MiningWeekly.com Audio Articles

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

Johannesburg- and Sydney-listed platinum group metals (PGMs) development company Southern Palladium has submitted a mining right application for its 70%-owned Bengwenyama PGM project, on the eastern limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex, which contains more than 70% of the world's known PGM resources.

"This application marks our transition from a pure exploration to a development-focused company," Southern Palladium MD Johan Odendaal stated in a Johannesburg Stock Exchange news service announcement.

The project is described as being particularly rich in palladium and rhodium. Previous exploration efforts have yielded a compliant inferred mineral resource of 25.12-million ounces within two ore horizons - the Upper Group Two chromitite reef horizon and Merensky Reef horizon.

The exploration tenement is 100% held by Miracle Upon Miracle Investments, in which the company holds a 70% interest. The total application area over the two farms measures 5 280 ha.

Primary focus is on delivering a prefeasibility study, as well as overseeing the completion of the diamond drill programme initiated more than a year ago, along with several other concurrent technical studies.

The social and environmental phases of permitting will commence on acceptance by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. These studies will evaluate the potential impacts of proposed operational activities.

Resource modelling incorporating results of the ongoing drill programme has started. A second interim resource update on the existing 25.11-million ounces of compliant resource is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year, Mining Weekly can report.

In addition to PGMs, the mining right application is for gold, copper, chrome, cobalt, silver and nickel over the full extent of the farms Nooitverwacht 324 KT and Eerstegeluk 327 KT, both of which are in Limpopo.

Expected to conclude this month is a geotechnical study critical for the detailed mine designs and scoping prefeasibility study planning.

Due in the fourth quarter is metallurgical test work, encompassing flotation efficiency tests and determinations of the bond ball mill work index .

The eastern side of the Eerstegeluk farm is receiving special drilling focus with the objective of converting Inferred resources to measured resources and Indicated resources, with a second interim resource update planned in quarter-four.

Completion of the second interim resource update should allow the finalisation of an updated project scoping study in the first quarter of 2024, with work on the prefeasibility study expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2024.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

It is too early to expect the start of a new sustaining upcycle for commodities, Macquarie states in its latest quarterly outlook for global commodity markets.

In a nigh 100-page commodities compendium, the commodity trading group states that despite a narrative of under-investment, underlying production is not currently constrained and the expectation is that most markets will be in physical surplus for 2024, amid individual commodity outlooks being increasingly nuanced.

Another key point is that the taming of inflation should set the scene for strong cyclical commodities price performance, along with significant demand divergence between those commodities which are beneficiaries of the energy transition and those that are not.

Among the medium-term winners cited are electrification metals, driven by the energy transition, led by battery electric vehicle penetration and the build-out of solar generation capacity.

Palladium is among the medium-term strugglers cited, owing to its falling internal combustion engine market share.

Bearishness on iron-ore is put down to the likelihood of fourth-quarter commercial or policy-driven steel production cuts, while bearishness on lead is based on apparent long investor positioning not being supported by fundamentals.

Most preferred in the next six to nine months are precious metals and lithium - precious metals owing to slower global growth setting the scene for a return of financial inflows, and lithium on the basis of the destocking cycle having run its course.

California carbon bullishness was expressed, based on the view that policy reform should support expectations for a tighter market outlook.

The combination of moderating core inflation, struggling growth, and softening labour markets likely mean that central bank hiking cycles are drawing to a close. Despite this, still-elevated core inflation is likely to keep policy constrained in coming months and limit the chance of rate cuts until 2024, the report to Mining Weekly states.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Manganese Metal Co which is putting South Africa in pole position amid a battery demand; Morgan Stanley analysts' belief that Glencore’s growth potential from the circular economy is very significant; and Nedbank Manufacturing providing a much-needed fillip to local manufacturing businesses.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

On the face of it, South Africa could do a lot more to speed up critical mineral mining development in South Africa.

An example of doing so that catches the eye is the extra mile the government of Malawi is going to assist with permitting.

This is highlighted by Australian mining company Sovereign Metals Limited, which outlines the strong support it is receiving from the Malawi government in an 84-page report released on Thursday, September 28. The report is focused on the single project it is developing to yield graphite and rutile, two critical minerals the modern world is demanding.

Targeted is production of 244 00 t/y of graphite and 222 000 t/y of rutile and Malawi has gone to the trouble of constituting an inter-ministerial project development committee to work alongside Sovereign to assist in the permitting processes - and that comes a month after the government of Malawi applauded the investment by Rio Tinto and marked it as a milestone towards realising the country's aspirations of growing the mining sector as a priority industry.

This is an example of a government rolling out the red carpet to investors rather than rolling out red tape - and that approach creates jobs, reduces inequality and fights poverty.

Mining has not only been declared as a key pillar for growth under Malawi's economic development strategy, but that declaration has come with direct action to speed up Sovereign's Kasiya project because of its national significance. In July 2023, global mining major Rio Tinto made an investment in Sovereign resulting in an initial 15% shareholding and options expiring within 12 months of initial investment to increase their position to 19.99%.

Under the Investment Agreement, Rio Tinto will provide assistance and advice on technical and marketing aspects of Kasiya including with respect to Sovereign's graphite co-product, with a primary focus on spherical purified graphite for the lithium-ion battery anode market.

"The project has excellent surrounding infrastructure including sealed roads, a high-quality rail line connecting to the deep-water port of Nacala on the Indian Ocean and hydro-sourced grid electricity," Sovereign states in its release to Mining Weekly.

For the duration of the operation, graphite and rutile products will be railed directly from a purpose-built rail dry port at the mine site eastward through the Nacala logistics corridor to the port of Nacala - the kind of infrastructure South Africa is battling to protect from disruption.

Important is that modern mining companies bring green, renewable energy with them and Sovereign's objective is to develop a sustainable power solution for Kasiya. In addition to access to hydro-generated grid power, conditions for a solar power system are favourable. Moreover, the independent power producer appointed to design a solution for Kasiya recently commissioned two solar projects in Malawi.

Malawians will be employed predominantly from the Kasiya area and the capital city of Lilongwe.

During construction, Kasiya expects to employ 995 people and during steady state operations more than 1 000. As is always the case with mining, for every person employed directly in the project a significant multiplier of people will be employed in indirect jobs supporting the project.

Sovereign has structured training and skills transfer programmes covering on-the-job training for full-time employees, as well as programmes for local graduates and interns. The programmes focus on building skills capacity in the surrounding community.

The company is an equal opportunity employer with a gender diverse workforce. Currently, 30% of Sovereign's professional Malawian staff and at least 50% of its regular interns are female.

Rehabilitation is designed to return land to the original agricultural use, and potentially increase land utilisation by introducing modernised farming techniques post rehabilitation.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

Close to half a century of local manganese mastery by Manganese Metal Company of Mpumalanga is placing South Africa - a manganese mining and refining country - in pole position amid a flurry of global high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate projects to meet upcoming battery demand.

With industrialisation of manganese-rich battery materials technology having already commenced, manganese cathode active material will be a low-cost recyclable critical energy transition material.

Moreover, being more affordable and greener, cathode active material with higher manganese content is being pursued by key battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufacturers.

Although non-Chinese manganese sulphate would require a premium, the overall effect on battery cell cost would likely be limited, with the material representing a relatively minor input cost in battery chemistries.

In a presentation to the Fastmarkets European Battery Raw Materials event in Amsterdam, Manganese Metal Company market development executive Madelein Todd highlighted the commitment of her company to produce the sought-after high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate in Mbombela (Nelspruit) directly from manganese ore, in addition to being the producer of the world's highest 99.9% pure manganese metal going back to 1974.

This is being done at a time when BEV and battery makers outside of China need certainty on non-China high-purity manganese supply to avoid single country dependency.

Four good news items Todd spotlighted to the world at the event are that:

Even if the cost of non-China sustainable and traceable manganese product is three times higher, it is still a lower cost cathode active material.

Manganese Metal Company's production of high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate, together with its lower price, will be using only renewable energy, giving it substantially lower carbon intensity.

Manganese ore being widespread and of much higher grade generates less mining waste.

Increased manganese sulphate monohydrate production will have insignificant impact on total demand for manganese ore and no new manganese mines are needed.

The incentive price needed for non-China high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate is calculated to be around $2 500/t to cover the cost of capital, cost of low-carbon emissions and cost of meeting European Union and North American environmental standards.

The site of Manganese Metal Company's existing 28 000 t/y high-purity manganese meal plant is being earmarked for the construction of a 5 000 t/y brownfields plant to produce manganese sulphate monohydrate followed potentially by a 30 000 t/y greenfields project.

Fifty five percent of the high-purity electrolytic manganese metal that the company produces on the existing site is sold to Japan, 25% to the US, and 10% to Europe.

For some time, customers have been buying and then dissolving the high-purity electrolytic manganese metal to make manganese sulphate monohydrate, which presents a huge opportunity for the company to grow into that space itself.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

Despite moving its primary listing to New York, AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) has affirmed the significance of South Africa as a capital market and source of liquidity for the gold mining major.

Following the completion of its corporate restructuring, AGA retains a secondary listing on the JSE, having listed on the bourse 80 years ago.

JSE capital markets director Valdene Reddy said on Tuesday that the bourse was pleased to continue its work with AGA and confirmed its approval of the secondary inward listing.

"We welcome AGA's reorganisation, and hope that it will enhance the group's strategic position. While the primary listing is moving to New York, a secondary inward listing on the JSE bears testament to AGA's confidence in the South African capital markets which complement its global strategy," said Reddy.

The new share listing falls under the Gold Mining sector of the JSE's main board under the abbreviated name ANGGOLD (share code ANG).

AngloGold Ashanti CEO Alberto Calderon said that South Africa remained an important capital market and source of liquidity for AngloGold Ashanti.

"We are aligning our corporate structure with the corporate realities of our business and the evolution of our existing portfolio, which no longer includes any assets in South Africa. South Africa will remain a critically important part of our business, servicing our global portfolio and in particular our mines in Africa, which account for more than half of our gold production," Calderon added.

Calderon noted that South African shareholders account for more than 40% of the company's share register, and they would retain an unaltered ability to buy or sell AngloGold Ashanti shares on the JSE.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

Although Glencore's earnings contributions from recycling activities are not material at this stage, the growth potential to the diversified mining and marketing company from circular economic activity is seen by Morgan Stanley analysts as being "very significant".

This follows Glencore's hosting of equity analysts at its recycling operations in the US and Canada.

The importance of the circular economy to the London- and Johannesburg-listed Glencore was on clear display, with the level of recycling already "equivalent to the contribution of a small mining company" in the view of Citi analysts.

Glencore CEO Gary Nagle and CFO Steve Kalmin, with heads of recycling and copper, anchored the trip that took in Li-Cycle's Rochester hub and East Providence in the US, and the Sudbury Basin, where the company owns and operates a nickel mining-smelting complex (INO), as well as Canada's Horne copper smelter, which is undergoing an emissions reduction project that will improve its environmental footprint.

At present, the North American receiving, sampling and preparing (RSP) capacity stands at 123 000 t/y, which is poised to hit the 250 000 t/y mark by 2028, with copper contained in RSP being roughly 50%, Morgan Stanley calculates.

Li-Cycle's activities focus on end-of-life battery recycling and recovery of materials, with the value proposition being the conversion of black mass to battery material. The engineering works at the Rochester Hub are 98% completed, with long-lead items on the site, promising processing capacity of about 35 000 t/y of black mass.

Electronic scrap processing in Canada employs 9 000 employees and contractors, who work across seven industrial assets producing and recycling mainly nickel, copper, zinc and cobalt. Electricity supply at Horne is 100% from renewable sources.

Canada's Sudbury INO complex includes the Nickel Rim South and Fraser mines, the Strathcona mill, and the Sudbury smelter. The Onaping Depth underground project being developed at present would extend the mine's life through the 2030s.

With a focus on raw material and processing, the Sudbury smelter takes in material from especially Sudbury and Raglan as well as third parties and international mines. It is able to process notably end-of-life materials, production scrap, and other recycling feeds with a high cobalt content.

Cooperation with Brazilian mining and metals company Vale, which operates next door, is limited to discussions about jointly developing a prospect in-between their respective boundaries.

Glencore, which sees its marketing capabilities as a competitive advantage given its long experience in buying and selling commodities, is looking to leverage its position by repurposing existing facilities to cater to the rapidly growing recycling market. Conversions similar to the repurposing of zinc and lead producer Portovesme in Italy are being explored for other sites.

Copper, nickel, zinc and lead are being recycled at present with plans to grow lithium and aluminium. Other by-products being recovered include gold, silver, cobalt and platinum group metals.

Recycling, notes Citi, is arguably the closest business to the marketing DNA of Glencore - sourcing feed from thousands of suppliers and selling processed material to all possible types of customers.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

Gemstone producer Gemfields has demonstrated robust financial performance during the first half of 2023. However, CEO Sean Gilbertson cautioned on Friday that the company is unlikely to replicate last year's standout performance owing to its recent decision to cancel the November auction.

The company withdrew the higher-quality emerald auction scheduled for November, after experiencing lower-than-planned production from the Kagem emerald mine, in Zambia.

"This is understandably disappointing, but such periods have been seen in the past and we always wish to ensure we have an optimal offering when we bring our gemstones to auction. Given the withdrawal of this auction, we are not presently positioned to match last year's standout financial performance this year," said Gilbertson.

Gemfields achieved a total revenue for the six months ended June 30 of $154-million, compared with R193-million a year earlier. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the six months amounted to $73-million, down from $105-million in the corresponding period.

Gilbertson noted that Gemfields' rough emeralds and rubies continue to be in demand after a step-change in market pricing seen across last year.

"Coloured gemstone prices continue to rise given their rarity, increasing global desirability and a market long bifurcated into two vastly different price brackets for natural and lab-grown gemstones. Gemfields is uniquely positioned to benefit from these trends and to further develop the coloured gemstone market."

He also added that the company had started construction of the Montepuez ruby mine's second processing plant. The plant is expected to become operational during the first half of 2025 and will be a gamechanger in terms of the miner's ability to process our sizeable stockpile, and to bring new ruby products to market and explore more of its licence area.

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - With a legacy spanning decades and a reputation for pioneering advancements, South Africa's Bell Equipment is now placing strong new emphasis on advancing underground mining equipment.

Currently a producer of low-profile underground mining trucks as well as underground rockscalers, Bell is working strategically on complementing those products with a range of underground load, haul, dump (LHD) machines, the first of which is now completely designed for manufacture in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal.

"I'm excited to say we've started cutting steel, we're starting to build the test unit. It's going to go into our regular rigorous test programming to ensure reliability and that it meets all the requirements that our customers are after. I would think we would go to market in quarter one next year with some of the new products," Bell CEO Leon Goosen enthused to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

In addition, the 51% black-owned company is launching Bell Heavy Industries, where steel-related shaft work, skips and cages required by the local mining industry are among the products being highlighted.

As is already widely known, Bell is the manufacturer and supplier of the most reliable, most fuel efficient and most technically advanced articulated dump trucks in the world.

This same competence is now being applied by Bell to the local requirements for the underground LHDs, ahead of eventually meeting the requirements of the global customer base.

"We're already seen as the leading articulated dump truck manufacturer globally. Although that's for above-ground mining, we are definitely recognised as the technology leader with our safety aspects and our lowest cost per ton ownership. We now want to replicate that.

"We know what to do and how to do it and we're going to apply that to our underground mining equipment.

"We'll earn our right to grow so we'll make sure that we listen to feedback from our customers and meet all their requirements.

"Then, as we pursue further global growth and the products get bigger, we'll make sure those are again world-leading products, similar to what our customers are currently used to above ground," said Goosen.

The aim is to have the lowest cost per ton unit and while most of the driveline components are imported, the rest will have a high local content in being manufactured in South Africa with local raw materials.

The 51% black-owned Bell last week reported a 42% increase in revenue for the six months ended June 30, to R6-billion, compared with the same period last year. Operating profit was up 74%, at R536-million.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses African Rainbow Minerals’ R2.5-billion solar power plant under construction in the North West; GoldOre’s microbubble technology, which is being used mostly in mines outside of South Africa; and whether the Gautrain’s empowerment partner, the Strategic Partners Group, will continue its partnership beyond 2026, when the current concession expires.