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Private investment company Menar is advancing steadily on the manganese front.

The company's diversification into manganese began in 2021 with the East Manganese project in the Northern Cape, where a second manganese project is now at an advanced stage of assessment, and a manganese acquisition is under consideration.

In addition, Menar is also looking to develop manganese projects in Gabon.

The second manganese project is destined to be an underground operation, amid the maiden opencast East Manganese mine currently producing at a rate of 30 000 t a month of 36.5% manganese ore, which is crushed and dispatched to different customers.

"We decided to do our first bulk shipment out of Port Elizabeth and we did 55 000 t cargo recently, thanks to Transnet's allocation," Menar MD Vuslat Bayoğlu informed Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Great for the manganese mining industry is the rise of manganese prices to the level of $5.36 per dry metric tonne unit. "But obviously there are still challenges on the railway side. We all want to move product to the ports but there are limitations," said Bayoğlu.

Drilling at the second manganese project, on which a feasibility study was conducted, has been under way for the past two years to assess how the ore of this 50-million-ton deposit can be accessed.

Planned is the mining of the lower orebody seam, which has 36% or 37% manganese content. "Currently it looks feasible but obviously we must look at the future prices and developments in the manganese industry going forward. As we all know, the South African manganese industry will go underground at most of the mines, maybe in the next seven to ten years, so it's important for us to keep this project in our portfolio and to develop it at the right time," Bayoğlu explained.

Menar sees manganese as being important for its diversification strategy, with the company also looking beyond South Africa for iron-ore projects.

Menar's plan to soon develop manganese projects in Gabon follows the company's signing of a memorandum of understanding with the government of Gabon earlier this year.

MANGANESE AND NICKEL FOR BATTERIES

Battery manganese and nickel are the two commodities that Menar is looking to contribute to the energy landscape as part of its diversification strategy.

Being increasingly highlighted globally is the upcoming use of manganese in electric vehicles (EVs). Manganese is an alternative system for the batteries and Menar is hoping that its involvement in the manganese industry will contribute to the EV production space. The company's nickel asset in Türkiye is also critical for battery products for EVs and the development of that project is now also on the cards.

The project will create more nickel production capacity for the European market, given Türkiye's proximity to it. To truck to Germany or a critical battery production area in Europe takes about three days.

What is the latest on your anthracite projects, particularly the new Mngeni shaft at Zululand Anthracite Colliery?

Anthracite is key for making steel, for making ferrochrome, ferrosilicon, and ferromanganese amongst other things. We have a very strong local and international customer base. We move products to Brazil, US, Vietnam, Ukraine. Most of these countries need the product for making metals and some of them need it for producing bulk power like in the case of Ukraine and Vietnam. Zululand Anthracite Colliery, or ZAC, is important for South Africa as it is the only producer of prime anthracite. We're producing 8% ash product which is very important for Richards Bay Minerals, Glencore, Samancor, all companies keen on using our products. Hence a new investment for ZAC is crucial because we need to keep the mine operational and keep it viable cost-wise. Starting the Mngeni adit was vital for the life-of-mine at ZAC. We started it about 18 months ago...