South Africa’s critical minerals potential is being highlighted in an increasingly promising manner by Orion Minerals, the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed company that is showing the way in the minerals-endowed Northern Cape.

Orion, headed by its Boksburg-born CEO Errol Smart, is poised to bestow on South Africa an integrated and far-reaching value chain of future facing metals production in a province which is crying out for more exploration in the new era of enhanced prospecting technology.

With their surfaces barely scratched, Orion's properties have already brought back to the fore the province’s significant historical mining of copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver and tungsten, with notable diggings of lithium, rare earth elements and uranium, along with virgin deposits of nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs) being identified.

The company’s Annual Report 2022 just released shows that the approach being adopted by Orion is one of integration from exploration to market, with the company becoming a new-generation South African mining company focused on the development of advanced green metals projects, local refining of battery metals, and the use of green renewable energy from the Northern Cape's bright sunshine.

Orion’s core asset portfolio now includes mining and prospecting rights on the:

Prieska copper/zinc project, the flagship development, which is permitted and ‘shovel-ready’;

Okiep copper project, with potential for near-term production restart; and

Jacomynspan project, a nickel, copper, cobalt, PGEs, and gold pursuit, with potential to produce advanced battery precursor products.

For the Prieska project, funding of $87-million is being negotiated with Triple Flag to support an early production scenario, which includes potentially bringing forward concentrate production and phased dewatering.

For the Okiep copper project, South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation has signalled its intention to partner Orion in the development of the New Okiep Mining Company subsidiary and the Okiep project.

Encouraging results have been received from a successful maiden drilling programme on the Koperberg – Carolusberg line of intrusives, confirming historically reported results and proving shallow mineralisation.

Sixteen late-time electromagnetic (EM) targets have been identified from a SkyTEM™ airborne EM survey completed over the Okiep project, covering 26 historical copper mines and 150 known copper prospects.

A new copper-nickel discovery has been made at the Nous prospect from the first drill-hole completed to test a SkyTEM™ anomaly, with coincident magnetic and EM anomalies.

Targets are now being plotted for follow-up drilling.

At Jacomynspan, the battery refining agreement – which is poised to bring sought-after value addition to the Northern Cape mining business – has been signed with Stratega Metals, embracing the development of a specialist refining facility, using Strategi’s licensed refining know-how. Presenting a major beneficiation value uplift is metal vapour refining technology that is used to produce battery precursor metal and nano powders used in the electronics industry.

Negotiations to acquire the remaining interests in the Jacomynspan nickel/copper/PGEs project were extended to provide additional time for the owners to discuss a potential expanded and revised transaction, whereby additional prospective Southern African nickel projects may be combined with Jacomynspan.

The Prieska project, 270 km southwest of Kimberley, is in a district that has access to well-established local and regional infrastructure. Prieska’s development will be uplifted by the Okiep project, with the two projects positioned to turn Orion into a diversified base metals miner.

Orion’s main activity is exploration, evaluation and development of base metals in the Areachap Belt, and as such it does not have a source of income, and is reliant on debt and equity raisings to fund its activities.

During the reporting...

Green hydrogen and fuel cells will be a very important part of any future energy system, says Switzerland-based energy and sustainability consultancy strategist Dr David Hart.

Among the electrolysers that convert renewable electricity into green hydrogen are proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers, with PEM fuel cells then converting the green hydrogen back into green electricity for mobility and stationary power. Both technologies are reliant on platinum group metals (PGMs), which are sourced overwhelmingly from South Africa.

Hart, who was speaking to Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, leads the green hydrogen and fuel cell work of E4tech, which is part of the 40-country, 160-office ERM Group of Companies. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Without large amounts of hydrogen, it is very hard to see how the world will meet any of its climate targets, says Hart.

“We will see companies which are facing almost an existential carbon problem make use of green hydrogen. The steel industry, for example, is one of those where we've already started to see green steelmaking come in – and green steelmaking means more direct electricity, but it also means more hydrogen in the mix,” Hart points out.

The latest edition of The Economist reports that Europe is about to get its first new steel mill in nearly half a century in Boden, a Swedish town near the Arctic Circle, where steelmaking start-up H2 Green Steel is on the way to employing 1 800 people in its new mill that will use green hydrogen produced on site by the region’s abundant wind and hydropower endowment.

“The project matters far beyond the sparsely populated northern Sweden. The consequences could be momentous for the continent’s producers of steel and other basic materials, such as cement and chemicals,” the London publication adds.

Hart includes Africa in the other parts of the world where it makes probable sense to go to green hydrogen very early on.

SOUTH KOREA’S LEGAL FRAMEWORK

By putting green hydrogen into a legal framework, South Korea is the country furthest advanced legislatively, with the East Asian nation also deploying an increasing number of hydrogen-powered mobile and stationary electricity-generating fuel cells.

"In general, governments are approaching the hydrogen economy in different ways, and if one talks to the corporations and others in the industry, there is still a bit of grumbling about the sufficiency of the type of regulation that is being put in place – and that’s because regulation has typically been designed for a legacy energy system, which doesn't always fit exactly with a world which is much more about renewable electricity, intermittency, the need for other types of storage, and the need for hydrogen not only for energy, but also for chemicals and for other types of support.

“So, there's still work to do in allowing the regulatory frameworks to operate in the best way to support green hydrogen and to support fuel cells, but there's definitely a lot of progress and a lot of interest,” says Hart.

Regarding the extent to which global corporations are positioning themselves to best effect in the development of green hydrogen and fuel cell technology, Hart sees a mix of traditional energy companies figuring out how green hydrogen and fuel cells fit into their supply chain, and prominent component manufacturers and start-ups engaging strongly in electrolyser and fuel cell development.

There are automotive companies that are looking very hard at becoming electrolyser component producers, rather than producing only internal combustion engines (ICEs) or components for ICEs.

Geopolitical circumstances and net-zero requirements are boosting demand, along with insurance advisers and board members pointing out the need to include green hydrogen and fuel cells to meet net-zero commitments.

Regarding renewables, he says: “The nice thing that we have seen in the past is that all of the forecasts about the rollout of renewables hav...

The recapitalisation plan that Australia-based Firefinch unveiled last week to put its Morila gold mine, in Mali, back on track has hit a speed bump.

The ASX-listed company on Monday cancelled its proposed placement, citing recent downward movements in the US dollar gold price and the Australian dollar/US dollar exchange rate,

In a statement, Firefinch said its board of directors had determined it not appropriate to complete the proposed placement, which formed part of a broader recapitalisation package.

The recapitalisation includes a proposed A$90-million capital raise, a new agreement with mining services contractor MEIM to convert $23.4-million of outstanding debt into new shares in the company, reducing outstanding debts and strengthening the balance sheet by negotiating settlements with other trade creditors for the conversion of at least $4.89-million of outstanding debt into new shares, and a non-underwritten share purchase plan to raise a further A$10-million.The company says it is now in consultation with the joint lead managers to the placement to consider alternative funding options.

Firefinch will be undertaking further assessment of its funding requirements to successfully execute its medium-term production plan.

The recapitalisation package will have provided the miner with the funds necessary to continue the Morila production ramp up under the company’s Stage 1 and Stage 2 production plan through to 2024.

Firefinch last week set a production target of 180 000 oz for the 18-month period to March 2024, based on the current mineral resources at Morila.

The new mid-term production plan envisages a target production rate of 30 000 oz of gold per quarter on average for the 18-month period via the processing of 4.17-million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.54 g/t gold and at a rate of 700 000 t a quarter.

The all-in sustaining cost over the 18-month period is forecast to be between $1 425/oz and $1 475/oz. The project is anticipated to be cashflow positive in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Gold recovery company Goldplat, which is listed on London’s Aim, on Monday announced the appointment of Gerard Kisbey-Green – a nonexecutive director and former CEO – as nonexecutive chairperson of the company.

He is succeeding Matthew Robinson, who in May announced his intention to resign as a director of the company.

Goldplat also announced the appointment of gold analyst Gerard Kemp as a nonexecutive director with immediate effect.

After these changes, the board would comprise five directors, four of whom were non-executive and two of whom were considered to be independent.

Kisbey-Green has been a director of Goldplat for more than seven years, in an executive and subsequently a non-executive capacity.

CEO Werner Klingenberg, who in 2019 succeeded Kisbey-Green as CEO, said he was delighted to have Kisbey-Green be appointed chairperson. “I believe he is well placed, having been a director of Goldplat for more than seven years, in executive and non-executive roles, to guide the board on our current trajectory. He has significant industry and corporate experience and is well suited to guide the board of directors.”

Commenting on Kemp’s appointment, Klingenberg said that the 68-year old investment banker would be an “extremely valuable addition” to the board.

“He [Kemp] is still active in industry in an advisory role, and will bring to Goldplat his wealth of experience in both investment banking, dealmaking and as an operator in mining businesses.”

Before founding M Squared Resources, Kemp held various positions in investment banking and the mining industry, including the CEO of Kaouat Iron and the head of the Pamodzi Resources Investment Fund, where he founded Rand Uranium. He also served as director of business development at Rand Merchant Bank, where he spearheaded a number of South Africa's largest black economic empowerment transactions. He also served as head of investment banking at BoE Merchant Bank and as head of equities research at BoE Securities where he was twice rated South Africa's top gold analyst. Kemp spent 22 years in Anglo American's gold division, as a surveyor and as a mineral economist.

Klingenberg also extended his thanks to Robinson for his many years of support, efforts and leadership provided to the board of directors and Goldplat, specifically during a period of strategic change.

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.

The world’s first offshore green hydrogen production demonstrator platform has been positioned offshore of France.

“This is the first time that renewable hydrogen will be produced at sea,” French company Lhyfe stated in a release to Engineering News & Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The platform, which has capacity to produce up to 400 kg of renewable green hydrogen a day, equivalent to 1 MW of power, is seen as paving the way for a new energy paradigm awaited worldwide.

Offshore wind turbines have the potential to allow all countries with a coastline, including South Africa, to access renewable green hydrogen for transport and industry decarbonisation.

By 2030-2035, offshore could represent an additional installed capacity of around 3 GW for Lhyfe alone.

The electrolyser was supplied and optimised for the exceptional offshore operating conditions by US proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers supplier Plug Power. The platinum-using PEM electrolyser is the first capable of operating on a floating platform.

Through this pilot site, Lhyfe will produce the first kilograms of renewable green hydrogen at quay and then sea, operating automatically, in the most extreme conditions.

The bar has been set high with the installation of the production unit on a floating platform that is connected to a floating wind turbine.

Five-year-old Lhyfe, which already produces and supplies green hydrogen for mobility and industry, is convinced of the central role offshore has to play in renewable green hydrogen production.

The listed company inaugurated the world’s first site for the production of hydrogen from onshore wind turbines in September 2021, and is currently preparing to deploy its solutions Europe-wide.

The Sealhyfe platform is targeting:

performing all stages of hydrogen production at sea, i.e. converting the electrical voltage from the floating wind turbine, pumping, desalinating and purifying seawater, and breaking the water molecules through electrolysis to obtain renewable green hydrogen;

managing the effects on the system of the platform’s motion, including list, accelerations, and swinging movements;

enduring the environmental stress of premature ageing through corrosion, impacts, and temperature variations; and

operating in an isolated environment, fully automatically, without the physical intervention of an operator, except for scheduled maintenance periods which have been optimally integrated from the design phase.

To achieve this technological feat, Lhyfe has relied on the Sem-Rev offshore testing site, with the production unit being installed on the Wavegem wave energy platform developed by Geps Techno.

At the end of the quayside test phase, the Sealhyfe platform will integrate the Sem-Rev offshore testing area, off the coast of Le Croisic, about 20 km from the coast.

The device will then be supplied with electricity by the pioneering floating wind turbine installed within the offshore test site in 2018.

Chantiers de l’atlantique has enhanced the resilience of the system to environmental stress, ventilation systems and the electrical architecture of the system, and Geps Techno and Eiffage Energie Systèmes has provided the system’s integration on a platform and the naval architecture of the latte, specifically for the particularly stormy sea conditions of the site.

The Port of Saint-Nazaire has facilitated Sealhyfe’s assembly and testing, and Kraken Subsea Solutions has participated in the design of the underwater electrical connection to the renewable marine energies produced on the Sem-Rev platform.

A first six-month trial phase is being started at quay, in the Port of Saint-Nazaire, to obtain initial reference measurements and test all of the systems, including desalination and cooling systems, stack behaviour, remote control, energy management, resistance to environmental conditions, etc.

At the end of this first stage, Sealhyfe will spend a period of 12 months off the Atlantic coast. It wi...

Member organisation the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has published a Tailings Reduction Roadmap, which outlines approaches and solutions that it posits are capable of considerably reducing tailings from the mine life cycle, as part of a broader Tailings Innovation Initiative.

The initiative brings together a third of the global mining and metals industry to collaborate with technology innovators, including suppliers and academia, to accelerate technology for reducing tailings waste and to explore the potential to eliminate it in the long term.

The Tailings Reduction Roadmap sets out short- and long-term technology options.

These include mature solutions that can be implemented in the short term, such as coarse particle flotation technology, which enhances the recovery of coarser particles of ore that have traditionally been seen as waste, and solutions with the potential to reduce tailings in more significant quantities, but that will require further development over the next 10 to 15 years, such as higher precision mining and artificial intelligence.

Developed through a series of engagements between technology suppliers, innovators and ICMM members, the roadmap offers strategic direction to the mining industry on how to accelerate the development and adoption of technologies to reduce tailings.

It addresses technological challenges, such as testing new technology on a different range of ore characteristics, as well as enabling factors, including business case and regulatory requirements, in parallel.

ICMM members are already piloting technologies mentioned in the roadmap that match their commodities and site characteristics, so that learnings can be applied to solutions that can be scaled up to benefit the whole industry.

“Catastrophic tailings failures in recent years including at South Africa’s Jagersfontein mine just last week have brought into sharp focus the need for urgent action to produce less tailings as we supply the metals and minerals that are critical for the energy transition and sustainable development.

“If we continue to use traditional production processes, we run the risk of multiplying tailings waste many times over. There is no easy solution, and we will continue to need tailings storage facilities into the future.

“However, this initiative signals our clear intent to act with urgency and purpose to find ways of minimising or potentially eliminating waste at every stage of the mining cycle,” says ICMM CEO Rohitesh Dhawan.

“Work has already begun, but if we are to match our ambition, we need to work collaboratively in accelerating the types of breakthroughs that can be adopted widely in any existing or future operations around the world.

“Our ambition is that ICMM’s Tailings Reduction Roadmap and wider Tailings Innovation Initiative will help to identify and accelerate opportunities for wider collaboration and serve as a catalyst for advancing more partnerships between industry and technology innovators on piloting these technologies,” Dhawan adds.

The Boegoebaai green hydrogen hub in the Northern Cape can be a strategic project to open Southern Africa’s full green energy potential.

A 24-month study of the strategic potential of the hub is within a hair’s breadth of reaching the halfway mark.

Part of the planning being done is for 9 GW of renewable sun and wind energy to be generated, 400 000 t of green hydrogen a year to be produced, and 6 000 jobs to be created. The initial concession for 5 GW electrolyser to be deployed.

Boegoebaai, situated 60 km north of Port Nolloth, has large tracts of land and globally competitive renewable energy factors.

Integrated energy and chemicals company Sasol, a seasoned grey hydrogen campaigner, is evaluating Boegoebaai for green hydrogen derivative exports, together with the Northern Cape Economic Development Agency.

“We’re working extremely well, especially with government and the State-owned entities,” Sasol hydrogen programme management head Rilet Davison told this month’s Hydrogen Economy Discussion, covered by Mining Weekly.

The associated deep-water port envisaged would be an important greenfield development.

The State-owned Transnet National Ports Authority last month invited a request for qualification for the financing, development, and operation of the port and linked rail line infrastructure.

Also to be developed will be a special economic zone and other supporting infrastructure.

In line with South Africa’s Hydrogen Society Roadmap, Sasol signed a memorandum of agreement with the Northern Cape government in October last year to determine the hub’s economic feasibility.

If selected in the spirit of the roadmap, the 5 GW electrolyser will be a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser, which will highlight South Africa’s platinum group metals endowment and serve as a yet another acknowledgement of the superior performance of platinum-using PEM technology.

The agile modular project approach being investigated for Boegoebaai envisages first production in 2030, within an ecosystem of partnerships.

At last year’s Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium, President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted Boegoebaai as strategic to South Africa, as was done in his State of the Nation addresses.

Sasol is drawing up an overall master plan, in parallel to determining what its investment will be.

The Boegoebaai project will provide access to export markets and highlight potential regional integration with Namibia, which has major green hydrogen development plans of its own.

Already registered as a strategic integrated project (SIP), the green hydrogen hub is awaiting gazetting as a SIP, linked to the renewable economic development zone eight or REDZ8.

As lead project integrator, Sasol will need significant partnerships and ecosystem development.

“We have done a prefeasibility in which all the potential configurations were assessed, given that we have the optionality of doing either green ammonia or methanol or sustainable aviation fuels, or a combination thereof,” said Davison during her presentation.

“We’re currently determining the scale at which we want to invest, what that ramp-up profile will look like, and then the actual masterplan,” she added.

Hydrogen is not transported as hydrogen over long distances and a possible carrier of the hydrogen will be green ammonia.

“We’re working very closely with ports in Europe and Japan to look at what that green ammonia chain will look like and the infrastructure required, based on the applications at the import location.

“Currently it’s not economically feasible to crack the ammonia back to hydrogen use, so we’re doing quite a lot of studies, especially with the Port of Rotterdam, to see how that can be done more cost effectively and on a larger scale,” said Davison.

The green transitioning of Sasol’s existing energy and chemicals complex at Secunda, in Mpumalanga, will take place simultaneously, involving a renewable energy programme with many tranches.

The feasibility of building a green ...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Minerals Council South Africa urging more rapid private sector energy participation; Southern Africa needing a collaborative energy approach, much like that of the EU's; and the World Platinum Investment Council’s new CEO seeing much opportunity for global platinum investment as the world looks to decarbonization.