Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter said on Monday that the council is encouraged by the board level engagement it has undertaken so far with State rail enterprise Transnet and is hoping that this engagement will deliver some very specific results in stabilising rail performance in the short term.

Baxter said this in delivering the Mineral Council’s yearly State of the Mining Nation report, together with Minerals Council South Africa president Nolitha Fakude, Minerals Council South Africa chief economist Henk Langenhoven, and Minerals Council South Africa office bearer Themba Mkhwanazi, to the media at an even at which Mining Weekly took part.

“We’ve got four channel optimisation teams that are working on short-germ solutions on the Transnet side and we are encouraged by the progress being made in these discussions so far.

“We’ve focused on recovery in the short term and then getting back on to a growth track,” Baxter said during the media briefing in which Mining Weekly took part.

In this regard, Baxter made mention of the large junior and emerging miner membership of the Minerals Council and emphasised the work being done with the council’s junior and emerging miner membership, served by dedicated team.

“We’ve had that in place for the last five years but we’re also looking at additional measure we can take to enable juniors and emerging miners to participate in exports over time.

“It is part of our process to ensure that our members are accommodated because we do represent the junior and emerging mining sectors.

“Often people have the view that we only represent that large-scale majors. We have more than 250 mining companies that are members of the Minerals Council and a significant percentage of those are junior and emerging mining entities and we are addressing their particular issues as we go forward,” Baxter said.

On the Eskom side, set of workshops has taken place involving the Presidency, the Minerals Council, the Electricity Intensive Users Group and the Ferroalloy Producers Association.

“We engaged on the basis of how we could unlock greater private sector investment in self-generation.

“We seconded three people int the Presidency to help with the process and it resulted in reforms that we think are going to help us really solve the electricity crisis more in the medium term.

“In the short term, we’re still at stage 3 loadshedding and a bit later we’ll go up to stage 4 loadshedding, which does affect us,” said Baxter.

SIGNIFICANT MINING CONTRIBUTIOM

The South African mining industry’s contribution to South Africa’s gross domestic product in 2022 was R494-billion, Minerals Council state in its Facts & Figures Pocketbook 2022 just released.

Value of total production was a high R1.18-trillion in 2022 but red lights are flashing in that South African mining industry could have done a lot better.

Exceeding the trillion rand mark for the second year was driven mostly by strong commodity prices but the the production side dropped to a level that did not even return output to the pre-Covid level, which is concerning.

Production has had to respond to the various constraints that we’re facing but the revenue effect from higher prices has been quite nice.

“We’ve had extra jobs. Just remember, if you are sitting at 475 000 jobs, we have a multiplier of ten to one, which means that there are ten people dependent on the mining sector, and we have what it is called a three-to-one multiplier, so we estimate that about 1.3-million people are employed in the economy as a result of the mining sector.

“Whilst we’ve done very well on the financial side in terms of our export earnings base and our sales value base, we are concerned about various constraints that are affecting us,” said Baxter.

Stage 6 loadshedding results in demand curtailment at the Eskom level and the industry remains very dependent on Eskom.

Worsening rail and logistical constraints have had a material impact on mining’s export capacity.

Still, mining ha...

Ever greater acknowledgement is being given to the need to decarbonise global energy and transport systems ever more urgently.

At the same time, ever greater global recognition is being given to the fact that many of the products of mining are fundamental to enabling that shift.

Anglo American CE Duncan Wanblad highlighted this in his address on the opening day of the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday, when he spoke of seeing signs of improvement in the macro-economic and geopolitical contexts, including inflation hopefully passing its peak, China re-opening and re-stimulating and a few trade tensions of recent years seemingly being resolved.

Moreover, many countries and industries are waking up to their need for ‘critical minerals’ – two words that had now entered the broader global lexicon – along with recognition that these must be produced in a way that is environmentally, socially, and ethically sound.

While mining companies are not among the titans of industry operating in the world’s largest economies, such as financial services or energy, where the industry does move the needle is in many of the countries that host mineral resources.

“Responsible mining companies in those jurisdictions – and nowhere more so than here on the African continent – are instrumental to the economic and social fabric,” Wanblad said at the indaba, which is being covered by Mining Weekly.

“We saw it so very starkly here in South Africa at the outset of the pandemic in early 2020 when our industry made the compelling case for continuing operations in order to preserve the flow of income for our workforce, the flow of supply chains, the provision of so many services in and around mine communities, from schools and hospitals to water and electricity.

“The following year, our industry facilitated a vaccine rollout on an unprecedented scale, supporting the government’s own work and ultimately accelerating South Africa’s immunity and emergence from lockdowns – all while supporting the country’s fiscus at a time it needed it most.

It was an enormous effort in a time of crisis – a proud example of government, civil society and business working together in quick time to solve the most pressing human challenges,” said Wanblad.

Looking further back, mining had contributed to the development of many Southern African economies.

“I am reminding us all of this history because it is at the centre of a window of opportunity today in which Africa’s mining countries could accelerate their economic growth prospects,” he said.

Africa as a whole would account for more than half of the world’s population growth by 2050, when some of the population powerhouses elsewhere would have slowed or be in decline.

Together with the continent’s abundant mineral resources, there was a golden opportunity to achieve two goals at the same time.

“Firstly, bring those much-needed metals and minerals to market to meet the demand we all see from the global energy transition and a growing and urbanising population; and secondly, to do so in a way that fulfils the economic promise of natural resources, which is too often squandered,” Wanblad added.

Innovative Proudly South African membraneless technology has caught the eye of the engineers involved in the huge global ITER fusion project as a possible solution to recover tritium from tritiated water.

The membraneless technology is the brainchild of Hydrox Holdings engineers, based in Strydompark, Randburg, who have patented homegrown divergent electrode flow through (DEFT ™) technology.

ITER is the world’s biggest experiment on the path to fusion energy and tritium is a rare and extremely expensive isotope at $30 000 per gram. It plays an important role in the fusion process, which is seen as a new clean energy pathway.

Tritiated water, or HTO, is formed when a tritium atom replaces a hydrogen atom in water while retaining water’s chemical properties.

“Large scale electrolysis of the tritiated water through standard electrolysers is not delivering the required results and hence the request to assist them by utilising our unique technology,” Hydrox CEO Corrie de Jager tells Mining Weekly.

“This novel application of our DEFT process is a huge step forward in realising the true potential of our technology and it creates the opportunity to assist Japan in averting an environmental disaster at Fukushima by capturing tritium from the large volumes of contaminated water that need to be released into the ocean.

“It’s indeed a huge honour for our company, our country and our continent that we can play a meaningful role in unlocking the future energy source of the world,” says De Jager.

DEFT, which is already a recipient of South Africa’s National Science and Technology Forum Award for Innovation, last year won top recognition in Monaco at the principality’s inaugural hydrogen forum.

Wind farm builder Seriti Green, which is planning substantial electricity storage capacity at its big renewable energy project in Mpumalanga, has raised the need for vanadium to be appraised as a battery storage metal of choice in Africa owing to the difficulties of sourcing lithium batteries.

“As Africans, we really need to look towards metals such as vanadium for electricity storage because the lithium supply chain is under extreme pressure,” Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn disclosed in announcing his company’s 155-MW-to-900 MW wind farm project that is getting under way in Mpumalanga province. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Long-duration battery capacity that vanadium can provide supports the integration of renewable energy into electricity grids and is seen by some as providing a generational opportunity that South Africa should not miss.

The 155 MW portion of the Seriti Green project in that province is expected to come in at R4-billion and the eventual 900 MW at R25-billion, with the far-reaching initiative forming part of an agreement that will see clean, green power wheeled through the national grid to meet the carbon neutrality aspirations of coal-mining company Seriti Resources.

Speaking alongside Seriti Resources CE Mike Teke, Seriti Resources corporate finance head Layton Nenzinane, and Seriti Resources CFO Doug Gain, Venn said in response to Mining Weekly: “We have 800 MWh of storage permitted in our environmental authorization – whether that's vanadium, whether that's lithium, is still to be decided.

“We've lived it as WindLab over the last five, six years in Australia. We've been part of what was once the largest battery in Australia – four megawatt hours. Then Elon Musk came along with this 100 MWh battery, and we now have a permit for 800 MWh.

“The business case for storage needs to be worked on. The understanding of ancillary services for the grid and how one gets paid for that is important. To commit to going with something like lithium for storage could result in delays.

“You cannot get a lithium utility battery for the next three years. We've got to be mindful of that. We’ve got to look for our own sources. But let's just be clear, batteries don't generate any electricity. You’ve got to be able to generate to store, so we've got to provide primary generation and then the storage needs to come with a business case,” said Venn.

Energy storage is the flexible renewable energy enabler in that peak wind generation generally takes place during off-peak periods from a demand perspective and the sun shines at its brightest during off-peak periods. With the long-duration energy storage that vanadium can reportedly provide, it is said that this renewable power can be deployed flexibly into the time zones when it is most needed.

Mining Weekly: What is Seriti Green doing for the just energy transition, or JET, aspect of transitioning to renewables?

Venn: The Seriti Green office is a classic microcosm of JET. I don't like to walk around with my Serita Green shirt because all the coal guys come running across asking where next? I'm really excited about the Seriti group, what Mike and Doug are facilitating, and this transition that we're seeing in a small way. We’re working very closely with many of the coal people. A lot of the jobs are transferable and we see employment growth. We don't see any reduction in the workforce either at Seriti Coal or at Seriti Green, we just see an increase, and we will see people moving across over time responsibly. What Eskom is doing with the training centre in Mpumalanga is extremely important. Having the training centre there and not having to incur costs to come to Cape Town to be trained as a wind technician, is really important. But let's be real, we need to start building in Mpumalanga so that people can see that this isn't just talk but that it is reality. Building and getting the people on the ground is important. We will be employing from the communities. Seriti Resou...

This week, Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the 155 MW wind farm that Seriti Green is constructing in Mpumalanga; the first phase of Blyvoor Gold Mine's solar energy project; and this year’s Mining Indaba, which kicks off in Cape Town next week.

Diversified miner Anglo American has reported a year-on-year improvement in the production of nearly all its commodities – except for platinum group metals (PGMs) and nickel – for the fourth quarter of 2022.

CE Duncan Wanblad says overall production increased by 10% year-on-year, driven by the ongoing ramp-up of the Quellaveco copper mine, in Peru, which produced 80 000 t of copper in the quarter under review.

He adds that the company’s steelmaking coal operations also contributed to higher output by having all three of the longwall operations running.

Anglo also saw higher rough diamond production from diamond subsidiary De Beers and improved operational performance at the iron-ore businesses.

Diamond production increased by 6% to 8.2-million carats in the quarter under review, compared with 7.7-million carats in the corresponding quarter of 2021, while total yearly diamond production increased by 7% to 34.6-million carats in 2022, compared with 32.3-million carats in 2021.

Copper production increased by 52% to 244 000 t in the reporting quarter, compared with 161 000 t of copper produced in the prior comparable quarter, and by 3% to 664 000 t in 2022, compared with the 647 000 t produced in 2021.

Nickel production declined by 4% in the quarter under review to 10 200 t, compared with 10 600 t of nickel produced in the corresponding quarter, and decreased by 5% to 39 800 t in 2022, compared with the 41 700 t of nickel produced in 2021.

Metals in concentrate PGM production declined by 10% to 990 000 oz in the reporting period, compared with the 1.1-million ounces produced in the prior comparable period, while also decreasing by 6% to four-million ounces in 2022, compared with 4.2-million ounces produced in 2021.

Iron-ore output increased by 4% in the quarter under review to 15.7-million tonnes, compared with 15.1-million tonnes produced in the same quarter of last year; however, full-year production decreased by 7% to 59.3-million tonnes, compared with the 63.8-million tonnes produced in 2021.

Steelmaking coal was 6% higher at 4.6-million tonnes, compared with 4.4-million tonnes in the prior comparable quarter, while full-year production came in at 1% higher at 15-million tonnes, compared with 14.9-million tonnes in 2021.

Anglo further reports that manganese ore production of 984 000 t was 18% higher in the quarter under review, compared with the 835 000 t produced in the corresponding quarter, and 2% higher at 3.7-million tonnes for the full-year, compared with the 3.6-million tonnes produced in 2021.

Some of the company’s highlights in the fourth quarter of last year include securing 100% renewable electricity supply for its operations in Australia from 2025, effectively eliminating all Scope 2 emissions for the steelmaking coal business.

Additionally, the company concluded Phase 1 of an integrated water project at the Los Bronces copper operation, in Chile, which secures desalinated water for more than 45% of the mine’s needs from 2025, while also providing clean water for local communities.

Exploration and evaluation expenditure totalled $112-million in the quarter under review, which was 10% higher than the comparable quarter of 2021.

The group has set its guidance for 2023 at 30-million to 33-million carats of diamonds; 840 000 t to 930 000 t of copper; 38 000 t to 40 000 t of nickel; 3.6-million to 4-million ounces of PGMs; 57-million to 61-million tonnes of iron-ore; and 16-million to 19-million tonnes of steelmaking coal.

Work is scheduled to begin soon on the construction of a wind farm in Mpumalanga, South Africa’s electricity heartland.

The project, which begins with 155 MW of wind energy and expands to a capacity of 900 MW of renewables and 800 MWh of battery storage, forms part of an agreement that will see clean power wheeled through the national grid to meet the carbon neutrality aspirations of coal-mining company Seriti Resources. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“We’re excited,” said Seriti Resources CE Mike Teke, who made the announcement online alongside Seriti Resources corporate finance head Layton Nenzinane, Seriti Green CEO Peter Venn, and Seriti Resources CFO Doug Gain.

Seriti Resources in Decembrer acquired 100% of Windlab South Africa through its climate-change-mitigating subsidiary, Seriti Green, the developer of the wind energy initiatives in Mpumalanga’s Morgenzon, Bethel and Standerton areas.

Standard Bank, RMB and VennEnergy are Seriti’s transaction partners. The shareholdings are Seriti with 54.19%, Venn Energy with 15%, Standard Bank with 15.41% and RMB with 15.41%.

Seriti Coal operates three opencast and underground thermal coal mines – New Vaal, New Denmark and Kriel – which supply Eskom’s Lethabo, Tutuka and Kriel power stations, and the New Largo mine is under development to meet the needs of the adjacent Kusile power project.

In addition, it brought Khutala, Klipspruit, Pegasus and Middelburg Mines Services into the fold last year through the acquisition of South32’s coal operations, which provide coal to Eskom’s Kendal and Duhva power stations, and the export market through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

Co-owned by Masimong Group Holdings, Community Investment Holdings, Zungu Investments, and Thebe Investment Corporation, Seriti ringfences 10% of the equity of its mining operations for employees and communities through unencumbered employee and community trusts.

“I'd like to emphasise that we want to participate as progressively and as collaboratively as possible in the just energy transition," Teke said during a media briefing in which Mining Weekly participated.

“It’s imperative that whilst we make this journey, we take along with us the communities within which we operate, we take along the strategy of this country to make sure that we are energy independent, that we have security of energy and it's affordable and it's accessible to everybody.

“It’s important that, as we grow Seriti Coal, we grow Seriti Green, and we understand that the whole story of climate change is a reality that needs to be addressed seriously, and we reduce our own carbon footprint and we achieve our own carbon neutrality over time.

“We’re going to make sure that we are active in participating in the future energy needs of not only our country, not only of the Southern African Development Community, not only of the Sub-Saharan African region, but of the entire continent,” said Teke, whose investment in WindLab comes with assets in Kenya and Tanzania.

With 23 projects at different stages of development, Seriti Green is seen as being well-positioned to play a growing role in bringing responsible and impactful renewable energy projects to fruition.

“It’s really a humble moment as we sit here to start the first construction of a wind farm in Mpumalanga. This is the heartland of energy in South Africa and to transition in a mindful way to renewable energy is important,” said Venn.

“Following on from last week’s announcement of Msenge Emoyeni’s power purchase agreement (PPA) with Sasol, we are now announcing the PPA for Mpumalanga for a long-term offtake with Seriti Resources,” Venn added.

The project is about R4-billion rand in capital cost and that is just the first 155 MW phase. It has environmental authorization at a very strategically placed wind farm.

“From site, you can see three power stations, particularly to our west, you can see Tutuka power station,” Venn noted.

Interestingly, Tutuka power station’s electricity availa...

Mining and marketing company Glencore produced 40% more cobalt last year, along with 16% more oil, 5% more nickel and 1% more ferrochrome.

Although coal production of 110-million tonnes was 6.7-million tonnes higher, on a like-for-like basis, overall group coal production fell by 7%, primarily owing to wet weather challenges and an extended community blockade in Colombia, where Glencore now owns 100% of Cerrejón.

Following the restart of the Mutanda mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the London- and Johannesburg-listed company last year produced 43 800 t of cobalt, 12 500 t more than in 2021.

Entitlement interest oil production of 6.1-million barrels of oil equivalent was 0.9-million barrels higher than 2021 on a full year’s production from the Alen gas project in Equatorial Guinea.

Own sourced nickel output of 107 500 t was 5 200 t higher than 2021 on Koniambo mine in New Caledonia running two production lines for most of 2022 and the absence of a maintenance shut at Australia’s Murrin Murrin, which was partially offset by lower production at INO caused by strike action in Canada and Norway.

Attributable ferrochrome production of 1 488 000 t was 1% up on that of 2021.

Copper production of 1 058 100 t was 12% down on 2021, owing to the sale of Ernest Henry mine in Australia, ongoing geotechnical constraints at Katanga in the DRC, planned mining sequence changes at Collahuasi in Chile, and a lower contribution from Mount Isa in Australia.

Zinc production of 938 500 t was 16% lower on the disposal or cessation of South America operations, closure of Matagami mine in Canada, and lower volumes from Mount Isa as Lady Loretta approaches the end of its mine life.

“Overall, 2022 production volumes were in line with our revised guidance from October 2022, with final quarter sequential production increases delivered across most of our key commodities, including copper, zinc, nickel and coal,” Glencore CEO Gary Nagle stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

“During the year, however, we saw a mixed overall production performance. Copper and zinc volumes reflect the base effect of asset sales, notably Ernest Henry and Bolivia, Katanga’s geotechnical constraints and supply chain headwinds in Kazakhstan.

“Nickel volumes benefitted from operating two lines at Koniambo for the majority of the year, partially offset by Canadian industrial action.

“Overall coal volumes rose during the year with the acquisition, in January 2022, of the balance of Cerrejón that we did not already own, however, on a like-for-like basis, group production actually declined by almost nine-million tonnes (7%), primarily due to abnormally wet weather,” Nagle added.

REALISED COAL PRICING

The average Newcastle coal settlement prices for 2022 was $360/t. After applying a portfolio mix adjustment of $115/t to reflect, for example, movements in the pricing of non-Newcastle quality coals, coking coal margins and the lag effect of 2021’s fixed-price contracts, an average thermal-equivalent realised price of about $245/t can be applied across all coal sales volumes, Glencore stated.

“Realised coal prices were higher than our forecast,” Barclays Equity Research stated in a note.

Fourth-quarter production beat the forecast of Morgan Stanley Research as well as its consensus estimates across coal, copper and zinc by 5% to 8%.

“We expect shares to outperform peers on the back of today's results,” Morgan Stanley added in a note.

Despite the ongoing electricity shortages and supply chain disruptions, the total gold production of Harmony Gold has increased quarter-on-quarter, the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company, which will be presenting at next week’s Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town, stated on Wednesday.

The quarter-on-quarter production increase was ascribed mainly to improved underground recovered grades mined during the second quarter of Harmony’s financial year 2023, which were higher than the 5.45 g/t to 5.60 g/t guided earlier this year. Underground recovered grade guidance for the full year remains at between 5.45 g/t and 5.60 g/t, however.

Production guidance for the full financial year 2023 remains at from 1 400 000 oz to 1 500 000 oz, with all-in-sustaining costs forecast to be below R900 000/kg, as has been achieved in the six months to December 31.

The 47 000-employee Harmony, which has nine underground mines, one openpit mine and several surface operations in South Africa, is this country’s largest gold producer by volume.

Outside of South Africa, it mines in Papua New Guinea, where it is also developing the Wafi-Golpu gold/copper project, and last year acquired Eva Copper in Australia, where feasibility studies are underway into what is a fully-permitted, near-term copper/gold project in northern Queensland.

EXPANSION OF TAILINGS FACILITY

Meanwhile, all the necessary permits and approvals have been received for the expansion of the Kareerand tailings storage facility at Mine Waste Solutions, a low-risk, low-cost surface operation, near Stilfontein, in North West province, which is expected to produce about 100 000 oz/y of gold and add 16 years of mine life to the operation.

COPPER PROSPECTS

Following the conclusion of the Eva transaction in December, feasibility studies are underway into this fully-permitted, near-term copper/gold project in Northern Queensland, Australia, which is fully permitted, with the results of the studies expected within 12 months. Alongside Wafi-Golpu, Eva Copper introduces the prospect of near-term copper into the portfolio.

NEW APPOINTMENTS, TWO VACANCIES

With immediate effect, Harmony’s South Africa and Southeast Asia operational executive teams have been restructured as regional executive management teams under the leadership of Beyers Nel as group chief operating officer operations. From 2016 Nel held the position of chief operating officer of the South African operations.

In addition, a process is under way to recruit two regional executive operating officers covering South Africa and Southeast Asia, who who will report to Nel, and the new business development and growth function has been strengthened under the leadership of Johannes Van Heerden as group chief operating officer of business development and growth.

Van Heerden, who joined Harmony in 1998 and who has been chief executive officer Southeast Asia since 2008, is now dedicated fully to business development and growth, with focus areas including leading Eva Copper into development, progressing Wafi-Golpu, and pursuing further growth opportunities in Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Emerging production hubs in the Northern Cape are opening the way for South Africa to be a producer of future-facing ‘green’ metals to support the global energy transformation and to help mitigate against climate change.

The two emerging production hubs are the Prieska Copper-Zinc Mine and the Okiep Copper Project.

Both are the outcome of the vision of the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed Orion Minerals, which is now well on its way to achieving its goal of unlocking what it describes as incredible base metals potential in the Northern Cape.

Following the securing of a funding package to progress pre-development at Prieska Copper-Zinc and the completion of permitting and early stage funding for Okiep Copper, stakeholders are on standby for the imminent transition to mine development and production.

The funding arrangements include the introduction of South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as an Okiep development partner, in addition to being a Prieska funder.

The combined pre-development funding by Triple Flag of Canada and the IDC for Prieska now totals R350-million-plus, allowing for trial mining and underground dewatering to help bring about early works bankable feasibility study completion by mid-year.

“Orion is entering an exciting phase ,” Orion CEO Errol Smart stated in the December quarterly release to Mining Weekly.

Base metals prices continued their upwards trajectory during the December 2022 quarter on the back of relatively bullish sentiment, although the movement was not uniformly upwards.

Bank of America commodity strategists believe copper could rally to $12 000/t in the second quarter of 2023, given the right set of circumstances.

Fitch Ratings, however, have kept their copper assumptions unchanged, reflecting “softer market sentiment linked to the global economic slowdown in 2023, offset by supportive short- and medium-term supply-demand drivers”. The same also remains the case for zinc, noting “smelter and refining bottlenecks that kept the market tight in 2022 will continue in 2023, despite growing mine supply”.

Concentrates surpluses will remain until 2024, when new Chinese smelting capacity comes on stream, alleviating refined metal scarcity.

MINE DEWATERING

At Prieska, preparations are on schedule to allow dewatering to begin during this quarter in a modular form that allows for scale-up should the need arise and sufficient funding become available.

At Okiep, the water use licence application process began in November with the public participation process to remain open until mid-February, after which submission to the Department of Water and Sanitation can proceed.