line manager automation David Hallett. Sandvik has been supplying mine automation solutions since 2004. “This concept vehicle incapsulates the vast experience in technological expertise that Sandvik’s gained in this field over the past 20 years. With this concept vehicle, we have the ability to not only showcase our future technologies, but build the foundation for the next generation automation platform,” Hallett added.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The local extraction of carbide inserts can create job opportunities for communities living around mines – “a true win, win, win situation for society, our customers and ourselves”, Sandvik rock tools division VP Nina Axman enthused on Tuesday. Sandvik is developing a new recycling process that will improve the quality of the recycled carbide to the same level as virgin, Axman revealed during the rock tool company's virtual international event, covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Using recycled carbide can also reduce the carbon footprint from cemented carbide insert production by as much as 60% to 70%, she told the digital attendees of the innovation in mining event, which showcased a line-up of innovative rock drilling, rock cutting and loading and hauling product offerings, along with electrification and automation. A rock drill facility and test mine were toured virtually; interaction took place in virtual booths including one-on-ones with Sandvik representatives and questions being put in real time. “We have a global challenge on our hands. In order to fulfil the Paris Agreement and keep global warming well below the stipulated 2 °C target, we need to basically halve carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each decade and reach a net zero position by 2045,” Sandvik rock tools division president Jens Holmberg pointed out. In 2019, global CO2 emissions reached a staggering 37-billion tonnes. Reducing that by half, or 18.5-billion tonnes, would mean to reduce by an equivalent of 7.5-billion fossil-fuel-powered cars. “For the record, there are only about 1.5-billion cars on the roads today. So, at first glance this seems like an overwhelming challenge that would mean we would need to change our way of living and thinking quite substantially. One would also be tempted to think that it would cost a lot to address this challenge. “But an important aspect of sustainability is actually to do more with less and that is, in fact, the very definition of productivity. So, by definition, sustainability and productivity go hand-in-hand,” Holmberg said. Axman revealed that, in 2016, her division generated an estimated 45 000 t of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of 16 500 fossil-fuel-powered cars. “We started taking a hard look at our supply chain and we realised that we did not have the customer service levels that we expected from ourselves and that we were too costly. Since then, we've improved our planning processes and made a shift from air to sea transport, reducing our total CO2 emissions by one-third, or 5 500 fossil-fuel-powered cars. So, as we’re becoming more productive, we’re also becoming more sustainable, and we do not stop at that,” Axman said. RETURNING CEMENTED CARBIDE BACK TO VIRGIN Sandvik is currently focused on greatly improving its recycling of cemented carbide. Cemented carbide is a hard material used extensively as cutting tool material. It consists of fine particles of carbide cemented into a composite by a binder metal and even if a drill bit is spent, good cemented carbide remains in it that can be used to create new carbide. “By developing technology for local extraction of the carbide inserts from the steel body, we can avoid 90% of the transport costs and emissions from the return flow, while at the same time we generate job opportunities in the local communities around the mine. “We’re developing a new recycling process that will improve the quality of the recycled carbide to the same level as virgin. We estimate that, under the assumption of use of clean energy, that using recycled carbides can reduce the carbon footprint from cemented carbide insert production by as much as 60% to 70%. By fully adopting recycled carbide, we could further reduce our CO2 footprint by 2 300 fossil-fuel-powered cars. Sustainability and productivity thus go hand-in-hand," Axman said. EMISSIONS FROM DRILLING, LOADING AND HAULING Of the 1% ...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A German-funded project to develop a green hydrogen atlas across Southern Africa is integrating the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region ahead of the projected opening up of a trillion dollar market going into the future. Funded €5.7-million by the Germany Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa project is also placing Southern Africa on the road to contributing meaningfully to global sustainable development goals. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (Sasscal), which has been turned into Southern Africa’s implementation organisation for the promotion of the Paris Agreement and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, is looking with conviction to the day when green hydrogen is in widespread use across SADC countries and the world as part of the global fight against climate change. Sasscol is committed to the successful implementation of this project in 11 SADC countries. “We’re moving really fast,” Sasscal executive director Dr Jane Olwoch commented to Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, in which she described the green hydrogen atlas project as the starting point of a process to firm up data and validate green hydrogen sweet spots. This is expected to be followed by the building of a pilot plant that is able to demonstrate the competitiveness of Southern African green hydrogen generation ahead of commercialisation. Since the programme was launched in Germany in June, a regional technical committee with high-level technical know-how in renewable energy, climate expertise, water resources and socioeconomics has been established. Online engagement with SADC countries is at an advanced stage and on the horizon are: the introduction of a post-graduate course in green hydrogen to advance academic sustainability in the region; and a visit next year by 15 young scientists to Germany as part of a “seeing is believing” green hydrogen experience. Sasscal has engaged online with ten SADC countries, including Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Eswatini. Namibia and South Africa have established national green hydrogen structures, with the South African team made up of: Dr Rebecca Maserumule, chief director: hydrogen and energy, Department of Science and Innovation (DSI); Professor Timothy Dube of the University of the Western Cape; Dr Darija Susac, research and technology development manager for fuel cells and electrolysers and key programme manager, Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) Catalysis, DSI Centre of Competency, University of Cape Town; Crescent Mushwana, Energy Systems, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Energy Centre; Dr Minesh Bipath, of the South African National Energy Development Institute, who is leading the hydrogen road map work for South Africa; Nomthandazo Mabena of the CSIR, who is working in battery storage technologies and fuel cells; Thomas Roos, a senior CSIR researcher, who has been leading CSIR work on green hydrogen export opportunities for South Africa; and Dr Dmitri Bessarabov of North-West University, who leads HySA Infrastructure in South Africa, under the DSI. “The green hydrogen export market potential is much larger than the local green electricity market,” Roos stated in the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & the Green Economy feature in this week’s Engineering News & Mining Weekly. “Renewable projects built for hydrogen production might even be a way for South Africa to subsidise the strengthening of its physical transmission grid, reducing the cost to the fiscus or existing electricity consumers,” Roos added. In the same feature, Bessarabov stated: “Water electrolysis can be used to produce hydrogen gas on a large scale. This hydro­gen can be stored in different forms and sub­sequently used in various sectors.” HySA Infrastructur...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – What is expected to be South Africa’s least complicated underground gold mine is on the way at Evander, Mpumalanga, in the form of the Egoli gold project. Planning to bring the low-capital quick-return project to life is Pan African Resources, the London-, Johannesburg- and New York-listed mid-tier gold mining company, which is developing an ever-lengthening track record for on-schedule and on-budget organic growth projects that pay for themselves in next to no time. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “Certainly, the near-term growth that we’re now focusing on is the Egoli project at Evander, which is effectively a brownfields project that will take us about 20 months, from when we push the button, to get to first gold, with steady state in 36 months and life of mine initially nine years,” Pan African CEO Cobus Loots told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, following the company’s presentation outstanding results, highlighted by the proposing of a record final dividend of R312.9-million. The Egoli feasibility study calculates that Egoli will operate at a mouth-watering all-in sustaining cost of $777/oz. Egoli requires a materially lower capital investment when benchmarked against other development projects of a similar scale. Payback from inception is 3.8 years on a net present value of R2-billion. An internal rate of return of 50.1% will be achieved on a gold price of $1 650/oz and peak funding is calculated at R1.05-bilion. The recovered grade of 5.2g/t will yield 570 000 oz over nine years and provide employment for 1 200 people. “We don’t have to take risk on the sinking of a vertical shaft. We have a twin shaft system to 1 600 m. We have a processing plant for the material mined. Currently, at Kinross we’re processing 50 000 tons of material a month. So, the capacity is there. We have the haulage. So, effectively it’s about dewatering, re-equipping of the decline, and then developing into the orebody. “We like to think that once Egoli is up and running, it’ll probably be South Africa’s least complicated underground gold mine and it will come into its own as we wind down on the 8 Shaft pillar, and that's going to take us close to 250 000 oz. We need to produce those ounces at a proper margin so we’re targeting sub-$1 000/oz, which is certainly achievable in our view,” said Loots. The Egoli feasibility study’s successful completion has been accompanied by credit approval from Rand Merchant Bank for the full debt funding of the project’s capital expenditure. “Clearly, our other focus is the resumption of the dividends and it’s quite a large dividend. It’s the best dividend we’ve ever paid. That’s despite the Covid losses and demonstrates the confidence we have in our position now in the year ahead. “We have a great portfolio of existing assets, specifically the performance from our Elikhulu tailings retreatment plant was excellent, despite the Covid impact. We had 60 000 oz from there,” said Loots. In the 12 months to June 30, Pan African is guiding production of 190 000 oz of gold, well up on the 179 457 oz for the 2020 financial year. “The Barberton underground is really nicely positioned for the year ahead. It’s the first time in many years that we actually have four production platforms at Fairview in the next year. So that puts us in a very good space. “The Barberton Tailings Retreatment Plant (BTRP had good margins and great delivery. The Evander 8 Shaft pillar has come into its own. It was difficult during Covid but things are looking very good in terms of 8 Shaft. ELIKHULU SET TO PERFORM EVEN BETTER The nice thing about Elikhulu coming in at slightly over $600/oz was that it was at a much lower rand exchange rate. “So, at the prevailing rates, the number could be even better,” Loots said. Elikhulu employs 418 people and has a 12-year life still remaining. A four-year payback was initially expected but it is heading towards being half that at ...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The 10 MW solar electricity plant that Pan African Resources will construct on site at its Elikhulu gold-from-tailings plant next year at a cost of R50-million will take care of most of Elikhulu’s daytime power requirements. This is the first phase of solar power generation at Evander. Pan African will be looking to expand this power facility to a possible 25 MVA for the upcoming Evander’s Egoli underground gold mine project. A similar solar plant is also being considered at Barberton. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Payback on the Egoli project under way is estimated at less than five years from inception of construction, with funding provided on a nondilutive basis by a dedicated debt facility. The amazing Elikhulu operation at Evander generated almost R1-billion of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) in the last year, at a much lower gold price than the prevailing spot price. Remarkably, Elikhulu, Zulu for ‘The Big One’, produced 29% more ounces at, wait for it, the extremely low all-in sustaining cost of just over $600/oz. Elikhulu at one stage had its naysayers, but Pan African’s firm belief in its efficacy turned the naysayers into yaysayers – and the stakeholder applause is intensifying. Mining Weekly can report that Elikhulu has access to 178.7-million tonnes of tailings that have accumulated over Evander’s seventy-year gold mining history and it is playing a positive environmental role by catalysing the removal from dump sites of legacy mine waste and freeing the land beneath the waste for new development. The Evander tailings storage facilities (TSFs) being reclaimed are the Kinross, Leslie-Bracken and Winkelhaak TSFs, in that order. Once processed, these TSFs will be consolidated into one, shrinking Evander Mines’ environmental footprint substantially. The average gold content of the material being processed is 0.3 g/t, ranging from 0.28 g/t to 0.33 g/t. In the next two years, Elikhulu’s tailings footprint – which yielded 59 626 oz in the period – will be enlarged and a move made to the Leslie/Bracken tailings facility, Pan African Resources CEO Cobus Loots said at the company’s presentation of superlative results for the 12 months to June 30. The capital required for these initiatives is R300-million split over the two years. Once this move is complete, the capital will again drop to a very limited number. The London-, Johannesburg- and New York-listed midtier gold mining company’s 2020 financial year was a year of highpoints at the safety, financial and operational levels. On the safety front, Elikhulu went for 11 months without recording a single lost-time injury and for the first time in its history, Barberton Mines achieved three-million fatality-free shifts, with two-million at the Fairview mine. “ESG, or environmental, social and governance, is really part of our DNA. In the past, we’ve probably not articulated this focus and our achievements sufficiently. This has to change and we have to do even more,” said Loots. The Pan African board has approved a major agriculture project in Barberton utilising very fertile but currently fallow mine land. This initiative has the potential of creating more than 400 permanent jobs. CLOSURE COSTS FULLY FUNDED Pan African’s mine closure costs are fully funded and during the year ongoing rehabilitation initiatives were increased, which included the final closure of Evander’s 5 Shaft and 9 Shaft. It was subject to a number of independent audits and reviews, including on its tailings facilities and its carbon emissions. Loots expressed pride in the volume of work being done with regards to schools and clinics in the Barberton area. HEDGING LOSSES Pan African CFO Deon Louw summarised the company’s 26% increase in turnover, resulting from a combination of a 1% increase in gold sold and a substantial 24% increase in the dollar gold price and a 37% increase in ...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The integration of Mponeng underground gold mine and Mine Waste Solutions surface gold recovery operation into Harmony Gold was presenting “wonderful opportunities” in the West Wits area, Harmony CEO Peter Steenkamp said on Tuesday. Harmony, which will be on site at Mponeng and Mine Waste Solutions from October 1, is looking to the two operations adding a total of 350 000 oz of production a year to the Johannesburg- and New York-listed gold company, 250 000 oz/y from the underground mine and 100 000 oz/y from the surface operation. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) "At the current great gold price, these assets will immediately hit the ground running," Steenkamp said at the company's presentation of financial year 2020 results, which showed a huge increase in free cash flow from operations in the 12 months to June 30. Harmony is guiding 1.25-million to 1.3-million ounces of production in its current financial year to end June 2021 at an all-in sustaining cost of between R690000/kg and R710000/kg, at a time when the gold price is exceeding the R1-million/kg mark. The acquisition brings many synergies, particularly on surface, Steenkamp said in response to Mining Weekly. “I feel very excited about this,” he said of being on the site of the new acquisition for the first time next week. When Harmony took over Moab Khotsong from AngloGold Ashanti, it managed cost savings of $100/oz and its integration into Harmony of Mponeng and Mine Waste Solutions is expected to do something similar, with grade also being enhanced by the acquisition. Restructuring, which Steenkamp assured would be done in a very responsible way, is planned from day one. Synergies presenting “wonderful opportunities” include combining plants, converting plants for tailings retreatment and bringing Harmony’s existing West Wits Kusasalethu mine into the mix as a consolidated entity. On takeover, Harmony will probably require one plant for underground material, leaving the Savuka, Mponeng and Kusasalethu surface plants available to it for conversion into tailings retreatment facilities. “We certainly believe that’s an opportunity we need to investigate and we’ll start doing so as soon as we possibly can. We’ve already drilled all the surface sources on our side, including Deelkraal, and Kusasalethu is operating a tailings facility at the moment. We think that’s probably the best opportunity. Then, there are a lot of synergies in managing the two assets as one whole,” said Steenkamp. “Surface operations are always the best assets you can possibly work. If you look at our Phoenix surface operations that have been operating for a few years, they’re among our lowest-cost operations and certainly the best way is to take an existing plant and convert it into a tailings retreatment facility because you don’t have that capital cost either and really that is the best investment you can possible make. Both Mine Waste Solutions and Kopanang and our operations in the Vaal river favour that type of investment,” Steenkamp told Mining Weekly in an online Teams interview. On taking over underground assets, Harmony has invariably found more places to mine and is likely to repeat that. LONG PIPELINE OF ORGANIC GROWTH PROJECTS Harmony displayed a slide that named nine organic projects. Together with existing operations, these have the potential to give the company another 70 years of operating life, Steenkamp estimated, in response to Mining Weekly. Underground projects being studied include the promising Zaaiplaats high-grade mine extension project, now at the prefeasibility stage. “Obviously with the orebodies there, the grade and the current price, I think it will make a lot of sense to be able to extend Zaaiplaats. But we’ve still to take it through the board and final approvals, but it’s certainly something that we’re working on at the moment. From our perspective, we’ll try to finish the feasibility bef...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Instead of being the $11-billion-a-year type industry that it is today, the platinum business has the potential to be a $35-billion-a-year industry by 2050, Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter said on Wednesday. Baxter made this statement in response to a question put to him during a virtual platinum group metals (PGMs) event attended by 230 people and covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) At the event, Baxter was asked what the Minerals Council would request of the South African government. “If you had one wish, what would you ask the government to do for the PGM industry?” asked mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel, who moderated the online event. “I would ask them to buy into our draft national platinum strategy and to work with us jointly to develop the global platinum market, including some investing in it, including co-hosting together,” was Baxter’s response. “If government helped invest in growing global platinum demand, together, it’s going to create economic development for this country 100 years into the future. I actually think it’s probably one of the most sensible investments. Putting a couple of hundred million rand into co-funding the effort of business in growing demand and investment at upper levels, and the hydrogen economy, I think would be brilliant,” Baxter added. The draft national platinum strategy is on the Minerals Council website. “We’ve basically said that instead of being an $11-billion a year type industry that we are at the moment, we are saying that by 2050, we could have platinum as a $35-billion a year industry, if we can grow the demand for platinum. “It’s a demand story. Growth can only happen if there’s demand for the product. But we’ve got 87% of the world’s known platinum reserves. We could mine it for huge benefit for the economy in the future if we continue to develop and grow the markets into the future. That’s key. “Through platinum leadership forum we are trying to drive the agenda and we’ve had some good engagements with Minister Gwede Mantashe, I must say. “Each of our leadership forums have had a discussion with him. We’ve taken him through the draft national platinum strategy and there are further engagements taking place on these on these specific types of strategies,” Baxter said. Swanepoel had put it to him earlier that he was speaking about platinum as if suddenly it had great uses. “I remember years ago, when we famously ran a campaign as a gold-mining company, saying platinum is only good to shoved up the back end of a motor car. But perhaps there’s more to platinum than being shoved up the back end of a motor car,” said former Harmony Gold CEO Swanepoel. On the comparison with gold, Baxter responded: “Two quick issues, the first from the scarcity value point of view. If you take all the gold that’s ever been mined in the history of humankind, which is about 180 000 t, you could fill up roughly three and a half to four Olympic-size swimming pools from a volume perspective. “If you take all the platinum that’s ever been mined in the history if human kind, you could basically fill up a Olympic-size swimming pool ankle deep. If you look at the uses of platinum and what’s happening at the moment in terms of platinum’s investment demand angle, the significant progress that’s been made on the platinum jewellery side in countries like India and for the future in countries like China, but that’s something that Platinum Guild International is working on, and what’s being done on the industrial application side, the emerging areas around nanotechnology and other industrial uses. Then, in terms of clean air and the hydrogen economy and how it’s starting to really change the world, there’s a hydrogen road map being developed for South Africa. “Let’s face the reality, the Minerals Council is one of those organisations that’s helped to start championing the process by installing a ba...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Significant growth in fuel cells and hydrogen is now almost certain and the prize for South Africa remains potentially large. That is the view of E4tech director Professor Dr David Hart of Switzerland, expressed in an address to a fuel cell webinar hosted by Nedbank CIB on Tuesday. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The webinar is part of a series of events to discuss the outlook of the platinum group metals (PGMs) market post the Covid-19 crisis. Platinum, iridium and other PGMs will be required along a supply chain that continues to evolve, with partnerships being formed but not yet crystalised, Hart said. First movers are establishing their presence, with initial markets being either driven by government policies or visionary private sector companies. Space remains for innovation and entrepreneurship and skilled people remain in short supply, “To make a difference, fuel cells and hydrogen need to grow exponentially and indigenous deployment is a good way to support value capture,” said Hart, a visiting professor at Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy, who also addressed last year’s Nedbank CIB fuel cell event. E4tech is a specialist energy and sustainability strategy consultancy. Nedbank CIB mining analyst Arnold van Graan, who moderated, expressed the belief in opening the event that fuel cells and hydrogen technology had a vital role to play in the quest for efficiency and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Van Graan described the major drive towards electric vehicles (EVs) as a catalyst for increased research and development into fuel cells and hydrogen. “This is the result of great advances in the commercialisation of fuel cell technology in recent years and we believe that fuel cells remain competing technology in powering EVs. We continue to believe that the development of fuel cells could transform the South African PGMs sector as well as South Africa’s fledgling fuel cell market,” Van Graan told the webinar covered by Mining Weekly. Outlining the sweet spot for private sector investment in fuel cells in South Africa, Isondo Precious Metals CEO Vinay Somera said his company’s view is that the early-stage opportunity lies in the fuel cell component space, and especially those that link into the PGMs industry. “In particular the membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), the catalysts. If you build in recycling into that mix, then you can produce a very nice export market that takes your local battle into local production for export initially, bring it back into recycling in a closed-loop model. That’s probably, over the next five to ten years, the sweet spot. Beyond that the market for the actual core components, including the electrolysers and fuel cells deployment, really starts to gain more traction. From a sequencing perspective, that is probably the best strategic way of approaching the market,” Somera said. As Mining Weekly reported last year, the South African Isondo startup has taken the emphatic decision not to sit on the sidelines but to move with vigour into the manufacture in South Africa of the platinum catalyst-coated MEA membrane that forms the heart of the fuel cell. It estimated demand for half-a-billion MEAs. There are something like 370 of these in one fuel cell electric vehicle. Depending on the loading of platinum catalysts in there, demand for 500 000 oz of platinum is in the offing.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa Inc should be doing much more to incentivise the recovery of precious metals from tailings dams for sound societal and environmental reasons that could free Johannesburg of its artificial ‘Berlin Wall’-type political legacy barriers that tilt commute times unfairly and block new-era residential development, DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius said on Tuesday. DRDGold, which recovers gold from tailings dams and mine dumps, presented an awesome set of cash-gushing and dividend-yielding financial results for the 12 months to June 30, a period that yielded R240-million for the government in the form of taxes and 5 424 kg of gold at a time when the gold price is soaring beyond the R1-million/kg mark. “The line-up of tailings dams and old mine dumps from Roodepoort all the way through to Germiston is a reminder of our political legacy and the forced removal of people to beyond the horizon. “The opportunity is here for us now, in collaboration with government, to remove this once and for all. I think it will bring about a lot of healing by not having that artificial barrier between the two parts of Johannesburg and also of not having that long commute,’ Pretorius told Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) During question time, Pretorius described the tailings dams in an around Johannesburg as an artificial barrier like the Berlin Wall – “and it’s still there,” he lamented, pointing out its hugely negative impact on commuting cost and time to those who were forced to reside beyond it as part of the city’s racially segregated past. “There’s a profound piece of political legacy in the landscape of Johannesburg,” he said, pointing to the tailings dams and the positioning of Soweto, the black townships and the historically enforced movement of people. “That’s a stark reminder, not dissimilar to the Berlin Wall,” he said, pointing to enormous divided-society symbolism and the potential healing in removing the artificial barrier of a former segregated society and opening up vast areas for new-era residential development. “Then, clearly, there’s the environment impact as well. Many of those tailings dams were built in low lying areas, in wetlands, and on the Far West, over the dolomitic aquifers, and they need to be removed in that regard as well. “These are compelling reasons why there shouldn’t be tailings dams where they currently are and government should be falling over its feet to create an environment that is conducive to investing in the removal of those tailings,” said Pretorius. Many people are living a lot closer to mine dumps than is appropriate. “We’ll remove all of them if given the assistance with capital infrastructure, if the taxation regime remains favourable, and if we’re given the scope of the regulatory dispensation. “Very few things can contribute to the improvement of the quality of life in an around the Johannesburg area as much as the removal of all of its tailings dams can. It could be huge, it could be enormous, even if just the commute, for that matter. “If these dams are removed, housing could be built closer to where the workplace is, which would be enormous. If commuters could save on their commute, mothers and fathers would be spending hours more with their families. Instead, they’re having to leave their children in the care of their grandmothers. “I can’t emphasise enough that government proactively investing in dealing with the legacy of tailings dams ticks financial, environmental and societal boxes,” Pretorius said. “What we would want to ask for is an enabling environment. Bring about the law and order. We’re spending an absolute fortune on preventing the theft of cables and pipelines. We’re spending a fortune on just keeping our people safe from attack. Make sure that the tax environment remains favourable so that we can invest capital and recover that capital in the way that we do now. Don’t bring about silly change...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The private sector worldwide is the engine for job creation, in partnership with trade union organisations, government and communities, and South Africa must link its tax legislation to job creation. That is the view African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) executive chairperson Dr Patrice Motsepe expressed at ARM's virtual results presentation on Monday. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) During question time after the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company reported outstanding cash-generating and dividend-yielding financial results for the 12 months to June 30, Motsepe said there was a big commitment to make South Africa a very good place for the private sector. Mining Weekly had asked him to spell out the political and regulatory conditions needed to stimulate vital private sector investment in mining to grow the industry’s huge potential, against the background of some mining companies refusing to invest under current conditions, which they say are not conducive to investment. “There’s a lot of good money that is on the side line, huge money, and we have to incentivise. We’ve got to be creative and innovative. We’ve got to look at our tax legislation and link it up with job creation and I’m very confident that there’ll be huge investments in the mining industry. Create jobs, create a future for all our people. The big challenge for South Africa is the poor. The big challenge for South Africa is unemployment. The big challenge for South Africa is quality education and skills. This country has exceptional people. We will make success and grow in the medium to long term. “I’ve got friends who say, Patrice, I’ve had it now. People I’ve known and I was at school with who say they’re going to sit in some cold country elsewhere. I’m going to stay here and we’ll work it out,” Motsepe said. “I’ll never give up on the people of this country. I grew up in a country that was divided, had lots of problems, lots of tension, in a country that was segregated by law. Discrimination, apartheid. Even at that time of legalised division, I had the privilege of seeing some of the most incredible people in this country, black people, white people, and everybody else. My view of the future of this country, in the context of the question, is based on this huge amount of support, love, encouragement, as a young, young boy, over many years, that I’ve been given by all South Africans. “Last week I was at a Zoom meeting where Chatham House rules apply, where some of the top CEOs of the world, without a doubt, I mean the top CEOs of the world, and it emphasised that what we have to do as a country is to be globally competitive,” Motsepe emphasised. The headline earnings of diversified ARM increased by 6% to R5534-million for the financial year to June 30. A final dividend of R7 a share was declared, in addition to the interim dividend of R5 a share, taking the total dividend for the 2020 financial year to R12 a share. The net cash position of ARM improved to R3790-million, compared with the R2601-million at the end of the 2019 financial year.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining analysts last week raised local platinum and gold expansion opportunities for cash-flush precious metals mining company Sibanye-Stillwater, but Neal Froneman, the CEO of the superbly performing Johannesburg- and New York-listed company, expressed concern that South Africa’s current government environment is not conducive to investment. The two projects raised by the analysts were the company’s K4 platinum group metals (PGMs) opportunity at Sibanye’s Marikana complex in North West province, and the company’s developmental-stage Burnstone gold mine and processing operation, located in the Witwatersrand sasin’s South Rand goldfield, next to the town of Balfour in Mpumalanga, 75 km east of Johannesburg. (Also listen to attached Creamer Media audio recording.) Of the K4 PGMs opportunity, Froneman said during question time after last week’s presentation of Sibanye’s stellar half-year results in which Mining Weekly participated: “It’s a great project and it’s the one I really hope our Minister and Cabinet give us the excuse to develop because it deserves to be developed. It’s just one of these really good job-creation opportunities that are squandered by a lack of leadership in South Africa.” Froneman has been vociferous about South Africa’s current political environment not being conducive to investment and the reason for the undervaluation of Sibanye’s share price. In the six months to June 30, Sibanye generated free cash generation of R10.9-billion, record normalised earnings of R8.8-billion and an interim dividend of R1.3-billion. It has also invested R1.6-billion in Covid-19 social relief efforts and knocked its debt back to pre-platinum strategy levels. K4 is a large, long-life, high-grade Merensky and upper group two (UG2) proposition, which was abandoned owing to the financial stress of the previous owner, Lonmin. As was stated by Mining Weekly in April 2017, that if the K4 shaft were taken out of care and maintenance and ramped up, it would be the lowest-cost PGMs operation on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, because it would co-extract both Merensky and UG2 reefs simultaneously. UG2 reefs within South Africa’s Bushveld Complex offer close to 90% of all the world’s rhodium, which is in very short supply and very high demand. UG2 is also palladium heavy and palladium continues to have strapping fundamentals. Rhodium’s 21% half-year contribution to Sibanye’s half-year revenue matched that of Sibanye’s gold mines, which produced 12 554 kg at a time of the gold price exceeding R1-million per kilogram. On the Burnstone gold opportunity, Froneman commented: “There is potential for Burnstone in the current gold price environment. We have been in the process of dusting off the study of the strategy for Burnstone. However, I want to say that we would need to think very carefully about investing more money in South Africa at this point in time. The climate is not conducive to investment and I’ve told the Minister there are many, many projects that companies have in their bottom drawers, that they would be so happy to invest in if the right things were done. “All stakeholders need to take note that this is not a patriotic thing. You’re called unpatriotic when you won’t do it. You’re only dumb if you do it under conditions like this. Government and other stakeholders need to nurture business and recognise business. “It’s highly unlikely that any other stakeholder can develop these type of projects. The sooner there’s a recognition to embrace business, create an investor friendly environment and nurture business, the sooner these projects will happen. But I cannot see shareholders allowing us to use their money to invest under these conditions,” Froneman emphasised. As of December 2019, Burnstone contained surface and underground gold mineral reserves of 1.95-million ounces and mineral resources of 10.98-million ounces. Burnstone assets were formerly operated as a m...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Rhodium may turn out to be the metal of the decade, Northam CEO Paul Dunne said on Friday. Speaking at the JSE-listed company’s presentation of outstanding results, which saw the company shrug off the Covid-19 pandemic to report a record financial year in the 12 months to June 30, Dunne said rhodium, which was in strong demand and short supply, would continue as the only viable solution for the control of nitrous oxides (NOx). (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Close to 90% of all the world’s rhodium is produced from the upper group two (UG2) orebodies, which predominantly exist within South Africa’s Bushveld Complex. Rhodium is now several times more costly than gold. The price quoted by one prominent manufacturer of autocatalysts showed rhodium to have clawed back much of its Covid losses to trade at $12 200/oz. “A cleaner, greener world needs platinum group metals (PGMs). We need PGMs and rhodium in particular has the strongest fundamentals,” said Dunne, who projected the sales of the light-duty vehicles that make use of rhodium and other PGMs at around 72-million units for this calendar year. “So, we’re slightly more positive than we were in May and June. But this is down from what light-duty vehicles may have been pre-Covid, which is 90-million units. “We see sales of 82-million units in calendar year 2021, reflecting a gradual economic recovery across the world – again slightly better than our view in May and June. “Given this outlook, and bearing in mind that automotive demand is the most important sector of demand for these metals, it is our considered opinion that, firstly, the market for palladium has moved closer to balance, that of rhodium remains in significant deficit, and whilst platinum is in surplus, it is viewed as an investment case offering good relative value,” said Dunne. Palladium remained the metal of choice for gasoline engines for the foreseeable future, although some traction for around 15% platinum substitution in the medium term was becoming more likely, he added. In response to a question put by Noah Capital mining analyst René Hochreiter, Dunne said: “We see rhodium demand being very, very strong. Let’s start with the legislation across the world, illustrated by the ‘6’ legislation, China 6, Euro 6, Bharat in India and the US equivalents. They are all focused on a range pollutants, but quite heavily on the control of nitrous oxides. “That’s a health issue and it’s also quite a heavy greenhouse gas, but predominantly the health issue – smog – in cities is created by nitrous oxides, which have a big constituent of smog. The world’s governments are really being quite pressing now in terms of enacting and enforcing tighter legislation that is focused on NOx. Rhodium is a very special metal in terms of its performance in that reaction and will continue to be the metal of choice for the control of NOx. “If you look at loadings. If I look back five years ago, loadings per vehicle for rhodium was perhaps 0.3 g per vehicle on average for light-duty vehicles. We believe that will rise to 0.45 g per vehicle. So, you’re looking at a 50% increase in rhodium loadings from five years past to five years forward, which is very significant. “When you accumulate that all together, we see an accumulative demand for rhodium in the next five year approaching 1.4-million ounces and maybe even slightly more north of that. The supply of rhodium is somewhat constrained because the vast majority of rhodium comes from the UG2 orebodies in the South African Bushveld Complex and some of the parts of the UG2 are aged and have limited ability to grow production. “So, the supply of rhodium is tightening, demand is growing and it’s a very important issue that it’s legislated against and therefore we see that the fundamental industrial balance being the strongest of the three metals and should do well. “The substitution ratio between palladium and rhodium is...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Precious metals company Sibanye-Stillwater on Thursday highlighted its exposure to what are being referenced across mining jurisdictions as the ‘rock star’ commodities of the moment in a Covid-19 and climate-struck world. After presenting 718%-higher half-year earnings and announcing the dividend distribution of R1.3-billion on an all-rime record performance in spite of Covid, Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman displayed a slide listing metals close the hearts Southern Africans. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “The exposure to what I’ve seen referenced as ‘rock star’ commodities at the right time is reflected in this slide,” Froneman said, displaying a slide that showed the huge performance of rhodium, which is now five times more costly than gold, reaching recent levels beyond $8 000/oz. Also held ‘rock star’ high were platinum group metals (PGM) such as ruthenium, palladium and iridium. These were followed up by silver, gold, nickel, copper and platinum. “These are really at the top end and very pleasingly we have significant exposure to these metals at the right time,” he said during the webcast in which Mining Weekly participated. Rhodium made up 21% of Sibanye’s revenue, on a par with Sibanye’s gold mines, which produced 12 554 kg, with gold now trading at more than R1-million a kilogram. “Platinum is the laggard but I think it’s safe to say that we’re very well positioned for what we believe is a platinum market which for the medium- and long-term has some really good underpinning fundamentals. So, we look forward to getting the benefit from the future upside in platinum as well,” he said. Sibanye’s South African PGM business contributed 54% of group adjusted earnings before interest tax depreciated and amortisation (Ebitda). Sibanye’s half-year Ebitda of R16.5-billion was 718% up on the corresponding period of 2019. SUPPLY AND DEMAND On global PGM production going forward, Sibanye is estimating a 15% year-on-year decline in supply in 2020, mainly because of Covid’s impact South African PGM production, and a 20% fall in demand from about 70-million passenger vehicles, which require PGMs to meet ever-tightening vehicle emission standards worldwide. “We only expect passenger vehicle sales to return to 2019 levels in 2022,” said Froneman, adding that the outlook for platinum jewellery demand had been revised down by 20% for 2020 and 2021. Rhodium is expected to move closer to balance in 2020/2021. Although the platinum surplus narrows now, Froneman projected a rising platinum surplus 2021 on increased production from South Africa. PLATINUM TO SUBSTITUTE PALLADIUM “I have seen some commentary that there is some suggestion that substitution of palladium with platinum in autocatalysis won't happen. I can assure you that it will happen. It’s inevitable. If we don’t substitute palladium with platinum, we will not alleviate the sustained palladium deficits and OEMs have a need to reduce their costs. “That will also provide a solution to the increase in the cost of rhodium. Overall, we remain positive about the overall basket price when these moves take place and I expect that you’ll have much better visibility of substitution from 2021,” Froneman said. As far as Sibanye itself is concerned, the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company is guiding lower 2020 production for in all of the regions where it mines. Costs are mainly up owing to lower Covid-hit volumes. “Unit costs do increase because of the higher fixed cost component and we’ve adjusted capital costs to suit. The rand gold price above R1-million a kilogram and the four element PGM price more than offset the reduction in the volumes and the increase in costs. “We actually see the second half of the year as being significantly better than the first half from a profitability point of view,” he said. SOUTH AFRICAN PGMS OPERATIONS UP PGM production from the South Africa’s PGM operations...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa-based drilling company Master Drilling, which is active in 23 countries, is aligning itself with the transitioning global requirement of opencast mines going underground. “As the world is changing, so are the mines,” said Master Drilling technology director Koos Jordaan at the JSE-listed company’s presentation of half-year results covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “We see a requirement from the mines where opencast mines are moving underground,” Jordaan added. Displayed during the technology overview were the curves on the hard rock minus 9° inclination of the declining cutting face at Northam Platinum’s Eland platinum group metals mine, on the south-eastern limit of the western limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. Jordaan described the scale of the excavation as challenging and the investment only possible from mature organisations. Master Drilling’s pursuit of this form of excavation, he said, was in line with its current and historic raise-boring business. “We’ve established a capacity through a mobile tunnel borer that is specifically designed for mining requirements. We’ve manufactured it, we’ve tested it. Unfortunately, we lost a Phase 2 contract from Eland platinum at the beginning of 2020, where capital to the project was deferred. “We can really commend a client like Northam Platinum for the investment that they’ve made in technology in our company. It’s a huge commitment from an industry player and I think it will be to the benefit of the entire mining industry. “Currently, we’ve cleared that contract. We have the machine on maintenance. We’re doing improvements and we’ll recommission it. We’ve done proposals to various clients and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to redeploy this resource at the beginning of 2021,” Jordaan said. On the requirement for opencast mines going underground, he said: “It’s an issue to replace the capacity or the production of those mines from an underground operation. You have cultural challenges and the transition is difficult. The mines need solutions so that this can be done with greater urgency. They need to have a strong partner to do this, so that’s one of the changes that we see and we want to align ourselves with. OREBODIES BELOW ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREAS “The second point is, in many cases, you have orebodies that are below environmentally sensitive areas. It’s not necessarily an issue about depth but it’s about the orebodies needing to be reached over a long distance, and a solution is needed for that. “Many of these projects we’re doing are in remote areas and harsh conditions. Some are in extremely cold conditions, such as in north Canada, or in deserts in isolated areas. If clients want to invest in such mines, they can’t move there with thousands of people and all the resources that, historically, they would do with established mining development. “It’s important for them to have high efficiency resources and strong partners to deliver these projects. There are many challenges for our clients around environmental issues, social issues with communities, the localisation of resources, and also the governance,” said Jordaan. He listed key aspects as including skills transfer and localisation of skills. “How we deal with all this will be how we have a relevant future, how we will be competitive and how we will be a sustainable company. “What is exciting is that we’ve already established a technology around some of these new technologies and it can be that with the changes that clients and the market are going through, we’ll get an opportunity to have a successful implementation of these technologies to show to our clients. “The lasting value that we want to create for our clients is around safety performance, quality and real capital and investment cost, and all of these issues are related to productivity. To address this in an historical way using conventio...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Getting the best out of South Africa’s mining sector starts with policy certainty, said Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland on Thursday. Following the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company’s presentation of outstanding half-year results in spite of Covid, Holland said this in response to Mining Weekly on the issue of South Africa’s shrunken gold-mining sector and the steps that need to be taken to regrow it. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) “We've heard that the appeal to the once-empowered-always-empowered case has been removed. Hopefully, that’s positive. But at the same time, there is still this overhanging issue on the new Charter, which proposes that renewals and replacements are not covered, and I think companies are worried about that, and about having to go and redo deals they’ve done in good faith. So, I think we need to sort that out," Holland said. Technology was another factor that could generate growth: "But the one thing we’re learning about technology is that it’s an incremental process. It takes time. We’re limited by what's still so available out there. What technology is available? Do we have hydrogen-operated trucks at this stage that can operate up and down ramps? We don’t. We do have prototypes that have the makings of it but there’s more work that needs to be done to get them fit for purpose. “The third issue is that there is a short- to medium-term opportunity in that if you look at the high gold prices, there’s potential for the resources to convert to reserves here in the gold industry and given that some of the orebodies extend out, that could provide an opportunity to at least keep the mines going for longer. So, I think we should grab that one, if that’s real. So, there is stuff we can do,” said Holland. Gold did so well in the half-year to June 30 that its R1.60 a share interim dividend equals that for the full year of 2019. A LOT OF GOLD AT DEPTH “There’s a lot of gold at depth, but you know mining 5 km down is not for sissies. You’re talking about exponential seismicity, exponential virgin rock temperatures, massive cost to get there, and I don’t think you want to be sending people down there. So, if you can get to remote mining, the possibilities certainly exist for the future,” he said. GOLD PRICE MORE THAN ONE-MILLION RAND PER KILOGRAM “We will see that high profits and high cash flows will feed into more taxes into the centre, which is good. I think also we’ll see more jobs being preserved, not necessarily new jobs being created, but preserving a job is like creating a job, I think, and then also more money that can go into communities around us. So, yes, a million rand a kilogram should be good in the long run,” he added. “If you’re underweight gold, it’s not too late, there’s still a bit of gold on the table. We logged the stock market against gold and that showed that gold has performed and will continue to perform. SOUTH DEEP SHAPING UP First-half gold production at South Deep increased by 10% to 3 123 kg (100 400 oz) and all-in cost decreased by 6% to R654537/kg ($1 234/oz) from R698982/kg ($1 529/oz), driven by higher gold sold and lower capital expenditure. Despite the impacts of the Covid-19 lockdown, South Deep generated a net cash inflow of R79-million for the six months ended June 30 compared with an outflow of R238-million in the corresponding period of 2019. “I was going to use the phrase ‘every dog has it’s day’, but maybe that’s inappropriate for some people. I suppose for some people, they feel it’s been a dog. I must just give tremendous credit to the team we put in place there. They have worked through all the issues carefully, in a sustainable fashion, starting with getting the organised labour relationship right. “We went through that restructuring, which took us six months to do. We’ve returned to profitability. We’re seeing better execution of the mine planning each and every day. So, slowly but sure...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Technology and sustainability go hand-in-hand, says Kumba Iron Ore technical and projects executive head Glen Mc Gavigan. “In my view, you can’t separate the two,” he adds. Kumba, which has been mining iron-ore at Sishen for the last 40 years and which opened a new mine at Kolomela in 2008, has been on a technical journey since 2014, when it made a conscious decision to modernise its business. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The two drivers of the modernisation programme have been safety improvement and productivity enhancement – “never technology just for the sake of technology. It really must tick one of those two boxes and preferably both, to drive value,” Mc Gavigan told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. Recently, however, technology, in fact, managed to tick a third box – that of transformation, when its partnership with drilling company Rosond brought about a South African first – an all-women drilling crew at Sishen. Kumba's first phase of technology implementation has been more around the required hardware than anything else: “We had to upgrade a lot of our systems. We had to upgrade our industrial networks and our WiFi to be ready for the coming revolution in technology. We spent a lot of time in the early part of this journey really getting the backbone in place. That’s not the exciting stuff, but it's the essential stuff. You can’t put advanced technology on top of old IT networks. The years 2014 to 2017 were really about collecting a lot more data,” Mc Gavigan recalled. DRONES FLY AROUND COLLECTING DATA A fleet of data-collecting drones were rolled out: “We’ve got 14 drones that are flying around the mine collecting special data, as and when we need it. This has been really valuable for us. Then we started delving into programmes that we call ‘operator-assist’ to make both operators and the piece of gear operated the safest and best they can be. Then also, we began looking at automation where it made sense. That was the drive up until 2017/18. Now we’re really starting to focus on integration, and using all the data being collected to make ourselves smarter, and that’s our focus at the moment along the journey,” Mc Gavigan said. Just on the safety front, the automation of blasthole rigs has taken place at Kolomela: “We automated all of our blasthole rigs. We moved all the operators into a state-of-the-art remote centre situated on the mine, and those drills are now being operated from that centre. Again, a lot safer, out of the dust, out of the noise, with exposure turned to zero,” he said. One of the other projects that Kumba is really proud of is its collision avoidance system. Sishen and Kolomela have got 140 trucks between them. These are really big 170 t to 300 t trucks and one of the biggest risks was always these trucks colliding with each other, or other gear or light vehicles. In conjunction with Komatsu and Hexagon Mining, the company developed a world first autonomous braking solution for these trucks. If an imminent collision is detected and the operator fails to take action, the truck automatically brakes to avoid that collision. The system has been rolled out to the 100 trucks at Sishen and the same is in the process of taking place at Kolomela. Since the implementation of the system, there has not been a single vehicle-on-vehicle incident at Sishen. “So there’s definite benefit in terms of safety and that fit into our operator-assist programmes. That has made the operators of the machines the safest they can be. Definite tangible benefits have come through,” Mc Gavigan noted. TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY “Let’s take two examples. From a technology perspective, if you look around the mining world, and even in our own backyards, the orebody grades are declining and everyone is thinking about how to beneficiate better and how to utilise the resource better to extend the life of mines, so that’s a key technology focus around benefi...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is well positioned as a potential exporter of green hydrogen into a trillion dollar market, Energy and Green Hydrogen Technologies head of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Dr Christoph Roevekamp said on Tuesday. Speaking during the virtual Green Hydrogen (H2) Atlas-Africa project inception meeting on Teams of the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (Sasscal), Roevekamp said that H2 Atlas-Africa formed part of the German government’s action plan on hydrogen. BMBF is implementing H2 Atlas-Africa in southern and west Africa with Sasscol as its partner in Southern Africa, and Sasscol, in turn, has a memorandum of understanding on the initiative with the SADC Centre for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency (Sacree). In focus is green hydrogen, which is a clean form of hydrogen with a no-carbon footprint. “Furthermore, green hydrogen can be stored, it can function as a carrier and it can be used directly for heating and cooling and also in production processes, so that we can push forward decarbonisation,” Roevekamp told the media conference in which Creamer Media’s Engineering News & Mining Weekly participated. Institute of Energy and Climate Research head technoeconomic system analysis Professor Dr Detlef Stolten said that hydrogen being able to power fuel cells would increase demand for platinum mined in the SADC region. On the legislative framework required for green hydrogen to be developed, Sacree executive director Kudakwashe Ndhlukula said that the Sacree, besides providing technical inputs, also had convening powers to bring in the governments of the region and also to stake the initiative to the governments so there is total buy-in. Activities were being aligned towards developing SADC into an industrialised region and renewable energy had been identified as being an opportunity to realise the industrialisation goal. Sasscal executive director Dr Jane Olwoch said that Sasscol was ready to coordinate and implement the green hydrogen opportunity in twelve SADC countries. Said Roevekamp: “If we look on the global level, we see that there is a world market for green hydrogen and also for its derivatives, such as ammonia and methanol. All this happened much faster than many people expected so green hydrogen will be able to be produced at the same cost of fossil or blue hydrogen, and this could be achieved in the next two or three years. “Therefore, I think the timing of our Green Hydrogen Atlas-Africa is right and the initial outcome from the atlas will provide evidence-based information for policy-makers, investors, companies and researchers. “We’re going to identify green hydrogen hotspots in the region and give information on relevant aspects like infrastructure and ecological impacts. Green hydrogen has strategic impact for the Southern African Development Community region, not only for the countries but also for the companies. From our point of view, there’ll be historic opportunities for the whole region. “The first thing I’d like to mention is that the SADC region can place itself as an exporter in a trillion-dollar market for green hydrogen production. The first indicator that we see is that there are excellent conditions for the production of green hydrogen. “Secondly, a lot of cooperation already exists. With the green atlas we support the new regional contact that could be developed for green hydrogen in the green hydrogen echelons, which will be highlighted in our green hydrogen atlas project. “Thirdly, infrastructure or ‘sweet spots’ will be a success factor for the implementation of green hydrogen. Countries could be supported by the atlas to create smart processes now and already existing expensive infrastructures, now used to transport oil or gas, may be used for the transport of green hydrogen in the future as well. “...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – An awesome new Proudly South African face mask, with a replaceable filtration system at its heart, is attracting international interest. The innovative and timely Hudaco Air Mask is a lockdown-period product of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Hudaco Industries group, and it is all set to take the world by storm because of its unrivalled air-intake and air-exhaust effectiveness, ease of filter exchanging, skin friendliness, ongoing comfort and unmatchable price at a time when the price of filtered Covid-19 and FFP2 facepiece masks has gone through the roof. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) FFP2 masks are used mainly in the more difficult situations on mines, in foundries and in woodworking environments, where filtration is needed to keep out fine particles such as dust. The development of Hudaco’s face mask came about when the lockdown idled the group’s production lines but not the minds of its executives. When Hudaco Industries CE Graham Dunford looked at the inactivity of the company’s injection-moulding capacity, coupled to the fortunes companies were having to fork out on non-disposable Covid-19 which utilises layers of FFP2 fabric in the masks filtration system which is endorsed by a leading SA filtration manufacturer however also providing an alternative solution for FFP2 masks, for which certification FFP2 rating is pending, he put to work a group that sources product from more than 800 international suppliers across the industrialised world and carries more than 230 000 line items in stock. In many businesses, masks are discarded daily and “when you’ve got a couple a hundred or even thousands of employees that they have on the mines, when you’re changing masks that are costing you R55 each a day, it costs a lot of money”, said Dunford,. This prompted him to ask Hudaco executive consultant Mike Allnutt to look into ways of getting the company’s injection moulding machines up and running, and at the same time solve the worsening face mask problem. The outcome is a comfortable fitting mask with a filtration system that provides a physical barrier against droplets of 5 microns in size while changeable exhaust filters clean up exiting breath. Consideration was foremost that the mask should be non-disposable, simple to clean for reuse, which would mitigate environmental waste that is experienced with disposable masks. Food-grade specification DEHP-free material or optional medically graded FDA-approved material is moulded and all component polycarbonate materials, such as the filter cartridge, nose shield and non-return valves, including rubber holding straps have the stamp of approval of the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. Importantly, the changeout of the mask’s filtration system is uncomplicated and the filter can be disinfected without any damage or misalignment. Detailed attention has been given to the means of disposing the users exhaled carbon dioxide providing a clear pathway for inhaled air, which would minimise the content of carbon dioxide air allowing a volume of clean refreshing air to be breathed in by the user. For this purpose, two exhalation non-return filtration valves are separately utilised and are independent from the main filter system intake. The pressure build-up in the mask when exhaling is naturally released via the valves creating a vacuum in the mask, allowing fresh air to flow into the mask.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africans must work together on an accelerated economic recovery plan that focuses on inclusive growth and prosperity for all citizens, Exxaro Resources CEO Mxolisi Mgojo said on Thursday. Speaking during the black-empowered resources company’s presentation of very strong dividend-yielding half-year financial and operational results for the 12 months to June 30, Mgojo said the Covid-19 crisis presented South Africa with an opportunity to rethink its future in the context of the resilience of the mining industry and the national economy. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Mgojo, who is also president of Minerals Council South Africa, said the success of South Africa’s economic recovery plan, as put forward by Business for South Africa, required a social and economic compact between all partners, with the focus on shared prosperity, including some critical structural and institutional reforms. “This socioeconomic compact between government, business and labour, must do everything to improve South Africa’s competitiveness ranking, with inclusive growth being paramount. “There is a further need to restore confidence in the criminal justice system. There is an urgent requirement to accelerate institutional reforms at State-owned enterprises. “Government urgently needs to create much more stable, predictable and competitive policies, regulatory and operating environment for improving competitiveness and encouraging investment in the economy. “For the sake of our country, bold, courageous, decisive and sometimes very unpopular decisions, which are critical for the survival of this country now and into the future, are required to be taken urgently,” Mgojo said. MINING AND ENERGY STRATEGY Exxaro is a coal and clean energy producer, which is extracting early value from its coal assets in Limpopo and Mpumalanga and already benefiting from clean energy revenue from its renewables company Cennergi. “In the short to medium term, our objective is to efficiently mine our coal assets and contribute to energy security in South Africa, and in the long-term, support the just energy transition to a low-carbon South African economy and society. This long-term strategy is supported by our environment, socioeconomic and governance framework,” said Mgojo, whose company achieved record coal export volumes of 5.9-million tonnes, 23% higher than the corresponding period of last year. The publication of the assessment of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company on its implementation of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ recommendations will be available before year-end. INTERVIEW WITH MINING WEEKLY In the face of Covid uncertainty, going forward Exxaro is intent on continuing to control the controllables, Mgojo told Mining Weekly in our video interview. He said the company was doing all it could to ensure that its asset base was at the ready to read opportunity signals early enough and to respond to them rapidly. He said that was exactly what Exxaro executive head coal operations Nombasa Tsengwa and the Exxaro team succeeded in doing to ensure that the company’s first-half performance was so good. “First of all, they’ve been driving a sound operational excellence programme for many years and that was supported by their own digitalisation strategy. All of those things came to the fore this time around and enabled us to be very resilient,” he said. On top of that a sound coal asset base had been grown to respond with agility and flexibility to market dynamics that unfolded out of Vietnam and Pakistan from the very moment that the lockdown was enforced in March. Department of Mineral Resources and Energy approvals were gained to send coal via the Richards Bay Coal Terminal and take advantage of the export opportunities. By May, eight trains a week were being secured for exports out of Grootegeluk, in Limpopo, which is unprecedented. This was th...