Podcasts about industrial development corporation

Thabo Shole Mashao, standing in for Clement Manyathela speaks to Tsakani Manyike, the Acting Head of Infrastructure at the Industrial Development Corporation about how the infrastructure sector can serve as an enabler for inclusive growthSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Orion Minerals Ltd (ASX:ORN, JSE:ORN) managing director and CEO Errol Smart talked with Proactive's Stephen Gunnion about the completion of definitive feasibility studies (DFS) for both the company's flagship Prieska copper-zinc project and the Flat Mines project at its Okiep copper project. Smart described this as a pivotal moment, noting, “It's taken us eight years now to put them together… but it's really a great outcome for us.” The studies confirm robust development pathways for both operations in South Africa's Northern Cape, with both projects fully permitted and development-ready. Smart said Orion is in a unique position globally, with capital intensity figures below key industry benchmarks. The combined production profile is expected to deliver 30,000 tonnes of copper annually at around $9,500 per tonne capital intensity, placing the company in the lower quartile of the cost curve. The Prieska project will follow a two-phase development plan, with a modest $25 million start-up operation set to begin production within 13 months, followed by a ramp-up to full-scale output. Smart also confirmed that discussions are underway with strategic partners, including the Industrial Development Corporation and offtake-related financiers. He highlighted that smelters and traders are actively seeking long-term copper supply, saying, “We represent a very interesting opportunity for them, with certainty.” Visit Proactive's YouTube channel for more company updates and interviews. Don't forget to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and enable notifications for future content. #OrionMinerals #CopperMining #PrieskaProject #OkiepProject #BaseMetals #MiningInvestment #FeasibilityStudy #SouthAfricaMining #CopperProduction #ZincProduction

Members of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa are set to stage a picket at the offices of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). The demonstrations in Sandton are over looming retrenchments at ArcelorMittal South Africa. The company has indicated its intentions to shut its Long Steel business, a move that will affect 3500 jobs. Jon Gericke spoke to NUMSA's National Spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) will stage a picket tomorrow at the Industrial Development Corporation's offices in Sandton, Johannesburg, in protest against looming retrenchments at ArcelorMittal South Africa. This follows the announcement by the company to shutdown its steel-making operations in Newcastle and Vereeniging which will result in 3,500 direct and indirect job losses. To discuss NUMSA's demands, Elvis Presslin spoke to the Union's National Spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola

Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) Acting Divisional Executive in Manufacturing, Mark Goliath discusses Industrial Development Corporation's role in supporting Manufacturing which is a key sector of our economy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mantengu Mining, under the leadership of CEO Mike Miller, is poised for transformation with the strategic acquisition of the Blue Ridge Platinum mine. Mantengu Mining, under the leadership of CEO Mike Miller, is poised for transformation with the strategic acquisition of the Blue Ridge Platinum mine. This deal represents a significant opportunity to unlock intrinsic value from distressed assets in a challenging economic landscape. Miller highlighted the plan to utilise Blue Ridge's million-ton dump of high-grade chrome and PGMs, which could drive substantial production. By adopting a phased approach, Mantengu aims to revitalise the mine while prioritising local job creation and community empowerment. With support from stakeholders like the Industrial Development Corporation, Mantengu is focused on turning Blue Ridge into a profitable and sustainable operation. Miller spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

Noluthando Mthonti-Mlambo speaks to David Jarvis, Interim CEO at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amid signs of potential economic optimism, a complex array of risks threatens to derail progress. From tackling climate emergencies, to rising geopolitical tensions and the accelerating infodemic, how can global collaboration and innovation protect and propel economic growth? This is the full audio from a session at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC24) on June 26, 2024. Watch it here: Speakers: Peng Sen, President, China Society of Economic Reform (CSER) Michael Wang, Anchor, Global Business and BizTalk, China Global Television Network (CGTN) Busi Mabuza, Chairperson, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Andre Hoffmann, Chairman, Massellaz Mohamad Al-Ississ, Minister of Finance, Ministry of Finance of Jordan Links: Annual Meeting of the New Champions - Next Frontiers for Growth, 25–27 June, 2024, Dalian, China: Centre for the New Economy and Society: Podcasts: Check out all our podcasts on : - - : - : - : Join the :

Amid signs of potential economic optimism, a complex array of risks threatens to derail progress. From tackling climate emergencies, to rising geopolitical tensions and the accelerating infodemic, how can global collaboration and innovation protect and propel economic growth? This is the full audio from a session at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC24) on June 26, 2024. Watch it here: https://www.weforum.org/events/annual-meeting-of-the-new-champions-2024/sessions/finding-growth-amid-complex-risks/ Speakers: Peng Sen, President, China Society of Economic Reform (CSER) Michael Wang, Anchor, Global Business and BizTalk, China Global Television Network (CGTN) Busi Mabuza, Chairperson, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Andre Hoffmann, Chairman, Massellaz Mohamad Al-Ississ, Minister of Finance, Ministry of Finance of Jordan Links: Annual Meeting of the New Champions - Next Frontiers for Growth, 25–27 June, 2024, Dalian, China: wef.ch/amnc24 Centre for the New Economy and Society: https://centres.weforum.org/centre-for-new-economy-and-society/home Podcasts: Check out all our podcasts on wef.ch/podcasts: YouTube: - https://www.youtube.com/@wef/podcasts Radio Davos - subscribe: https://pod.link/1504682164 Meet the Leader - subscribe: https://pod.link/1534915560 Agenda Dialogues - subscribe: https://pod.link/1574956552 Join the World Economic Forum Podcast Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wefpodcastclub

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist. Minerals Council South Africa is focused on increasing the domestic demand for green hydrogen, which it sees as contributing to the kickstarting of the hydrogen economy in South Africa. "The applications that we're looking at are stationary as well as mobility applications of using hydrogen within the mining industry," Minerals Council modernisation and safety senior executive Sietse van der Woude outlined during last week's Hydrogen Economy Discussion covered by Mining Weekly. "The stationary applications may not make economic sense today but if you look at the future trends in terms of reliability and electricity price trends, then stationary applications can very well be a feasible option in the future," Van der Woude pointed out during a panel discussion facilitated by Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) industry development planner Mahandra Rooplall, and in which Science and Innovation Department chief science and technology representative Dr Rebecca Maserumule as well as Bambili Energy CEO Zanele Mavuso Mbatha participated. Rooplall reported that the IDC had been driving the development of the hydrogen industry for several years in facilitating the discussion on regional and global developments, technology, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) advances and implications for the mining industry. Van der Woude pointed out that when it came to mobility application, heavy mine trucks could not be powered enough by electric means. "So, we need to look at alternative ways and the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are an opportunity in that regard," he added. In spelling out the hydrogen opportunity, Maserumule identified the six African countries that had hydrogen strategies as Algeria, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa amid more than 50 countries worldwide having hydrogen strategies. The projected global numbers for hydrogen production show seven-million tons of green hydrogen or its derivative being produced a year by 2030, 32-million tons by 2040 and 72-million tons by 2050. Maserumule drew attention to this being based on expected exports into Europe and Asia, which did not have sufficient renewables or which did not have the comparative advantage. Africa securing 15% of that market would amount to one-million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, seven-million tons by 2040 and just under 19-million tons by 2050, a part of which would be domestic consumption. "What's most exciting is that those numbers point to a cumulative investment by 2050 of $400-billion on the African continent for hydrogen production," Maserumule highlighted. This does not include OEMs and other portions of the supply chain. The export value for the African continent would be a $15-billion-a-year increase in African export value in 2050. "The most exciting socioeconomic benefit is the 30-million job years that will be created by 2050 on the African continent if the continent is able to capture 15% of the global hydrogen economy. In identifying the barriers to that, Maserumule spoke of Africa having a globally top comparative advantage for renewable energy production, with only China, Australia and Chile beating most of the African countries. But unlike grey hydrogen, which South Africa produces in large quantities, one of the challenges of green hydrogen production is the intensive capital expenditure (capex) that is required. While the cost of coal or natural gas has a considerable impact on grey hydrogen, the capex required for renewables and electrolysers has a major impact when it comes to the cost of green hydrogen. There is a considerable gap between the cost of investment in developed countries compared with the cost of development in undeveloped countries. South Africa's average internal rate of return, or IRR, is well positioned at between 11% and 14%. Being chased is the levelised cost of hydrogen, with grey hydrogen at $2/kg and ...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Following its recent success in securing new public and private power purchase agreements, Pele Green Energy (PGE) is already having to consider additional funding options beyond the pioneering R2.5-billion Sithala facility concluded in November with Nedbank, Norfund and the Industrial Development Corporation. The facility has, for the first time, provided the black-owned independent power producer (IPP) with a consolidated funding platform designed to enable a competitive expansion in its operating portfolio from about 1 GW to 5 GW by 2027, as well as the capital needed to develop a project pipeline. It has also enabled PGE to refinance its existing group funding with a platform facility at the holding company level. MD Gqi Raoleka tells Engineering News that the innovative funding structure represents a material advance on PGE's previous capital-raising frameworks, which involved raising funds on a project-by-project basis. This earlier model, he says, was not only onerous and time consuming but also uncompetitively priced, particularly for an entity seeking to evolve into a lead developer of projects that it both owns and operates. Raoleka insists that PGE continues to value its partnerships with leading European, and Middle Eastern IPPs and credits South Africa's black economic-empowerment policies for enabling such partnerships. However, 15 years after its founding by a group of young black professionals, PGE is now intent on continuing its evolution from its initial position of junior partner to that of either co-sponsor or majority owner. CFO Matthew Wainwright says the Sithala structure is aligned with that ambition and has already enabled it to play a more assertive and competitive role in recent projects. PGE has, for instance, taken "near pari-passu" equity positions alongside ENGIE in two solar photovoltaic projects awarded under the fifth bid window of government's renewables procurement programme, namely the 75 MW apiece Grootspruit and Graspan projects, which achieved financial close in late 2023. In addition, the facility has enabled PGE to secure a 20% equity position in each of the three Koruson 2 cluster of wind and solar projects being built by Envusa Energy, which is jointly owned by Anglo American and EDF Renewables. The projects have a combined capacity of 520 MW. Raoleka is also optimistic that Sithala will enable it to conclude its first PGE-led projects in the coming months with a private offtaker, which would represent a "major milestone" for the entity. "This groundbreaking facility provides PGE with a significant capital base that has been structured to align our long-term interests with our partners and enables PGE to play a meaningful role in the delivery of the energy transition as a fully-fledged South African IPP," Wainwright explains. The size of these recent successes, however, has resulted in drawdowns against the facility that are well in advance of initial expectations and Raoleka indicates that PGE is about two years ahead of its goals. There is, thus, a strong likelihood that Sithala will have to be enlarged to match the scale of public and private opportunities that are arising across various technologies; a scenario catered for under the arrangement. Ultimately, though, even this scalable funding solution is likely to fall short as PGE moves to accelerate towards its stated goal of being a fully-fledged South African IPP. "I stress South African, as we will need about R1-billion a year to sustain our growth, and that will require participation in capital markets that is broader than our current black shareholders and the building of a truly South African company. "Alternatively, we would have to curtail our growth, which is not what we desire nor is it what the country requires," Raoleka concludes.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Following its recent success in securing new public and private power purchase agreements, Pele Green Energy (PGE) is already having to consider additional funding options beyond the pioneering R2.5-billion Sithala facility concluded in November with Nedbank, Norfund and the Industrial Development Corporation. The facility has, for the first time, provided the black-owned independent power producer (IPP) with a consolidated funding platform designed to enable a competitive expansion in its operating portfolio from about 1 GW to 5 GW by 2027, as well as the capital needed to develop a project pipeline. It has also enabled PGE to refinance its existing group funding with a platform facility at the holding company level. MD Gqi Raoleka tells Engineering News that the innovative funding structure represents a material advance on PGE's previous capital-raising frameworks, which involved raising funds on a project-by-project basis. This earlier model, he says, was not only onerous and time consuming but also uncompetitively priced, particularly for an entity seeking to evolve into a lead developer of projects that it both owns and operates. Raoleka insists that PGE continues to value its partnerships with leading European, and Middle Eastern IPPs and credits South Africa's black economic-empowerment policies for enabling such partnerships. However, 15 years after its founding by a group of young black professionals, PGE is now intent on continuing its evolution from its initial position of junior partner to that of either co-sponsor or majority owner. CFO Matthew Wainwright says the Sithala structure is aligned with that ambition and has already enabled it to play a more assertive and competitive role in recent projects. PGE has, for instance, taken "near pari-passu" equity positions alongside ENGIE in two solar photovoltaic projects awarded under the fifth bid window of government's renewables procurement programme, namely the 75 MW apiece Grootspruit and Graspan projects, which achieved financial close in late 2023. In addition, the facility has enabled PGE to secure a 20% equity position in each of the three Koruson 2 cluster of wind and solar projects being built by Envusa Energy, which is jointly owned by Anglo American and EDF Renewables. The projects have a combined capacity of 520 MW. Raoleka is also optimistic that Sithala will enable it to conclude its first PGE-led projects in the coming months with a private offtaker, which would represent a "major milestone" for the entity. "This groundbreaking facility provides PGE with a significant capital base that has been structured to align our long-term interests with our partners and enables PGE to play a meaningful role in the delivery of the energy transition as a fully-fledged South African IPP," Wainwright explains. The size of these recent successes, however, has resulted in drawdowns against the facility that are well in advance of initial expectations and Raoleka indicates that PGE is about two years ahead of its goals. There is, thus, a strong likelihood that Sithala will have to be enlarged to match the scale of public and private opportunities that are arising across various technologies; a scenario catered for under the arrangement. Ultimately, though, even this scalable funding solution is likely to fall short as PGE moves to accelerate towards its stated goal of being a fully-fledged South African IPP. "I stress South African, as we will need about R1-billion a year to sustain our growth, and that will require participation in capital markets that is broader than our current black shareholders and the building of a truly South African company. "Alternatively, we would have to curtail our growth, which is not what we desire nor is it what the country requires," Raoleka concludes.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says all the work being done by government on the financial structure to facilitate private investment into the country's transmission infrastructure is being consolidated under his Ministry, including the work being done on the issue by the National Treasury and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). This confirmation follows an announcement in the National Treasury's Budget Review that a request for proposals will be released by the end of July for a pilot project involving "off-balance-sheet financing to accelerate private-sector investment in transmission, without negatively affecting Eskom's balance sheet and the fiscus". Ramokgopa indicated during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan that his Ministry had been working with the National Treasury, the IFC and others on what he termed an "EPC plus F" concept, involving the engineering, procurement, construction plus financing of new transmission infrastructure. He insisted that the plan was being coordinated under his auspices with the intention of settling on a way to structure such transactions without the need for government guarantees or undermining the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA), the grid and system operator currently being established as an independent entity under Eskom Holdings. "I'm confident that within the next two weeks I will be coming back to the country to say: 'This is how we are going to progress'," Ramokgopa said. Internal discussions within government, including discussions with the NTCSA, still had to be finalised, however. Once concluded, it was possible that private sector participation could be directed towards supporting three priority corridors, which Ramokgopa indicated could unlock 2 300 MW of new renewables generation capacity. He also expressed confidence that there was funding available for developing new grid infrastructure based on a build, own, operate and transfer model used internationally, which would be "domesticated" for the South African context, including the policy that the NTCSA remained the sole system operator and the custodian of the grid. Lessons were being drawn from South Africa's experiences in procuring generation capacity from private investors, including the value of having procurement located at "arm's length" from government's bureaucratic processes, as has been the case with the Independent Power Producer Office. Prior to the appointment of the NTSCA board earlier in the year, the Minister indicated that the transmission procurement agency might be located within either the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation. The NTCSA already had a Transmission Development Plan and any private sector participation would be guided by that plan with the intention of accelerating implementation. There is also an ambition to channel concessional and grant funding towards transmission projects, especially the nearly $12-billion in funding committed to the Just Energy Transition Partnership Implementation Plan. To date, this funding has not been integrated with physical projects, with most of the concessional loans approved to date having flowed into the general fiscus as 'policy loans'. "We are not sitting with a money problem; we are sitting with a structuring problem … and we are at an advanced stage on [finalising that structure]," Ramokgopa insisted.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says all the work being done by government on the financial structure to facilitate private investment into the country's transmission infrastructure is being consolidated under his Ministry, including the work being done on the issue by the National Treasury and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). This confirmation follows an announcement in the National Treasury's Budget Review that a request for proposals will be released by the end of July for a pilot project involving "off-balance-sheet financing to accelerate private-sector investment in transmission, without negatively affecting Eskom's balance sheet and the fiscus". Ramokgopa indicated during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan that his Ministry had been working with the National Treasury, the IFC and others on what he termed an "EPC plus F" concept, involving the engineering, procurement, construction plus financing of new transmission infrastructure. He insisted that the plan was being coordinated under his auspices with the intention of settling on a way to structure such transactions without the need for government guarantees or undermining the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA), the grid and system operator currently being established as an independent entity under Eskom Holdings. "I'm confident that within the next two weeks I will be coming back to the country to say: 'This is how we are going to progress'," Ramokgopa said. Internal discussions within government, including discussions with the NTCSA, still had to be finalised, however. Once concluded, it was possible that private sector participation could be directed towards supporting three priority corridors, which Ramokgopa indicated could unlock 2 300 MW of new renewables generation capacity. He also expressed confidence that there was funding available for developing new grid infrastructure based on a build, own, operate and transfer model used internationally, which would be "domesticated" for the South African context, including the policy that the NTCSA remained the sole system operator and the custodian of the grid. Lessons were being drawn from South Africa's experiences in procuring generation capacity from private investors, including the value of having procurement located at "arm's length" from government's bureaucratic processes, as has been the case with the Independent Power Producer Office. Prior to the appointment of the NTSCA board earlier in the year, the Minister indicated that the transmission procurement agency might be located within either the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation. The NTCSA already had a Transmission Development Plan and any private sector participation would be guided by that plan with the intention of accelerating implementation. There is also an ambition to channel concessional and grant funding towards transmission projects, especially the nearly $12-billion in funding committed to the Just Energy Transition Partnership Implementation Plan. To date, this funding has not been integrated with physical projects, with most of the concessional loans approved to date having flowed into the general fiscus as 'policy loans'. "We are not sitting with a money problem; we are sitting with a structuring problem … and we are at an advanced stage on [finalising that structure]," Ramokgopa insisted.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. President Cyril Ramaphosa has provided some additional background to the Climate Change Response Fund, the formation of which he announced in his recent State of the Nation Address. Writing in his weekly newsletter, the President said the fund would seek to mobilise public and private finances to build greater climate resiliency, amid a rise in deadly extreme weather events and increased loss and damage to domestic infrastructure. "This includes climate-proofing existing essential infrastructure and facilities such as water and food systems, roads, rail and ports, human settlements and health care. "The fund will also collaborate with a variety of partners to respond to immediate needs in communities following climate change-related disasters," he added. The fund has been developed following the decision at COP28, which took place in the United Arab Emirates last year, to operationalise a Loss and Damage Fund, as well as the African Union Commission's establishment of a Climate Finance Unit in recognition of the continent's "extreme vulnerability to the effects of global warming". While highlighting wildfires in the Western Cape, heatwaves in the Northern Cape, continuing drought conditions in the Eastern Cape and intense storms in Gauteng, the President's letter also noted the reoccurence of flooding this year "even before we could properly recover and rebuild after the 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West". "The insurance industry is warning about the increasing costs of disaster risk finance, and even talking about the prospect of highly vulnerable regions eventually becoming uninsurable." The Climate Change Response Fund would form part of what was described as a "comprehensive response to climate change" that included both adaptation and measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The new fund would focus on adaptation, while the mitigation measures would be coordinated under the banner of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan. Speaking at a Presidential Climate Commission meeting last week, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy said the Climate Change Response Fund would be a "channel" for financial resources that could be made available to developing countries following the recent operationalisation of a Loss and Damage Fund. Creecy said consideration was being given to hosting the fund either at the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation but provided no timeframe from its implementation. She also confirmed that government would set aside some resources to capitalise the fund but indicated that the intention was to also crowd-in private finance in a manner similar to the Solidarity Fund that was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Resources secured for the fund could also be used to strengthen the country's early-warning systems for detecting extreme weather events, with Creecy noting that there were growing domestic and international examples of how the use of such systems had been effective in preventing the loss of life. Adaptation efforts, the Minister added, could also help ensure that climate-related loss and damage did not become a "bottomless pit" for municipalities and provinces, which currently relied on disaster-management allocations to finance relief efforts. "As a country we cannot be complacent about climate change because its impacts are already with us," Ramaphosa warned in his newsletter.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. President Cyril Ramaphosa has provided some additional background to the Climate Change Response Fund, the formation of which he announced in his recent State of the Nation Address. Writing in his weekly newsletter, the President said the fund would seek to mobilise public and private finances to build greater climate resiliency, amid a rise in deadly extreme weather events and increased loss and damage to domestic infrastructure. "This includes climate-proofing existing essential infrastructure and facilities such as water and food systems, roads, rail and ports, human settlements and health care. "The fund will also collaborate with a variety of partners to respond to immediate needs in communities following climate change-related disasters," he added. The fund has been developed following the decision at COP28, which took place in the United Arab Emirates last year, to operationalise a Loss and Damage Fund, as well as the African Union Commission's establishment of a Climate Finance Unit in recognition of the continent's "extreme vulnerability to the effects of global warming". While highlighting wildfires in the Western Cape, heatwaves in the Northern Cape, continuing drought conditions in the Eastern Cape and intense storms in Gauteng, the President's letter also noted the reoccurence of flooding this year "even before we could properly recover and rebuild after the 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West". "The insurance industry is warning about the increasing costs of disaster risk finance, and even talking about the prospect of highly vulnerable regions eventually becoming uninsurable." The Climate Change Response Fund would form part of what was described as a "comprehensive response to climate change" that included both adaptation and measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The new fund would focus on adaptation, while the mitigation measures would be coordinated under the banner of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan. Speaking at a Presidential Climate Commission meeting last week, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy said the Climate Change Response Fund would be a "channel" for financial resources that could be made available to developing countries following the recent operationalisation of a Loss and Damage Fund. Creecy said consideration was being given to hosting the fund either at the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation but provided no timeframe from its implementation. She also confirmed that government would set aside some resources to capitalise the fund but indicated that the intention was to also crowd-in private finance in a manner similar to the Solidarity Fund that was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Resources secured for the fund could also be used to strengthen the country's early-warning systems for detecting extreme weather events, with Creecy noting that there were growing domestic and international examples of how the use of such systems had been effective in preventing the loss of life. Adaptation efforts, the Minister added, could also help ensure that climate-related loss and damage did not become a "bottomless pit" for municipalities and provinces, which currently relied on disaster-management allocations to finance relief efforts. "As a country we cannot be complacent about climate change because its impacts are already with us," Ramaphosa warned in his newsletter.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy reports that the Climate Change Response Fund announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) has been established to support the development of early-warning systems, as well as for adaptation projects to improve the climate resiliency of infrastructure amid the growing threats posed by extreme weather events. Addressing the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) in Johannesburg, Creecy said that there was also potential to use the fund as a "channel" for financial resources that could be made available to developing countries following the recent operationalisation of a loss and damage fund. The loss and damage fund was established at the recent COP28 climate talks, held in the United Arab Emirates, where initial funding commitments of $700-million were announced. In his SoNA speech, Ramaphosa highlighted several recent climate-related disasters, including "devastating wildfires in the Western Cape, destructive floods in KwaZulu-Natal, unbearable heatwaves in the Northern Cape, persistent drought in the Eastern Cape, and intense storms in Gauteng". He said the Climate Change Response Fund would be established to help "build our resilience and respond to the impacts of climate change" but did not provide further details, including on where it would be housed and how it would be funded. Creecy told the PCC that consideration was being given to hosting the fund either at the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation, but provided no timeframe from its implementation. She confirmed that government would set aside some resources to capitalise the fund but indicated that the intention was to also crowd-in private finance in a manner similar to the Solidarity Fund that was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Resources secured for the fund would be used to strengthen the country's early-warning systems for detecting extreme weather events, with Creecy noting that there were growing domestic and international examples of how the use of such systems had been effective in preventing the loss of life. Proceeds would also be directed towards adapting infrastructure to make it more resilient to events such as wildfires and floods, as well as to safeguard water and food security in the aftermath of weather-related disasters. Such adaptation efforts, the Minister added, could also help ensure that climate-related loss and damage did not become a "bottomless pit" for municipalities and provinces, which currently relied on disaster-management allocations to finance relief efforts. Creecy also indicated that the Climate Change Response Fund would complement the Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan (JET-IP), which was focused on climate mitigation investments rather than adaptation. Ramaphosa announced in his SoNA that financing pledges for the JET-IP had increased from about R170-billion to almost R240-billion, amid growing calls for the proceeds to be used specifically for energy-related or upliftment projects. The bulk of the JET-IP transfers to date having been directed to the National Treasury in the form of policy loans that have been used to lower the overall cost of borrowing.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy reports that the Climate Change Response Fund announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) has been established to support the development of early-warning systems, as well as for adaptation projects to improve the climate resiliency of infrastructure amid the growing threats posed by extreme weather events. Addressing the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) in Johannesburg, Creecy said that there was also potential to use the fund as a "channel" for financial resources that could be made available to developing countries following the recent operationalisation of a loss and damage fund. The loss and damage fund was established at the recent COP28 climate talks, held in the United Arab Emirates, where initial funding commitments of $700-million were announced. In his SoNA speech, Ramaphosa highlighted several recent climate-related disasters, including "devastating wildfires in the Western Cape, destructive floods in KwaZulu-Natal, unbearable heatwaves in the Northern Cape, persistent drought in the Eastern Cape, and intense storms in Gauteng". He said the Climate Change Response Fund would be established to help "build our resilience and respond to the impacts of climate change" but did not provide further details, including on where it would be housed and how it would be funded. Creecy told the PCC that consideration was being given to hosting the fund either at the Development Bank of Southern Africa or the Industrial Development Corporation, but provided no timeframe from its implementation. She confirmed that government would set aside some resources to capitalise the fund but indicated that the intention was to also crowd-in private finance in a manner similar to the Solidarity Fund that was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Resources secured for the fund would be used to strengthen the country's early-warning systems for detecting extreme weather events, with Creecy noting that there were growing domestic and international examples of how the use of such systems had been effective in preventing the loss of life. Proceeds would also be directed towards adapting infrastructure to make it more resilient to events such as wildfires and floods, as well as to safeguard water and food security in the aftermath of weather-related disasters. Such adaptation efforts, the Minister added, could also help ensure that climate-related loss and damage did not become a "bottomless pit" for municipalities and provinces, which currently relied on disaster-management allocations to finance relief efforts. Creecy also indicated that the Climate Change Response Fund would complement the Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan (JET-IP), which was focused on climate mitigation investments rather than adaptation. Ramaphosa announced in his SoNA that financing pledges for the JET-IP had increased from about R170-billion to almost R240-billion, amid growing calls for the proceeds to be used specifically for energy-related or upliftment projects. The bulk of the JET-IP transfers to date having been directed to the National Treasury in the form of policy loans that have been used to lower the overall cost of borrowing.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist. Adelaide Ruiters has been slogging away for ten years to get the world's first woman-owned phosphate mine up and running. Now, 2024 looks like being the year she will likely do it. Ribbon-cutting for Adelaide Ruiters Mining and Exploration (ARME) is now expected around June, July - and being considered, possibly before year-end, is an initial public offering (IPO). (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The main activity of ARME for all this time has been phosphate mineral exploration and mine development in Saldanha Bay, with the aim of developing the Zandheuvel project. From a person whose first job was that of a music teacher, Ruiters is now within a hair's breadth of fully funding what could be a game-changing, food-critical business venture for South Africa - with potential linked value-added local phosphoric acid production already being pursued. Ruiters set it all off by going to South Africa's Council for Geoscience, paying next to nothing for data, obtaining a prospecting right, carrying out exploration, securing a mining right, deploying pilot plants and completing the technical aspects of bankable feasibility studies. With all that in the background, the last few regulatory boxes are scheduled to be ticked by the end of March to open the way for site preparation. "Together with our partners, we are creating a new phosphate competency for our country, the Republic of South Africa, and the Southern African Region, to serve the food security and agriculture development needs for the South African people," is how Ruiters spells out ARME's mission on the company's website. In an interview with Mining Weekly, Ruiters outlined the "very good support" she is receiving from South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation, along with the Anglo American Sefa Mining Fund, as well as her joy at having attracted local minority investors ahead of the anticipated IPO. The plan is to pipe the portion of the product that is earmarked for exportation from Zandheuvel will pipe product it four kilometres to the deep sea port of Saldana, which is about 200 km north of Cape Town. With environmental friendliness being one of Ruiter's personal passions, the use of diesel will be substituted by an organic canola oil derivative in the planned flotation process. Moreover, the operation will make use of treated effluent water provided by the Saldanha Bay municipality rather than potable water. "We have done a market study through a company in Europe. We will export some of the product, but we have got a responsibility to also offer it to our local farmers," said Ruiters. IDC funding is also now being sought for the local production of phosphoric acid, preferably in an industrial development zone, "and, of course, we're looking at a future IPO". Employment is on the cards for 393 people.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Construction work on Stellantis' assembly plant in the Coega Special Economic Zone, in the Eastern Cape, should kick off in May, says the vehicle manufacturer's new CEO Mike Whitfield. The start of assembly - "in a very ambitious plan" - is scheduled for the beginning of 2026. The greenfield facility is being developed in partnership with government's Industrial Development Corporation and the Coega Development Corporation, with the precise contributions of these institutions still a work in progress. However, Stellantis South Africa (SA) will operate and manage the plant, emphasises Whitfield. The R3-billion facility will build "a one-ton bakkie, as a start". As it stands, the Fiat Titano or Peugeot Landtrek are available as possible options within the Stellantis stable, unless a new model is unveiled. The first phase of production will reach volumes of 50 000 units year, but with the ability to scale up this number. Whitfield says 40% of production will be sold in South Africa and 60% exported, mainly to the rest of Africa. Employment at the plant will reach more than a 1 000 people. Local content on the one-ton bakkie will start at 30%-plus, "progressing over time", notes Whitifield. The Eastern Cape facility will include a bodyshop and paintshop, and, if the price tag seems a tad low compared with other automotive plant developments in South Africa, Whitfield says it is because the bodyshop will not be fully automated. Whitfield brings to Stellantis the experience of someone who has spent significant time in the auto assembly arena. He was the long-standing MD of Nissan SA, before moving over last year to head up Stellantis SA as he approached retirement age - 65 - at the local arm of the Japanese car maker. Whitfield spent 42 years at various levels within the Nissan group. Nissan SA has a long history of assembling bakkies at its Rosslyn plant, in Tshwane, while the Coega plant will be Stellantis' first foray into manufacturing in South Africa. "This is something I can focus on, to try and build; to be part of the building process. If you look at it, Stellantis is very successful globally and we also need South Africa to play a significant role here. That is what attracted me to the group," says Whitfield. He adds that he remains positive about South Africa as an assembly destination, especially as government's well entrenched automotive policy provides the certainty required for international vehicle manufacturers to set up shop in the country. Dealership Restructuring It doesn't take a maths wizard to know that Stellantis has a bit of mountain to climb in South Africa. Forty per cent of 50 000 locally produced bakkies is 20 000 units. That is quite a steep target for domestic sales of one-ton pickups a month - 1 666 to be precise. This is far more than Stellantis is currently selling in the market between the Citroën, Opel, Fiat, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Jeep brands combined, at between 400 and 500 units a month. Whitfield is aware that Stellantis must build its presence in South Africa. "We must create awareness of the brands and the products, as there is not a high level of awareness in the country. "Stellantis is the only brand that offers access to six brands. "It is also very important to build customer trust," he adds. "This is the foundation of any brand in this country." With 'customer trust', Whitfield says he is referring to the total cost of ownership. "Are we controlling parts pricing? Are all the parts available so customers do not experience downtime? Do we have good residual values? "It is really important that we supply parts at the right price and at the right time, so customers may have peace of mind." Part of the process to build the Stellantis brand in South Africa is to rationalise the current 50 outlets to around 37 or 38 dealerships, says ...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Construction work on Stellantis' assembly plant in the Coega Special Economic Zone, in the Eastern Cape, should kick off in May, says the vehicle manufacturer's new CEO Mike Whitfield. The start of assembly - "in a very ambitious plan" - is scheduled for the beginning of 2026. The greenfield facility is being developed in partnership with government's Industrial Development Corporation and the Coega Development Corporation, with the precise contributions of these institutions still a work in progress. However, Stellantis South Africa (SA) will operate and manage the plant, emphasises Whitfield. The R3-billion facility will build "a one-ton bakkie, as a start". As it stands, the Fiat Titano or Peugeot Landtrek are available as possible options within the Stellantis stable, unless a new model is unveiled. The first phase of production will reach volumes of 50 000 units year, but with the ability to scale up this number. Whitfield says 40% of production will be sold in South Africa and 60% exported, mainly to the rest of Africa. Employment at the plant will reach more than a 1 000 people. Local content on the one-ton bakkie will start at 30%-plus, "progressing over time", notes Whitifield. The Eastern Cape facility will include a bodyshop and paintshop, and, if the price tag seems a tad low compared with other automotive plant developments in South Africa, Whitfield says it is because the bodyshop will not be fully automated. Whitfield brings to Stellantis the experience of someone who has spent significant time in the auto assembly arena. He was the long-standing MD of Nissan SA, before moving over last year to head up Stellantis SA as he approached retirement age - 65 - at the local arm of the Japanese car maker. Whitfield spent 42 years at various levels within the Nissan group. Nissan SA has a long history of assembling bakkies at its Rosslyn plant, in Tshwane, while the Coega plant will be Stellantis' first foray into manufacturing in South Africa. "This is something I can focus on, to try and build; to be part of the building process. If you look at it, Stellantis is very successful globally and we also need South Africa to play a significant role here. That is what attracted me to the group," says Whitfield. He adds that he remains positive about South Africa as an assembly destination, especially as government's well entrenched automotive policy provides the certainty required for international vehicle manufacturers to set up shop in the country. Dealership Restructuring It doesn't take a maths wizard to know that Stellantis has a bit of mountain to climb in South Africa. Forty per cent of 50 000 locally produced bakkies is 20 000 units. That is quite a steep target for domestic sales of one-ton pickups a month - 1 666 to be precise. This is far more than Stellantis is currently selling in the market between the Citroën, Opel, Fiat, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Jeep brands combined, at between 400 and 500 units a month. Whitfield is aware that Stellantis must build its presence in South Africa. "We must create awareness of the brands and the products, as there is not a high level of awareness in the country. "Stellantis is the only brand that offers access to six brands. "It is also very important to build customer trust," he adds. "This is the foundation of any brand in this country." With 'customer trust', Whitfield says he is referring to the total cost of ownership. "Are we controlling parts pricing? Are all the parts available so customers do not experience downtime? Do we have good residual values? "It is really important that we supply parts at the right price and at the right time, so customers may have peace of mind." Part of the process to build the Stellantis brand in South Africa is to rationalise the current 50 outlets to around 37 or 38 dealerships, says ...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. South African developers of mature green hydrogen or derivatives projects are potentially eligible for non-refundable grant funding being extended under Germany's €270-million Power-to-X (PtX) Development Fund, set up to close "bankability gaps" standing in the way of implementing industrial-scale projects in seven eligible developing countries. Funding for the platform, which was established in 2023, is being made available from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the fund's first call for expressions of interest (EoI) is open for projects in Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, India, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa. German development bank KfW has appointed KGAL Investment Management to manage the fund and the EoI has a project-submission deadline of 12:00 on March 1. KfW's Stefan Hediger tells Engineering News that the PtX Development Fund is part of a portfolio of instruments available for projects in developing countries and beneficiaries are not precluded from accessing other concessional and grant funding schemes being made available by Germany, including those funding commitments made in support of South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan (JET-IP). KfW has already concluded a €23-million grant funding agreement with the Industrial Development Corporation to support early-stage "catalytic" green hydrogen projects, and some South African project developers are also aiming to access concessional loans under the JET-IP, as well as the subsidised long-term purchase agreements being extended under the H2Global framework. The PtX Development Fund's niche, however, is to support advanced projects that require grant funding to close any residual gaps preventing the project from advancing to financial close. PtX Development Fund head Thomas Engelmann, who is also head of energy transition at KGAL, tells Engineering News that up to €30-million could be dispersed to individual projects should these meet the scheme's technical, environmental and social eligibility criteria. The fund is particularly keen to support industrial-scale projects with a total investment cost of over €100-million, and which are geared towards supplying sectors where the usage of hydrogen is hard to avoid. These could include products developed to use green hydrogen - produced using renewable electricity in an electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen - as a feedstock in the manufacture of green ammonia, green methanol, green synthetic fuels, and green hydrogen-based chemicals. The platform, Engelmann says, can be used to finance any part of the project's PtX value chain, from renewable energy generation and electrolysis, through to hydrogen compression, storage and transportation, as well as the distribution infrastructure. He expects the full €270-million to be dispersed over two to three bidding rounds to between eight and ten projects and reports that significant interest has already been shown by project developers in the various eligible countries since the launch of the EoI in December. Once a project is submitted, the PtX Development Fund will evaluate the project against the scheme's eligibility and exclusion criteria before selecting preferred projects to support. The planned investment horizon for the PtX Development Fund is between 2024 and 2027. Hediger is confident that there are projects in South Africa at a suitable level of maturity to qualify for the grant and reports that every effort is being made to market the opportunity to potential participants, with a webinar scheduled for February 13. KfW's Kelly Slaffa highlights that Germany's promotion of Green Hydrogen not only focusses on the development of the nascent industry in South Africa but importantly the promotion of skills transfer, development and job creation.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. South African developers of mature green hydrogen or derivatives projects are potentially eligible for non-refundable grant funding being extended under Germany's €270-million Power-to-X (PtX) Development Fund, set up to close "bankability gaps" standing in the way of implementing industrial-scale projects in seven eligible developing countries. Funding for the platform, which was established in 2023, is being made available from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the fund's first call for expressions of interest (EoI) is open for projects in Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, India, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa. German development bank KfW has appointed KGAL Investment Management to manage the fund and the EoI has a project-submission deadline of 12:00 on March 1. KfW's Stefan Hediger tells Engineering News that the PtX Development Fund is part of a portfolio of instruments available for projects in developing countries and beneficiaries are not precluded from accessing other concessional and grant funding schemes being made available by Germany, including those funding commitments made in support of South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan (JET-IP). KfW has already concluded a €23-million grant funding agreement with the Industrial Development Corporation to support early-stage "catalytic" green hydrogen projects, and some South African project developers are also aiming to access concessional loans under the JET-IP, as well as the subsidised long-term purchase agreements being extended under the H2Global framework. The PtX Development Fund's niche, however, is to support advanced projects that require grant funding to close any residual gaps preventing the project from advancing to financial close. PtX Development Fund head Thomas Engelmann, who is also head of energy transition at KGAL, tells Engineering News that up to €30-million could be dispersed to individual projects should these meet the scheme's technical, environmental and social eligibility criteria. The fund is particularly keen to support industrial-scale projects with a total investment cost of over €100-million, and which are geared towards supplying sectors where the usage of hydrogen is hard to avoid. These could include products developed to use green hydrogen - produced using renewable electricity in an electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen - as a feedstock in the manufacture of green ammonia, green methanol, green synthetic fuels, and green hydrogen-based chemicals. The platform, Engelmann says, can be used to finance any part of the project's PtX value chain, from renewable energy generation and electrolysis, through to hydrogen compression, storage and transportation, as well as the distribution infrastructure. He expects the full €270-million to be dispersed over two to three bidding rounds to between eight and ten projects and reports that significant interest has already been shown by project developers in the various eligible countries since the launch of the EoI in December. Once a project is submitted, the PtX Development Fund will evaluate the project against the scheme's eligibility and exclusion criteria before selecting preferred projects to support. The planned investment horizon for the PtX Development Fund is between 2024 and 2027. Hediger is confident that there are projects in South Africa at a suitable level of maturity to qualify for the grant and reports that every effort is being made to market the opportunity to potential participants, with a webinar scheduled for February 13. KfW's Kelly Slaffa highlights that Germany's promotion of Green Hydrogen not only focusses on the development of the nascent industry in South Africa but importantly the promotion of skills transfer, development and job creation.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the current plan for rolling out grid infrastructure, particularly in the coming three years, is insufficient to end loadshedding and should, thus, be accelerated with the support of private investment, as well as funding from the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP). In his inaugural briefing for 2024, Ramokgopa highlighted that, following a recent memorandum of understanding clarifying his powers relative to those of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, he had been given responsibility for ensuring that transmission-related constraints were addressed. He had also been given authority to issue requests for information and proposal for the financing of new transmission lines and to develop and agree on financing models with National Treasury and the Presidency. Under the prevailing Transmission Development Plan, only 1 675 km of line is planned for construction by 2027, leaving the lion's share of 14 218 km proposed for construction under the plan to be deployed from 2028 to 2032. The backend nature of the investment profile has been heavily criticised by local industry, which has warned that it will be unable to make the manufacturing and skills investments required to participate in the later steep rise in grid expenditure. Ramokgopa suggested that at least 6 000 km of new lines would be required in the coming three years but acknowledged that Eskom's balance sheet was insufficient to cater for such investment. The scenario was also unlikely to change once the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA), which was currently being separated from the vertically integrated utility, was established. "I'm of the opinion that you need to do significantly more than the [1 675 km over the coming three years], I think we need to be closer to 6 000 km. "Of course, the Eskom balance sheet does not allow for that and that's why the Minister [of Electricity] is expected to work out a solution on how best to finance that, without relinquishing State ownership of the grid, but tapping into private sector liquidity." Cabinet had not yet approved a specific plan allowing for the private sector to participate in the building and operation of new grid infrastructure, but Ramokgopa expressed optimism that such a framework would be approved soon. He also stressed that the financing models being considered would seek to ensure that the national finances were not placed under undue strain in future and that the transmission assets were ultimately transferred to the NTCSA. Once the financing model was approved, Ramokgopa indicated that the intention was to pursue grid procurement through a "dedicated body", most probably a development finance institution, which would be less bureaucratically encumbered than would be the case should such contracting be performed by a government department. Lessons would be drawn from the model used for the procurement of new generating capacity and Ramokgopa reported he was in talks with both the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation about their possible involvement. The Minister also saw a specific role for the funding committed by France, Germany, the European Union, the UK and the US under the JET-IP to support an acceleration in grid investment. In late 2023, South Africa published its JET-IP implementation plan amid news of fresh funding flows and confirmation that the commitments had been expanded to $9.3-billion, from an initial $8.5-billion, after the Netherlands and Denmark added their support to the plan. Ramokgopa indicated that, once he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there would be a formal engagement on how the JET-IP funding could be unlocked to support the financing of new transmission infrastructure. "Now that the road has been paved, and we know what the responsibility of the Ministry is, we can move with full speed to [seek to access those funds], of co...

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the current plan for rolling out grid infrastructure, particularly in the coming three years, is insufficient to end loadshedding and should, thus, be accelerated with the support of private investment, as well as funding from the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP). In his inaugural briefing for 2024, Ramokgopa highlighted that, following a recent memorandum of understanding clarifying his powers relative to those of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, he had been given responsibility for ensuring that transmission-related constraints were addressed. He had also been given authority to issue requests for information and proposal for the financing of new transmission lines and to develop and agree on financing models with National Treasury and the Presidency. Under the prevailing Transmission Development Plan, only 1 675 km of line is planned for construction by 2027, leaving the lion's share of 14 218 km proposed for construction under the plan to be deployed from 2028 to 2032. The backend nature of the investment profile has been heavily criticised by local industry, which has warned that it will be unable to make the manufacturing and skills investments required to participate in the later steep rise in grid expenditure. Ramokgopa suggested that at least 6 000 km of new lines would be required in the coming three years but acknowledged that Eskom's balance sheet was insufficient to cater for such investment. The scenario was also unlikely to change once the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA), which was currently being separated from the vertically integrated utility, was established. "I'm of the opinion that you need to do significantly more than the [1 675 km over the coming three years], I think we need to be closer to 6 000 km. "Of course, the Eskom balance sheet does not allow for that and that's why the Minister [of Electricity] is expected to work out a solution on how best to finance that, without relinquishing State ownership of the grid, but tapping into private sector liquidity." Cabinet had not yet approved a specific plan allowing for the private sector to participate in the building and operation of new grid infrastructure, but Ramokgopa expressed optimism that such a framework would be approved soon. He also stressed that the financing models being considered would seek to ensure that the national finances were not placed under undue strain in future and that the transmission assets were ultimately transferred to the NTCSA. Once the financing model was approved, Ramokgopa indicated that the intention was to pursue grid procurement through a "dedicated body", most probably a development finance institution, which would be less bureaucratically encumbered than would be the case should such contracting be performed by a government department. Lessons would be drawn from the model used for the procurement of new generating capacity and Ramokgopa reported he was in talks with both the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation about their possible involvement. The Minister also saw a specific role for the funding committed by France, Germany, the European Union, the UK and the US under the JET-IP to support an acceleration in grid investment. In late 2023, South Africa published its JET-IP implementation plan amid news of fresh funding flows and confirmation that the commitments had been expanded to $9.3-billion, from an initial $8.5-billion, after the Netherlands and Denmark added their support to the plan. Ramokgopa indicated that, once he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there would be a formal engagement on how the JET-IP funding could be unlocked to support the financing of new transmission infrastructure. "Now that the road has been paved, and we know what the responsibility of the Ministry is, we can move with full speed to [seek to access those funds], of co...

Giyani Metals CEO Danny Keating joined Steve Darling from Proactive to reveal an exciting development for the company with the acquisition of a $26 million financing package. This funding includes a substantial $16 million injection from South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which will serve as a catalyst for Giyani Metals' strategic plans in 2024. Keating underscored the growing significance of high-purity manganese in the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector. The company has made substantial progress in expanding its resource base and establishing robust project economics. With its resources tripling, a net present value (NPV) exceeding $1 billion, and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 29%, Giyani Metals Corp is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in the battery supply chain. Keating also highlighted the importance of Giyani's demonstration plant in Johannesburg, which exemplifies their commitment to delivering a high-specification manganese product. The new financing provides the company with the means to address technical challenges, secure offtake agreements, and advance its projects. As Giyani Metals Corp enters 2024, the company anticipates a dynamic year marked by significant progress. The financing package and partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation further validate the company's path towards project financing and its credibility as a key player in the high-purity manganese market. #proactiveinvestors #giyanimetalscorp #tsxv #emm #DannyKeating #FundingNews #BatterySupplyChain #EVRevolution #ManganeseMining #IndustrialDevelopment #ResourceExpansion #ProjectEconomics #HighPurityManganese #DemonstrationPlant #2024Plans #FinancingSuccess #TechInnovation #RenewableEnergy #MiningIndustry #InvestmentUpdate #MarketTrends #OfftakeAgreements #JohannesburgPlant #BatteryMaterials #GreenTech #SustainableMining #EconomicDevelopment #SouthAfricanCorporation#invest #investing #investment #investor #stockmarket #stocks #stock #stockmarketnews

In this episode we chat to Errol Smart, managing director & CEO of Orion Minerals, who are a globally diversified metal explorer and developer which is on track to become a new generation base metals producer through the development of its flagship Prieska Copper-Zinc Project and its near-term Okiep Copper Project, both located in South Africa's Northern Cape. Errol is a geologist with significant industry experience across all aspects of exploration, mine development and operations with experience in precious and base metals and has been on a number of boards of companies listed on both the TSX and ASX. Errol shares the story of Orion Minerals, what they have achieved and what the outlook of the company mining in South Africa. KEY TAKEAWAYS Orion Minerals is a globally diversified metals explorer and developer focused on copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, platinum, gold, and silver. The company has acquired over 9,000 square kilometers of prospecting and mining rights in South Africa's Northern Cape, including the flagship Biscara copper zinc project and the OKEC copper project. Orion Minerals has secured innovative funding packages, including a convertible loan from the Industrial Development Corporation and a streaming and royalty finance package from Triple Flag, to support the development of their projects. The company is committed to ESG initiatives and has implemented various programs, such as water provision, skills training, enterprise development, and potential agricultural fertiliser production from mine water. BEST MOMENTS "We realised that the big boom was likely to be in the copper, the nickel, the zinc and the minerals that have now become known as the critical metal suite." "South Africa is the centre of African mining. Your skill set, your supply chain all works through South Africa." "We're busy installing pumps and pumping systems and the mining contractors are busy mobilising to sites so there's a whole lot of exciting activity happening at the moment." "We see ESG as an opportunity. The stuff that we do with our community, it really does warm your heart but it doesn't detract from value." "The future of mining is going to change. The minerals that are in demand are changing. There's a greater focus on some of the more obscure minerals and things that most people didn't even think of five years ago." VALUABLE RESOURCES mailto:rob@mining-international.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ http://www.mining-international.org https://twitter.com/MiningConsult https://www.facebook.com/MiningInternational.org https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC69dGPS29lmakv-D7LWJgQ?guidedhelp_flow=3 rob@mining-international.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/  LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/orion-minerals-ltd Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OrionMineralsLtd/ Twitter (X) – https://twitter.com/orionminerals?lang=en ABOUT THE HOST Rob Tyson is the Founder and Director of Mining International Ltd, a leading global recruitment and headhunting consultancy based in the UK specialising in all areas of mining across the globe from first-world to third-world countries from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We source, headhunt, and discover new and top talent through a targeted approach and search methodology and have a proven track record in sourcing and positioning exceptional candidates into our clients' organisations in any mining discipline or level. Mining International provides a transparent, informative, and trusted consultancy service to our candidates and clients to help them develop their careers and business goals and objectives in this ever-changing marketplace.This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

South Africa dare not fail in securing future demand for its 'incredible' platinum group metals (PGM) endowment, the Hydrogen Economy Discussion heard on Wednesday. Anglo American Platinum projects and environment executive head Prakashim Moodliar outlined the widespread marketing effort under way to boost PGM demand as well as the hugely positive benefit of adoption of the hydrogen economy. Moodliar, a keynote presenter along with German Embassy deputy head of mission Enrico Brandt, revealed the considerable work under way to map South Africa's Hydrogen Valley further, while Brandt provided insight into the momentous acceptance of hydrogen in Germany. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Moreover, Moodliar outlined how the building of the hydrogen economy in South Africa would enable significant job creation, reduce carbon emissions, support social change and drive economic development. Currently, the bulk of platinum group metals are used in catalytic converters to reduce emissions from internal combustion engines and the shift to battery electric vehicles therefore poses a risk to South Africa's PGMs industry, which employs 172 000 people, making it one of this country's largest private sector employers. "Considering that every employed person supports an average of ten other people, we dare not fail in securing future demand for this incredible natural endowment. "The significant growth forecasts for the hydrogen economy will offer significant demand opportunities for metals, including aluminium, copper, iridium, nickel, platinum, palladium, and zinc to support these hydrogen technologies. "This would include metal for renewable electrical technologies, and the electrolysis for renewable hydrogen, carbon storage for low carbon, nitrogen, or fuel cells using hydrogen for power transport. "We know that reaching the goals of the Paris agreement to keep the global temperature rise to well below two degrees would mean a quadrupling of mineral requirements for clean energy technologies by 2040," said Moodliar. A typical battery electrical car for example requires six times more mineral inputs than a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle, with metal supply and investment falling far short of what is needed to reach the Paris Agreement. A business plan has been submitted to South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation to secure funding from Germany's KfW development bank for Project Rainbow, which focuses on building a hydrogen freight corridor for trucks and buses. "Rainbow is also looking at localised manufacture and assembly of vehicles to support building a local supply chain," said Moodliar, who added during the discussion covered by Mining Weekly that Rainbow has been afforded strategic infrastructure project status. Brandt outlined Germany's commitment to hydrogen as part of its commitment to the Paris Agreement that calls for a fundamental shift away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable alternatives. "The transition will affect everyone and everything, our way of life, politics and business," Brandt said. "We're facing the most fundamental transformation of the global economy in our lifetime, comparable to the Industrial Revolution in the past," he added during the event chaired by mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe reports that government is in the process of developing a critical minerals strategy for South Africa, which will seek to support green-economy value chains domestically and abroad. Speaking at the Northern Cape Mining and Energy Investment Conference, Mantashe reported that government was monitoring global developments around critical minerals, which he termed a “new theatre of global economic struggle” to ensure that the strategy supported South Africa's industrialisation aspirations. “It is no secret that our country is well endowed with these critical minerals and can use them not only for beneficiation but also to position our country to be a strategic partner,” Mantashe said. Several other large commodity producing countries, including Australia and Canada, have already developed elaborate critical minerals strategies as the pressure to decarbonise increases globally. Likewise, key consuming countries are mapping out how they intend to ensure security of supply of those metals and minerals ­– from antimony to zinc, and with everything from lithium, copper and platinum in between – that will be required for the transition of electricity systems to renewables, as well as to support a shift to battery electric and fuel-cell electric mobility. “To ensure that South Africa reaps maximum benefit from these critical commodities, we are currently developing a critical minerals strategy for the country which will enable us to support the development of domestic and global value chains for the green economy,” Mantashe said. He added that the exploration fund being established in partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation would prioritise critical minerals projects “as these will support our green economy trajectory and support our just energy transition”. Mantashe also used the platform to highlight the fact that the Northern Cape held significant reserves of several critical minerals, including zinc, copper, manganese and some rare earth elements. “There can be no ambiguity in saying, the full potential of the Northern Cape mineral wealth remains largely untapped. “We therefore call on investors to look to this province for investments into more exploration projects,” Mantashe said, while again promising that a new cadastral system, which is seen as key to revitalising exploration, would be procured soon. “It is expected that the adjudication process will be finalised in the near future and therefore take us a step closer to the finalisation of this [procurement] process.”

Clement speaks to TP Nchocho, the CEO of the Industrial Development Corporation about the progress being made in building confidence for investors such as addressing energy availability, logistics infrastructure, fighting crime and rebuilding institution.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The race towards a just energy transition in South Africa's hardest-hit region takes another big step forward with the Coega Green Ammonia project receiving government support to fast-track development. At last week's South Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille announced that the Hive Hydrogen project in Coega, Nelson Mandela Bay, had been registered as a special integrated project (SIP). This means that the Hive Hydrogen project, which will produce 950 000 t of green ammonia a year, will be prioritised for implementation and can follow an expedited path to delivery with set and shorter time frames for regulatory processes. Hive Hydrogen South Africa executive chairperson Thulani Gcabashe described securing SIP status as a huge achievement and expressed pleasure at entering into this next exciting phase of the project, which involves a close interaction with several key State-owned enterprises with the strongest support possible from the South African government. Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane highlighted the project as a crucial milestone achieved after years of project preparation. “The Eastern Cape gave their strong backing for the project at the Eastern Cape Investment Conference in Buffalo City recently and we will continue through the Coega Development Corporation and the Infrastructure Investment PMO to support Hive Energy and Linde fully as they develop this multibillion-rand project that spans across the Northern and the Western Cape and is anchored in the Eastern Cape. It will trigger and generate industry development with upstream and downstream opportunities that will create more than 20 000 jobs in our province,” the premier added. Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Retief Odendaal remarked that “with the lowest GDP per capita and one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, we are very happy to hear this news and what it means for our local economy. We have been working closely with Hive for some time now to help ensure this project is a success." Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huysteen said the project was Nelson Mandela Bay's most significant to date. “We have been engaging with Hive for some time and their commitment to aligning their just energy transition objectives with those of the Business Chamber's strategic priorities are most welcome. “In particular, we see the company as being a critical contributor towards advancing our Climate Change strategy, which among other areas promotes the green economy and the initiation of renewable energy solutions. With Hive as an anchor, we have no doubt that this will expand and unlock our Metro's potential to become a key renewable energy hub on the continent as an exporter to major markets like the Far East, Europe and the United States. We are ideally placed as a Metro with good wind and solar sources, a spacious Industrial Development Zone and a world class deep-water port. “We are looking forward to collaborating with Hive to revive our local economy and create thousands of direct and indirect jobs,” said Van Huysteen. Hive Hydrogen GM Colin Loubser announced at the panel discussion at the Green Hydrogen Summit on stimulation of localised manufacturing, which included the Minster of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel and senior executives from the Industrial Development Corporation, Anglo American, Arcelor Mittal and Siemens, that Hive had also secured the commitment from one of the world's largest battery and solar panel manufacturers to establish plants in Coega to support the Hive project and other renewable energy-led businesses in the country. Hive also told the audience at the summit that they were in discussions to bring electrolyser manufacturers into Nelson Mandela Bay as the Eastern Cape region has demonstrated through its excellent track record in the automotive industry that it has all the skills and resources to host large-scale manufacturing plants fo...

Sasol energy business VP Priscillah Mabelane reports that the JSE-listed group has identified three priority clusters for the roll-out of its green hydrogen strategy, while also supporting government with plans to develop Boegoebaai, in the Northern Cape, into a green hydrogen and derivatives export hub. Speaking at the South Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town, Mabelane said Secunda, the Vaal Triangle and Saldanha Bay had been selected for various initiatives, with specific green-steel-related projects being pursued in partnership with ArcelorMittal South Africa in the Vaal Triangle and Saldanha Bay. Sasol was pursuing an initial sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) opportunity, known as the HyShiFT programme, in Secunda in partnership with Linde, Enertrag and Hydregen, which will bid to secure support under Germany's H2Global platform. Mabelane says the group has a longer-term vision to transform the OR Tambo International Airport into a global sustainable aviation hub. Enertrag new energy solutions head Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz, who also spoke at the summit, said the installed Fischer Tropsch (FT) capacity at Secunda positioned Sasol with a significant “first-mover advantage”, given that Secunda was the only FT plant globally already producing a certified aviation fuel based on grey hydrogen. The H2Global mechanism was likely to prove crucial in unlocking the advantage, however, given that green hydrogen was a commodity, which meant it faced a “first mover disadvantage”, with later movers benefitting from the technology learnings of early adopters. Should the project receive such support, the HyShiFT programme would seek to displace 1% of the grey hydrogen currently used at Secunda with green hydrogen, which would be produced using a 200 MW electrolyser and 450 MW of renewable electricity to be produced in Mpumalanga. The green hydrogen would be used in Sasol's FT reactors to produce a certified SAF. In the Vaal Triangle cluster, meanwhile, Sasol was partnering with ArcelorMittal South Africa to investigate the production of green hydrogen for use in steelmaking, and the capturing of unavoidable carbon dioxide. Sasol was also assessing the potential to supply other industries in the region, which currently use grey hydrogen in their production processes. The group is also repurposing an existing 60 MW electrolyser in Sasolburg to produce green hydrogen that will be used to pilot other green-mobility projects in partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation, including some Toyota Mirani fuel-cell vehicles and mine haulage trucks. In time, Sasol will also look to transition the 500 000 t ammonia and methanol produced at Sasolburg from grey to green hydrogen. In Saldanha, Sasol was also partnering with ArcelorMittal South Africa on a green steel project using green hydrogen, which could result in the re-opening of parts of the mothballed Saldanha Steel mill Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa offered an update on the Boegoebaai green hydrogen studies being facilitated by Sasol. The President said significant progress had been made on master plan for a green hydrogen special economic zone (SEZ) at Boegoebaai, with the aspiration to support 40 GW of electrolyser capacity by 2050. Mabelane said Sasol's green hydrogen strategy had two imperatives: “One is to anchor the local demand [and] the second part is to drive the green hydrogen hub facilitation.”

Joanne Bate, COO of the Industrial Development Corporation, is leading conversations around green hydrogen and new energy with regards to South Africa's Just Energy Transition Plan. We caught up with her at COP27. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The International Partners Group (IPG) of France, Germany, the UK, the US and the EU jointly endorsed South Africa's Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) during the World Leaders Summit at COP27, which took place at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on November 7. Engineering News editor Terence Creamer spoke to Presidential Climate Finance Task Team head Daniel Mminele about the significance of the endorsement and what it means for both the mobilisation of the $8.5-billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) funding package and South Africa's far larger $99-billion (R1.5-trillion) JET-IP, which is proposed for implementation over the coming five years to 2027. Terence Creamer: Could you reflect on the significance of the IPG's endorsement of South Africa's JET-IP? Daniel Mminele: It is a very pleasing development in the sense that we have seen emphatic endorsements from all the leaders – UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – who made very strong comments in support of South Africa's plan. With the work that we have undertaken since the announcement that was made at COP26, we have essentially refuted some of the narrative that was being pushed, which was that we weren't going to make our deadline of being able to provide a substantive update by COP27. The feedback that we received in Sharm El Sheikh is really encouraging and people are continuing to refer to the potential for this JET-IP to serve as a model, or as a benchmark, for other countries to follow. As you know, the plan that has been developed is South African-owned and South African-led, and it makes sure that South Africa-specific ambitions and priorities are taken care of and that the plan overall is aligned to our international decarbonisation commitments, while at the same time speaking to the need to put us on a new, inclusive and thus sustainable growth and development path. Reference is made in the IPG statement to the fact that the funding will be dispersed using various mechanisms, including grants, concessional loans and risk-sharing instruments. How will these flows actually take place and will it all be managed through the National Treasury? There will be a multitude of disbursement mechanisms, which actually will inform much of the next part of the work that we need to do. Right at the outset, we defined a set of principles, about nine of them, that would guide us in how we would put the financing package together. One of the principles is that the financing flows from the partner countries should be certain and predictable, so as to avoid any delays. Another one was that they should take advantage of the capacity and the capability that exists within South Africa by, for instance, involving our own development finance institutions (DFIs), such as the Development Bank of Southern African and the Industrial Development Corporation. That is the kind of work that we will now need to get into more granularity. But in principle, the potential implementation partners through which funds will flow is clearly government, or the National Treasury, but also other implementing institutions such as the DFIs, State-owned enterprises, the private sector and other social partners. So, there'll be a multitude of implementing partners, but it's fair to say that the bulk of it will come through the fiscus. When you say a principle of ‘certainty and predictability' of the flows should apply, how will that be realised? The political declaration that was signed in Glasgow giving rise to the JETP indicated that these countries were committing to mobilise an initial amount of $8.5-billion over the initial period of three to five years, subject to concurrence on an investment framework, which is essentially what we've put on the table now with the JET-IP. So, there are certain elements of the financing package that couldn't be suffi...

South Africans have been urged to rally around exploration as this country's Big Hairy Audacious Goal – a BHAG – so that what is described as "our lowest hanging economic fruit" can be turned to positive account. Council for Geoscience CEO Mosa Mabuza, who was speaking in support of the junior mining sector during a webinar presented by Minerals Council South Africa's Junior and Emerging Miners Desk, said: “We've been given a very important task. In fact, Parliament has set a BHAG for us.” (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Chaired by Minerals Council South Africa's Junior and Emerging Miners Desk head Grant Mitchell, the webinar's panellists and speakers included Orion Minerals and junior desk chairperson Errol Smart, Industrial Development Corporation mining industry champion Kevin Hodges, South African Diamond Producers Organisation (Sadpo) CEO Yamkela Makupula, Trimble Natural Resources MD Bill Feast, Lethabo Exploration CEO Mandy Malebe, ChromTech CEO Jono Gay, and JSE origination and deals head Sam Mokorosi. Pronounced ‘bee hag', Mabuza recalled how the BHAG banner had in years gone by been waved with vigour by former De Beers Group MD Gary Ralfe, on his way to successfully implementing some of the most far-reaching advances of the then South Africa-centred global diamond business. Another massive national BHAG rally is required once again, he emphasised, to attract “in the short term” a minimum of 5% of global exploration expenditure a year. Urgently needed, he harangued, was for "all stakeholders to have their hands on deck, so that we can, as a nation, work towards obtaining the desirable outcomes", for what he regards as South Africa's lowest hanging economic fruit. “We have a very rich mining history,” referring to the number of multinational mining corporations that have been founded and built in South Africa before becoming “truly global”. “They started here, and it's possible to have them again,” Mabuza enthused during the webinar covered by Mining Weekly. But what had to be recognised was that South Africa, after delineating and understanding some of the mineralising systems, relaxed its exploration effort. This had been made apparent by a revisit to some of the old boreholes of, for example, the historic Witwatersrand basin, which had been exceedingly revealing. “We've found some incredible information there that may potentially expand the extent of the Wits basin,” Mabuza revealed. RENEWBLE ENERGY AND CRITICAL MINERALS Regarding the huge minerals potential of the Northern Cape, South Africa had “barely scratched the surface”, and had paid scant attention to renewable energy being material intensive. Regarding critical minerals that the world requires for renewable energy generation, he said: “We should have started yesterday to organise ourselves as a country to begin the search for these minerals”. Owing to exploration being an ecosystem, building blocks needed to be put in place to unleash “this wonderful opportunity”. “I'm delighted that we're having this discussion now, so that we can strengthen and enrich our thinking in respect of re-imagining and recatalysing exploration activities”, which he described as South Africa's lowest hanging economic fruit. The Junior and Emerging Miners Desk programme of Minerals Council South Africa represents 38 junior and midtier producers as well as exploration/development companies. In addition, the desk works closely with mining associations, particularly Sadpo and the Clay Brick Association. Junior mining and exploration have been identified as key components in developing and driving the overall mining sector. The release of the exploration strategy and implementation plan by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in April spoke to the need for exploration to be increased to 5% of all global exploration dollars within the next five-year period. The Toronto Stock Exchange has 1 600 small-cap mining companies and the Sydney Stock Exchange 600 compared...

The JSE has a new product that is appropriate for fund-raising by junior mining companies, JSE origination and deals head Sam Mokorosi said on Friday. Mokorosi, who was speaking at Minerals Council South Africa's Junior and Emerging Miners Desk webinar, highlighted the new product against the background of the JSE wanting to reverse the low number of junior mining listings on the exchange, about which it was very concerned. He highlighted the new product in response to an observation of Council for Geosciences CEO Mosa Mabuza that although South African mining's future was junior, the country had not made it easy for juniors to list on the stock exchange. “It would be incredible if we can begin to see IPOs in our very own JSE that will be led by junior miners, which would also be based on the quality of the asset that we would be able to delineate in the next weeks, months and years,” said Mabuza. With capital formation in the unlisted, private market growing tremendously since the global financial crisis of 2008, many exchanges around the world, including Nasdaq private markets, have moved into helping unlisted companies to raise capital. “We have a focus on the SMME ecosystem and how we as the JSE can assist with capital formation within that world,” said Mokorosi. The new JSE private placements platform currently has 15 companies raising R3-billion worth of capital on it. “We also have investors on the platform, including large institutions like Sanlam, Old Mutual and Momentum, as well as private equity funds, venture capital, BEE investment companies and high net worth investors. “We've created this ecosystem that says please come on to JSE private placement for your fund raise if the listing route is not appropriate for you at this stage,” Mokorosi told the webinar covered by Mining Weekly. The process has been designed to be as simple as possible and enable the fund-raise process take place as quickly as possible. “You as a junior miner would come to us, we would understand what you're looking to raise money for, do all the FICA checks and then put the fund raise on to our platform. “We do have a set-up fee that is somewhere between R20 000 and R100 000, depending on how much you are raising. Within paying that set-up fee, the deal goes live and within two weeks we'll put you in front of quantified investors that understand your deal,” Mokorosi added. This unlocks an opportunity for the JSE to enter the private equity and debt market in South Africa and across the continent. The Junior and Emerging Miners Desk programme in the Minerals Council represents 38 junior and midtier producers as well as exploration/development companies. In addition, the desk works closely with mining associations, particularly the South African Diamond Producers Organisation (Sadpo) and the Clay Brick Association. Junior mining and exploration have been identified as key components in developing and driving the overall mining sector. The release of the exploration strategy and implementation plan by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in April spoke to the need for exploration to be increased to 5% of all global exploration dollars within the next five-year period. Chaired by Junior and Emerging Miners Desk head Grant Mitchell, webinar panellists and speakers included Orion Minerals and junior desk chairperson Errol Smart, Industrial Development Corporation mining industry champion Kevin Hodges, Sadpo CEO Yamkela Makupula, Trimble natural resource MD Bill Feast, Lethabo Exploration CEO Mandy Malebe, and ChromTech CEO Jono Gay. The Toronto Stock Exchange has 1 600 small-cap mining companies and the Sydney Stock Exchange 600 compared with the JSE's miniscule sub-ten.

Tumisang Ndlovu dissects IDC's annual results with Industrial Development Corporation of SA, CEO, TP Nchocho.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newly appointed Energy Council of South Africa CEO James Mackay says he will prioritise initiatives that will help unlock sustainable energy investments in South Africa, which he describes as being at the start of what will be a challenging multidecade transition. Mackay's appointment as the council's inaugural CEO was announced on September 8 and will become effective from October 17. Established in 2021 following calls by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe for the energy industry to speak with a unified voice, the council's formation drew some criticism for excluding emerging renewables and storage companies. All of its founding members represent large incumbent firms, including Anglo American, Sasol, Eskom, the Central Energy Fund, Exxaro, the Industrial Development Corporation, TotalEnergies, Toyota and the Automotive Business Council. However, chairperson Fleetwood Grobler stressed at the launch that emerging companies had not been excluded by design and promised that the council would be broadened in future to ensure greater stakeholder representation. Mackay tells Engineering News that the council will be “technology agnostic” and that he has not experienced any “bad blood” towards the formation during recent engagements with those energy sector practitioners whose companies were not included among the founding members. “I think there is a broad acknowledgement that the energy transition is going to be difficult and that there is a need for a national organisation to take a leadership role in this space.” He says the activities of the council will be guided by three key principles, including: an acknowledgment of the threat posed by climate change and the need for South Africa to contribute to humanity remaining within "planetary boundaries”; an acceptance that technology and innovation will shape the future energy landscape and that, while remaining technology agnostic, the council will favour solutions that are aligned with climate resiliency, business sustainability and social justice; and that access to finance will be critical to ensuring that the energy transition is implemented at a pace and scale required for security of supply, business and environmental sustainability and greater social equity. The council, he adds, will be data driven in its decision-making and will seek to play a constructive role in ensuring that South Africa has a vision for the energy transition that is supportive of accelerated investment. “There's only one real thing that's going to move the dial on energy and that's investment. “And so, our biggest focus and primary focus is going to be on unlocking investment in energy at all levels,” he says, adding that he is also determined to ensure that more attention is given to demand-side investments. Mackay will be the council's first formal employee and he will temporarily lead the organisation from office space donated by Sasol at its head office in Sandton. “We are acutely aware of our need to be independent, so we will be appointing our own employees and setting up our own offices soon,” he stresses. Mackay, who has professional qualifications in engineering and finance, has over 20 years of diverse experience in the public and private sectors and has worked extensively across Africa. He is currently the PwC energy lead with specific focus on energy strategy and net zero and acknowledges that the decision to take up the new role was a difficult one, as he was only recently appointed as a partner. “It was a tough decision to resign, but the leadership at PwC support me in taking up this new role.” He tells Engineering News that he is looking forward to engaging with, and supporting all energy stakeholders, and promises to adopt a “listening attitude” as he does so. “I'm very committed to being open to opinion, to listening and to understanding how we can work together with all of the other organisations,” he concludes.

Newly appointed Energy Council of South Africa CEO James Mackay says he will prioritise initiatives that will help unlock sustainable energy investments in South Africa, which he describes as being at the start of what will be a challenging multidecade transition. Mackay's appointment as the council's inaugural CEO was announced on September 8 and will become effective from October 17. Established in 2021 following calls by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe for the energy industry to speak with a unified voice, the council's formation drew some criticism for excluding emerging renewables and storage companies. All of its founding members represent large incumbent firms, including Anglo American, Sasol, Eskom, the Central Energy Fund, Exxaro, the Industrial Development Corporation, TotalEnergies, Toyota and the Automotive Business Council. However, chairperson Fleetwood Grobler stressed at the launch that emerging companies had not been excluded by design and promised that the council would be broadened in future to ensure greater stakeholder representation. Mackay tells Engineering News that the council will be “technology agnostic” and that he has not experienced any “bad blood” towards the formation during recent engagements with those energy sector practitioners whose companies were not included among the founding members. “I think there is a broad acknowledgement that the energy transition is going to be difficult and that there is a need for a national organisation to take a leadership role in this space.” He says the activities of the council will be guided by three key principles, including: an acknowledgment of the threat posed by climate change and the need for South Africa to contribute to humanity remaining within "planetary boundaries”; an acceptance that technology and innovation will shape the future energy landscape and that, while remaining technology agnostic, the council will favour solutions that are aligned with climate resiliency, business sustainability and social justice; and that access to finance will be critical to ensuring that the energy transition is implemented at a pace and scale required for security of supply, business and environmental sustainability and greater social equity. The council, he adds, will be data driven in its decision-making and will seek to play a constructive role in ensuring that South Africa has a vision for the energy transition that is supportive of accelerated investment. “There's only one real thing that's going to move the dial on energy and that's investment. “And so, our biggest focus and primary focus is going to be on unlocking investment in energy at all levels,” he says, adding that he is also determined to ensure that more attention is given to demand-side investments. Mackay will be the council's first formal employee and he will temporarily lead the organisation from office space donated by Sasol at its head office in Sandton. “We are acutely aware of our need to be independent, so we will be appointing our own employees and setting up our own offices soon,” he stresses. Mackay, who has professional qualifications in engineering and finance, has over 20 years of diverse experience in the public and private sectors and has worked extensively across Africa. He is currently the PwC energy lead with specific focus on energy strategy and net zero and acknowledges that the decision to take up the new role was a difficult one, as he was only recently appointed as a partner. “It was a tough decision to resign, but the leadership at PwC support me in taking up this new role.” He tells Engineering News that he is looking forward to engaging with, and supporting all energy stakeholders, and promises to adopt a “listening attitude” as he does so. “I'm very committed to being open to opinion, to listening and to understanding how we can work together with all of the other organisations,” he concludes.

The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) has struck a deal with copper developer Orion Minerals to fund 43.75% of the pre-development costs and facilitate black economic enterprise (BEE) ownership at the Okiep project, in South Africa. Under the terms of the agreement, the IDC will become a major shareholder in the New Okiep Mining Company (NOM), alongside Orion, which will hold 56.25% of NOM's ordinary shares. On becoming a shareholder, the IDC will advance its share of the R79.03-million total budgeted pre-development operating costs of the NOM. Orion MD and CEO Errol Smart said with Orion already having contributed R44.58-million, representing 56.25% of the pro-rata total pre-development budget, the IDC has now agreed on the key commercial terms on which it will fund the balance of the budget to complete feasibility studies by June 2023. “Following hard on the heels of last week's announcement regarding the grant of the South African Tantalum Mining (SAFTA) Mining Right for the Flat Mines area at Okiep, we are delighted to have reached agreement on the key principles for both the inclusion of Mining Charter 2018 historically disadvantaged South African (HDSA) structures and for the IDC to contribute 43.75% of the total budgeted pre-development costs for NOM, marking a significant step towards the broader commercial development of the Okiep copper project,” said Smart. “Having also received the long-awaited grant of the mining right to the core area, we are finally able to complete the required drilling and metallurgical sampling to finalise the optimisation of the feasibility studies which are already well advanced. “The future ownership of NOM with high quality development partners, such as the IDC, Lulamile Xate and our employees and host community, puts the Okiep project on a very solid footing for the near-term development of what we expect to be a very exciting, brownfields copper mining project.” Orion and the IDC anticipate finalising and executing the definitive agreements for the IDC share acquisition and pre-development funding arrangements by the end of September 2022, with the IDC funding to flow during October 2022, subject to fulfilment of conditions precedent standard for such arrangements. The IDC funding of pre-development costs in the amount of R34.5-million will be advanced to NOM on the same terms as the pre-development funding amount of R44.4-million already advanced by Orion to NOM. A 2021 scoping study into the project estimated that the 780 000 t/y operation could have a mine life of nearly 12 years, producing 386 000 t/y of copper concentrate. The study estimated that the project would require a capital investment of A$53-million, and would have a post-tax net present value of A$114-million and an internal rate of return of 37%. Feasibility studies to upgrade the scoping study economics are well advanced, and targeted for completion in the third quarter of next year.

The July 2021 unrest and the floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April this year have seen the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) and its entities make available R3.5-billion in support. The dtic on Tuesday briefed the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition on the support package to aid economic recovery given the impact of the unrest and the floods. They shared that R2.4-billion - or 80% of the R3-billion approved by the department and its entities - has been disbursed to businesses affected by the unrest. Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Fikile Majola explained that while the physical damage of the unrest was limited to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, its economic impacts were widespread. As a response, the dtic and its entities developed an Economic Support Package of R3.75-billion. The package is funded through the reprioritisation of budgets within the dtic to the value of R700-million. National Treasury had made an allocation of R1.3-billion. The Industrial Development Corporation, an entity of the dtic, reprioritised and allocated R1.5-billion, and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) allocated R250-million. The Solidarity Fund later provided the NEF with an additional R273-million. The support has been made available in the form of grants and concessionary loans or bridging finance to cover cash-flow challenges until the payouts from claims with the South African Special Insurance Risk Association (Sasria) are finalised. In its presentation, the department indicated that R3-billion had been approved for the applications made, and R2.4-billion has been disbursed so far. In some cases where construction is undertaken, or new equipment and machinery are ordered – payment is made after the completion of work. The disbursements, therefore, are expected to increase throughout the year. A total of 2 400 enterprises were supported – and over 2 600 sites were covered as, in some instances, individual firms had several of their sites affected. Over 45 000 jobs had also been supported. Businesses across different sectors such as manufacturing, retail, construction, agriculture and agro-processing, transportation, information and communication and the automotive industry benefitted from funds from the IDC. Several small-scale and large retailers were supported. Among those include rural and informal traders and small businesses who benefitted from R154-million grant funding. Over 1 800 business entities were supported, and about 7 100 jobs were saved. The IDC also provided grants of R7-million to 142 sugarcane growers in KwaZulu-Natal and over 6 500 jobs were saved. Over R12-million was approved for a black-owned company Wired Hardwares, which is a franchisee of Build-IT. Two Build-IT hardware stores in KwaZulu-Natal – one in KwaMashu and another in Inanda, that employed people from surrounding settlements - were looted, damaged and destroyed. However, thanks to the support provided, the Inanda store began trading again in March 2022, and the one in KwaMashu started trading again in late July. All 50 jobs were retained. A woman-owned business, Wildfire Trading, which owns an Engen franchise in Alexandra, Gauteng, was looted and damaged. A total of R2.5-million was approved to renovate the site, which had been vandalised. A total of 29 jobs were saved. Businesswoman Kedibone Lebethe, who owns 30 KFC outlets, having started off as a fryer, benefitted of R40.5-million needed to repair nine outlets across Gauteng that were damaged, looted and, in some cases, completely burnt down. In total, 14 outlets were affected. Her company KPML Group employs over 1 000 staff, mostly women and youth. The support helped the group reemploy 550 workers. The department has also supported infrastructure rebuilding programmes which covered six shopping centres, such as Protea Glen Shopping Centre in Gauteng and KwaMashu Shopping Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Six other industrial sites also applied for funding. Close to...

Energy and chemicals group Sasol expects to invest the bulk of the R15-billion to R25-billion it is budgeting to facilitate a 30% reduction in its carbon emissions by 2030 between 2025 and 2027, having spent only modest capital on such projects to date. The expenditure forms part of the JSE-listed group's yearly ‘maintain and transform' capital budget, which is expected to rise to between R26-billion and R27-billion in its 2023 financial year. Sasol will invest between R500-million and R1-billion during the year on projects designed to improve its environmental performance ahead of a scale-up in such expenditure from 2025 onwards. The bulk of the ‘transform capital' will be directed towards the introduction of process changes particularly at the group's Secunda complex, which is regarded as one of the largest single-site emitters of carbon dioxide globally. These include technology changes allowing for the displacement of coal with gas, the possible briquetting of coal fines to reduce its use of mined coal and the ramping down of coal-fired boilers as it begins procuring renewable energy from independent power producers (IPPs). The company says it has agreed key terms with IPPs for more than 600 MW of wind and solar to be introduced before 2025 and is planning to procure 1 200 MW by 2030. CEO Fleetwood Grobler reports that Sasol is working on future gas supply options, including the possible integration of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) through Maputo, in Mozambique. It has, however, been able to extend the gas supply “plateau” from Mozambique by two years to 2028, following infill well drilling. The prospect of a “gas cliff” has come into focus again recently after Sasol Gas announced, and later delayed, the implementation of a 96% hike in the price of pipeline gas from August 1. Had the increase been introduced, the price of gas charged to South African customers would have increased from R68.39/GJ to R133.34/GJ. The Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa warned that its members were not only facing the prospect of an “untenable” hike in prices, but also the prospect of gas shortages as production from Sasol's Mozambican wells tapered. Sasol says drilling is under way in a bid to find more gas and that it is now moving to explore acreage adjacent to its existing production wells. The company is also in advanced talks to finalise a term sheet for 40 to 60 petajoules (PJ) of LNG as additional incremental gas supply toward the latter end of the decade over and above its current 160 PJ requirement. GREEN HYDROGEN & NATREF REPURPOSING In parallel, the group intends moving ahead with an initial green hydrogen project at Sasolburg, in the Free State, where it will convert an existing 6 t/d electrolyser to operate on renewable electricity. The final investment decision for the green hydrogen project has been made with the aim of producing the first green hydrogen volumes towards the end of 2023. Details of the project will be announced once Sasol's investment partner, the Industrial Development Corporation, also approves the investment. The group is also studying larger green hydrogen prospects that are likely to proceed only after 2030, including the possible creation of a green hydrogen hub at Boegoebaai, in the Northern Cape. Grobler expresses particular enthusiasm for using green hydrogen to produce a “drop in” sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which will be produced using the group's existing Fischer-Tropsch assets. “SAF remains one of the most promising pathways for the hard-to-abate aviation sector to decarbonise in future. “The SAF drop-in offering is an attractive aviation-fuel solution and the market is expected to grow massively in the years to come,” Grobler says, revealing that it is currently refining its “go-to-market” strategy in collaboration with others. He has also announced that a low capital solution has been found to produce Cleaner Fuels 2-compliant diesel at the Natref refinery, in the Fr...

Since the launch of government's Black Industrialists Programme in 2015, coupled with efforts from the Industrial Development Corporation, the National Empowerment Fund and other agencies, more than 900 black industrialists have been supported, to the value of R55-billion. In turn, this had delivered socioeconomic returns valued at R160-billlion to the economy and created more than 50 000 jobs, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at the Black Industrialists and Exporters conference, held in Sandton, on July 20. The conference showcased the products and services of more than 140 black-owned businesses. Next year marks 20 years since the promulgation of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBEEE) Act. Ramaphosa said government had undeniably made gains in transforming a skewed, racialised economy. For example, there were about 150 000 black-owned businesses in the formal sector in 1994. This had grown to more than 300 000 today. There had also been advances in employment equity, the President noted, highlighting that the number of black managers in the private sector had more than doubled over the past 20 years from 125 000 in 2002 to 350 000 today. In the public sector, that number had grown from 45 000 to 150 000. However, Ramaphosa said South Africa had not yet overcome the structural defects of the economy, which run deep and are reflected in the high levels of unemployment. “With the country's majority having been deliberately and systemically excluded from the economic mainstream for centuries, it is no wonder that self-employment and entrepreneurship in South Africa are at lower levels than most peer economies.” The President explained that small and medium-sized employers and self-employed people made up one in three of all employed people in rural areas in peer countries, and one in seven in the urban areas. In South Africa, just 1 in 20 people are small and medium-sized employers and self-employed, both in rural and urban areas. According to modelled estimates from the International Labour Organisation, business owners in South Africa plus family members who work for them make up just 17% of total employment. This compares with 46% in China and an average of 31% in other upper-middle-income economies. Self-employment and entrepreneurship are the engines of growth and job creation in any economy. They support innovation, boost competitiveness and bring new products and services into an economy. To a large extent, this entrepreneurial deficit is the legacy of the policies of the past, Ramaphosa pointed out. He admitted that there were still barriers to black entrepreneurs participating meaningfully and equitably in the economy, particularly for women, young people and people with disabilities. These include the concentrated nature of the economy and ownership patterns, access to finance, access to markets and technology, as well as a lack of infrastructure. Ramaphosa said the energy crisis and port inefficiencies were also posing great barriers to economic growth of this nature. To this end, government intended to use the conference to garner insight about what needed to be done, and shift the transformation agenda into higher gear. “We need to talk about private sector procurement, value chains, access to financing for emerging black businesses and about how existing systems mitigate against emerging black businesses,” Ramaphosa averred. He added that government was open to discussing far-reaching reforms in telecommunications, energy and water to improve the competitiveness of the economy and reduce the cost of doing business. The President hoped that development finance institutions and the private sector would provide more support to black industrial projects and bridge the financing gaps that both aspirant and established black businesses relied on for their sustainability. “Unless tangible, sustainable measures are implemented, we run the risk that empowerment opportunities are confined to black businesse...

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...

The energy transition currently under way presents a fresh opportunity for South Africa to build a clean and inclusive energy ecosystem that can create new and significant economic opportunities for the African continent. This continent, with its vast natural reserves of abundant sun and wind, provides an unmissable opportunity to both decarbonise and create significant new economic sectors – and Anglo American is committed to play its role in making that opportunity a reality. Such shifts need all in the private and the public sectors to think outside the traditional model, with the opportunity for mining and other industries to pool its expertise with government to build greater capacity and resilience in the public sector. In March, Anglo American announced a partnership with EDF Renewables – a global leader in renewable energy – to work with government towards developing a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa to provide between 3 GW and 5 GW of renewable generation capacity. This ecosystem involves the construction of on-site photovoltaic solar plants and off-site wind farms for green hydrogen production. The energy ecosystem will generate a wide range of new economic opportunities to ensure that the value created is shared inclusively. The collaborative regional development – or CRD – fosters economic activity beyond mining by creating community economics that endure well beyond the life of the mine through the so-called Impact Catalyst, with the Industrial Development Corporation as a financial partner, alongside government, nongovernmental organisations and other businesses, including Exxaro. Partnership with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has laid the foundation for an adaptive approach in working together to improve service delivery and ultimately contribute to improved quality of life of communities, where millions of people will experience the effects of the energy transition. The programme is helping address inter-related challenges across nine municipalities in South Africa, including the impact of climate change, food security, the creation of sustainable livelihoods and jobs, and the financial stability of municipalities. Holistic thought is being given to what the ‘just transition' could bring for millions of people in this region. These and many more profound points were driven home impressively by new Anglo American CE Duncan Wanblad in his far-reaching keynote address to the Investing in African Mining Indaba on Monday. He also spoke of: mining not just being a ‘part' or a ‘cog' of the future of the global economy and the planet but its very bedrock; the planet being a silent but most delicate stakeholder; mining needing to go about satisfying the demand for metals and minerals in harmony with the needs of society and the natural environment while creating and sharing enduring value in an inclusive way for all stakeholders; mining providing the feedstocks necessary for zero-carbon decarbonisation in the cleanest and most socially responsible way possible; and a 2 oC climate pathway – and not even the 1.5 oC pathway envisaged by the Paris agreement – requiring investment of $2-trillion in capital over the next 15 years to bring to market the green metals and minerals that are abundant in many parts of this continent. “The last two years of pandemic-related disruption has certainly tested all sectors of society, but I am very proud of how our industry responded in terms of our broad social role in so many communities around our operations all over the world,” said Wanblad. “Never before has there been such an obvious and urgent demand for what we do and, more specifically, what we make possible. “Just try and imagine a world without airplanes, vehicles, and mobile phones – all of which are manufactured from mined materials. “The mining industry, as the foundation for industrial development and growth, must continue to transform itself at pace to achieve this ...

Coal miner MC Mining's 70%-owned Uitkomst colliery increased its run-of-mine production by 7% year-on-year to 124 144 t in the first quarter of the year. Sales of high-grade peas and duff, totalling 62 751 t, were achieved in the period, up from the 53 512 t sold in the first quarter of 2021. The sales were augmented by the sale of coal carried over from the last quarter of 2021 and the two pre-sale contracts outstanding at the end of December 2021, which were completed during the period under review. In addition, Uitkomst also sold 8 610 t of high ash middlings coal in the period, marginally down year-on-year, while the mine had 8 373 t of high-grade duff and peas coal on hand at the end of the quarter, compared with 10 909 t at the beginning of the quarter. MC Mining recorded 71 361 t of coal sales during the quarter, up from the 62 301 t of the first quarter of 2021; comprising 62 751 t of high-grade metallurgical and thermal coal and 8 610 t of lower-grade middlings coal. MC Mining points out that Russia is a significant producer of coal globally and its invasion of Ukraine resulted in the prices of thermal coal attaining record highs. Average API4 prices in the first quarter of this year were 162% higher year-on-year at $238/t; but the composition of Uitkomst's sales mix resulted in average revenue a tonne increasing by just 53% year-on-year to $110/t. However, these elevated prices are not being accepted in the South African domestic coal market and, as such, MC Mining is assessing alternative coal marketing strategies, including the potential production of higher-quality coal for the international pulverised coal injection market. Uitkomst's sales include lower-value middlings coal, as well as sales under fixed price arrangements. Production costs per saleable tonne were marginally higher than the comparative period of 2021, increasing from $73/t to $74/t. Nonetheless, revenue per tonne sold also increased year-on-year, from $72/t in 2021 to $110/t, owing to elevated API4 coal prices recorded during the quarter. MAKHADO & VELE MC Mining's flagship 67%-owned Makhado hard coking coal project recorded no lost-time injuries in the first quarter. In the period under review, the Industrial Development Corporation, which holds a 6.7% equity interest in Baobab Mining & Exploration – MC Mining's subsidiary that owns Makhado – agreed to extend the date for repayment of the existing R160-million loan plus interest. This is in addition to extending the terminal drawdown date in respect of the conditional R245-million term loan facility for the development of the Makhado project to November 30. In the event MC Mining does not repay the existing loan by the repayment date, the financing documentation enables that the debt be converted into equity. Baobab also completed the acquisition of the Lukin and Salaita properties – key surface rights for the Makhado project – with the balance of the purchase price of R35-million paid during the quarter. The economics of the Makhado project were confirmed in the bankable feasibility study (BFS) completed by Minxcon subsequent to the end of the first quarter. Going forward, the development of Makhado is expected to deliver positive returns for shareholders and will position MC Mining as South Africa's pre-eminent hard coking coal producer, states MC Mining. The project has an estimated capital cost (including contingencies) of R625-million, a peak funding requirement of R727-million and is expected to create about 650 permanent employment positions (including contractors) at steady-state production. The BFS confirmed that Makhado has a short construction period of 12 months, positioning the project to take advantage of the current higher global coal prices. Meanwhile, MC Mining's fully-owned Vele semi-soft coking and thermal coal colliery remained on care and maintenance during the first quarter and recorded two lost-time injuries (LTIs) when staff members were involved in a traffic accident ...

Clement speaks to the CEO of the Industrial Development Corporation, Tshokolo Petrus Nchocho about the IDC's investments in rest of Africa and the pledges they are making. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This year's investment conference kicked off on a high note at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg with a strong focus on Intra-Africa trade and the importance of the Africa Free Continental Trade Area (AfCTA). The fourth edition of the gathering attracted potention investors from far and wide in an effort to set South Africa as a lucrative investment destination. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to Industrial Development Corporation CEO,  Tshokolo Petrus Nchocho

The Industrial Development Corporation has narrowed its annual loss to R33 million rand from R3.3 billion previously. The vast improvement is as a result of reduced impairments and write offs. Zinathi Gquma unpacked the performance with IDC CEO TP Nchoncho.

With women's jobs close to twice as likely to be cut during this recession as those held by men, the pandemic has set the world back 36 years in its quest to achieve global gender parity. A panel of world leaders explore innovative methods to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on women and ensure a more inclusive and prosperous global economy. Panellists: Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations Anne Richards, Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity International Alan Jope, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever Busi Mabuza, Chairperson, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), South Africa Chaired by: Børge Brende, President, World Economic Forum Moderated by: Adrian Monck, Managing Director, World Economic Forum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With women's jobs close to twice as likely to be cut during this recession as those held by men, the pandemic has set the world back 36 years in its quest to achieve global gender parity.A panel of world leaders explore innovative methods to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on women and ensure a more inclusive and prosperous global economy.Panellists:Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United NationsAnne Richards, Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity InternationalAlan Jope, Chief Executive Officer, UnileverBusi Mabuza, Chairperson, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), South AfricaChaired by:Børge Brende, President, World Economic ForumModerated by:Adrian Monck, Managing Director, World Economic Forum See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As Ebrahim Patel ploughs on, recasting South African industry in his own image, good news stories on the ground are hard to find and one of the minister of trade, industry and competition's frequently used weapons in his drive to promote localisation and import substitution, the Industrial Development Corporation, reported losses of R3.8bn last year. That's a big number and testament to the quality of companies that its political masters (Patel) is driving it to invest in. In this edition of Podcasts from the Edge Peter Bruce talks to Nick Steen, a rock- hard former CEO with long, bittersweet experience in the local textiles industry that Patel is determined to protect. Do we have a future in textiles? Steen says we do, but not the way Patel imagines it…

As Ebrahim Patel ploughs on, recasting South African industry in his own image, good news stories on the ground are hard to find and one of the minister of trade, industry and competition's frequently used weapons in his drive to promote localisation and import substitution, the Industrial Development Corporation, reported losses of R3.8bn last year. That's a big number and testament to the quality of companies that its political masters (Patel) is driving it to invest in. In this edition of Podcasts from the Edge Peter Bruce talks to Nick Steen, a rock- hard former CEO with long, bittersweet experience in the local textiles industry that Patel is determined to protect. Do we have a future in textiles? Steen says we do, but not the way Patel imagines it…

EPISODE OVERVIEW The renaissance of the Greenwood District started in spirit and then moved to bricks and mortar. The heart of the renaissance is the Greenwood Cultural Center, which focuses on African-American history and culture and seeks to enhance race relations. The center includes the North Tulsa Heritage Foundation, BIDC (Business and Industrial Development Corporation), the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, and MORE. Check out today's episode as we break it all down!

This week we are deviating slightly from personal finance to focus on SME's who often struggle on how to raise funds through government incentive programs. Nadia and Zahra Rawjee, Directors of Uzenzele went through this situation of trying to raise funds for a family business and found it to be an impossible task. For this reason, they realised there was a need to understand the options of how to achieve this through institutions such as the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Industrial Development Corporation. You and Your Money

1. Today is mini-budget day, and as we focus on parliament and Min. Nene this afternoon, the latest domestic economic indicators point to a possible technical recession. What is your view - are we in a recession? 2. A few months ago it was announced that agreement had been reached between South Africa and the US around the poultry market, and how it affects AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Yesterday this trade deal was back in the news. What is the latest? 3. As an alternative to a focus on trade and export in the economy, we can focus more attention on domestic capacity building. This is the primary aim of the Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, who celebrated its 75th anniversary with a conference yesterday. What were some of the key insights?

Economic Development Minister Ibrahim Patel says the Industrial Development Corporation will set aside 23-billion rand over the next five years to promote the development of black industrialists. Minister Patel says this is intended to support companies owned and controlled by black South Africans, and also to bring them into the mainstream of the economy. The Minister presented his department's budget vote in parliament yesterday, Sakina Kamwendo spoke to him ....

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