MiningWeekly.com Audio Articles

The 10 MW Elikhulu solar renewable energy plant developed at Evander gold operations has become the first embedded project over 1 MW to receive full grid code compliance from Eskom.

This was announced at the weekend by JUWI Renewable Energies and South African mid-tier gold producer Pan African Resources, which has a gold production capacity of more than 200 000 oz of gold a year.

The grid connection follows the South African government’s decision in 2021 to raise the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW, aimed at alleviating the energy crisis by unlocking private generation capacity.

To attain grid compliance, projects need to demonstrate compliance with the renewable power plants grid connection code.

“We’re delighted that Elikhulu is the first behind-the-client metre large-scale project to get the stamp of approval from Eskom, which confirms that the project adhered to very rigorous grid connection standards,” said JUWI MD Richard Doyle.

“As the trailblazer leading the rollout of private generation by major energy users, Elikhulu will unlock significant new generation capacity and reduce pressure on the national grid, which contributes to fewer instances of loadshedding,” Doyle added in a release to Mining Weekly.

The London AIM and JSE-listed Pan African engages in widespread environmental, social and governance (ESG) promotion.

“For Pan African Resources, mining is also about sustainability and going beyond compliance, which means that we are committed to rolling out renewable energy solutions at all our operations in South Africa,” said Pan African ESG head Barry Naicker.

“We’re grateful that the Elikhulu PV plant is online and operating efficiently, and pleased that it is the first project of its kind to be connected to the South African grid. This represents a major turning point in the country’s transition to clean energy,” Naicker added.

When the Elikhulu plant was Initiated by Pan African, the licensing threshold was 10 MW. With the further increase of the licensing threshold to 100 MW, the mining company plans to expand the plant’s output to 22 MW in 2023 to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve efficiencies ,which will reduce the cost of gold production.

JUWI, which has hundreds of megawatts of similar utility scale projects in various stages of development for private energy users and mining companies, develops solar, wind and hybrid renewable energy solutions.

Platinum-based green hydrogen and fuel cell clean energy solutions made news across a broad front in 2022.

Active support for the creation of a viable green hydrogen economy, along with the firm underpinning of a just energy transition in South Africa, have captured many headlines

Moreover, South Africa’s Sasol is among 18 international companies that are part of an initiative – led by the Port of Rotterdam Authority – to enable the import of one-million tonnes of hydrogen a year for the decarbonisation of industry and mobility in Europe. The procurement of 30 km of pipeline and valves for the Rotterdam section of the hydrogen network began more than a year ago.

Attention has also been drawn to new green hydrogen pipeline plans being advanced in conjunction with renewable energy generation the world over.

Green hydrogen generation is gaining traction fast as a means of increasing energy security at a time when geopolitical disruption is creating energy insecurity.

Platinum-based proton exchange membrane, or PEM, electrolysis technology is increasingly being acknowledged as one of the most advanced and efficient technologies available to manufacture electrolysers that turn water into green hydrogen – a zero-emission standout.

International consultancy firm McKinsey has described the urgency to invest in mature hydrogen projects as being greater than ever.

Globally, 40 national hydrogen strategies, including South Africa’s Hydrogen Society Roadmap, have been announced as countries set pathways to tap into hydrogen’s potential to decarbonise, ensure energy security, and spur sustainable economic growth from stranded energy resources, added McKinsey in a recent report.

Hydrogen is being acknowledged for having the capacity to accelerate the energy transition by allowing clean energy to be stored and large volumes to be transported over long distances through pipelines and ships.

It is credited with being able to foster greater resilience, cost-efficiency and optimisation at a system level.

Hydrogen is being increasingly recognised as a versatile clean molecule that is able to perform multiple roles across end-uses while going hand-in-hand with other decarbonisation levers such as direct electrification, carbon capture and storage, biofuels, and energy efficiency measures.

As the lightest of elements, hydrogen is directly usable in fuel cells, which are also PGMs-based, to provide mobility or stationary power, or for high-grade heat.

Most importantly, it is needed in its green form to achieve genuine net-zero emissions.

Platinum-based PEM water electrolysis development is under way in South Africa by HySA Infrastructure at North West University and is increasingly the electrolysis method of choice internationally.

A platinum-based PEM electrolyser system is earmarked for Linde’s new hydrogen production plant in Niagara Falls, New York, a milestone project for energy transition in the US, said Amy Davis, VP new power at Cummins, which is intent on scaling the green hydrogen economy as well as its ability to support large-scale renewable hydrogen production.

At the plant, Cummins’ electrolysers will be powered by hydropower, making the end product completely green.

Efforts to establish a role for hydrogen in energy systems have been taking place in several countries since the 1970s, wrote senior associate editor Sonal Patel in the July edition of Power, which focuses on Japan’s Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research, where a hydrogen energy management system is being tested to achieve the optimal combination of production and storage without using storage batteries.

Mining Weekly can report that other nuclear power stations gearing up for clean hydrogen include New York’s Nine Mile Point, Ohio’s Davis–Besse nuclear power station, Minnesota’s Prairie Island nuclear generating plant, and Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear station.

Meanwhile, aircraft company Airbus has revealed that it is developing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine.

“Fuel ...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Chris Griffith stepping down as GoldFields CEO; underground mining at Amplats’s Mogalakwena PGMs mine; and the effects of a changing world on Anglo American.

Geotechnical monitoring radar systems company Reutech Mining has been revealed as the winner of the Rock Hazard Identification and Safe Removal Innovation Challenge, an initiative by the Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP) and the Minerals Council South Africa, supported by mining companies Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum (Implats).

During the first quarter of the year, the Minerals Council and the MMP set out to identify novel solutions in rock hazard identification and safe rock removal for further development, testing and piloting at Sibanye and Implats’ mines, with a focus on the reduction in falls-of-ground (FoGs) and improved worker safety.

A call for proposals in the rock hazard identification category resulted in the submission of solutions featuring ground-penetrating radar technology, thermal and acoustic imaging, light detection and ranging-compatible drones and millimetre-wave synthetic aperture radar imaging for real-time rock mass quality inspection, among others.

In November, a panel of judges representing the MMP, the Minerals Council, Sibanye and Implats shortlisted the top seven submissions. Earlier this month, the shortlisted submissions underwent a final round of judging at a virtual “pitching den” event.

This culminated in the announcement of Reutech as the winner, with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Advanced Internet-of-Things group, Tata Consultancy Services Research, and drone company Flyability being named runners up. Other finalists in the challenge were Stratafy, Ramjack Technology Solutions and RockMass Technologies.

The Rock Hazard Identification and Safe Removal Innovation Challenge was undertaken as part of the FoG Action Plan (FoGAP), a programme developed and approved by the Minerals Council’s CEO Zero Harm Forum, in conjunction with the MMP’s Advanced Orebody Knowledge (AOK) programme.

The FoGAP’s objective is to eliminate FoG fatalities, which have historically been cited as one of the leading causes of worker fatalities within the mining industry, while the AOK programme seeks to improve geological confidence at and beyond the rockface.

“We are incredibly encouraged by the significant reduction of fatalities due to FoGs this year and hope this is a great step toward reaching zero fatalities – but the work is not done,” Minerals Council safety and sustainability senior policy analyst Lerato Tsele said.

MMP director Johan le Roux added that innovation has been shown to directly enhance performance in the environmental, social and governance space – the clearest evidence of this being improvements in health and safety and the significant progress made to date towards achieving zero-harm for the mining workforce.

In what is a transformational high point, Benford Mokoatle will run Gold Fields South Africa from January 1 when Martin Preece steps up as interim CEO following the sudden stepdown of Chris Griffith over the Yamana Gold transaction not succeeding.

The Gold Fields South Africa executive VP position goes to Mokoatle for now as Preece – a 37-year industry veteran and a board member of the Minerals Council South Africa – leads the company until a full-time CEO is appointed.

As VP South Deep, a de facto GM position, Mokoatle worked alongside Preece to send the once troubled South Deep gold mine into a new high production orbit.

Mokoatle’s assumption of the EVP Gold Fields South Africa mantle makes for the smoothest of baton changes – a smoothness that would be replicated should Preece – who has shot the lights out in everything he has tackled for Gold Fields so far – be appointed to the top job full time.

Meanwhile, internal and external candidates will be considered as global executive search firms conduct a CEO search.

Preece, who joined Gold Fields as an executive committee member six years ago, has full board support in his interim CEO role. He will work alongside CFO Paul Schmidt, a seasoned Gold Fields campaigner since 2008.

In response to Mining Weekly during a media conference call, Preece expressed ultra-confidence in the team that will be running South Deep, Gold Fields’ only remaining South Africa asset: “There’s been a great team at South Deep for a number of years now,” he said.

Griffith’s step down will be effective from December 31.

In thanking Griffith for the dedication he showed especially during the Yamana transaction, Gold Fields chairperson Yunus Suleman said: “We were all disappointed that the Yamana deal did not go through, as we felt it was a compelling deal which would have created a strong company and created value for all our shareholders.”

In turn, Griffith thanked the board for the opportunity to lead Gold Fields. “The board and I agree that the company’s strategy, including growing the value and quality of the portfolio, continues to be the right one, but we also felt that the Yamana setback should not be allowed to impede the company’s strategy. So, as CEO, I felt that I should take responsibility and allow the company to move forward under new leadership, unencumbered by the Yamana transaction.”

Said Preece: “Our focus remains on implementing our strategy and continuing to deliver operational excellence and sustainable growth. Disciplined capital allocation will remain a key focus for all our strategic decision-making as Gold Fields continues to implement its strategy.”

Gold Fields’ balance sheet remains healthy, providing the Johannesburg- and New York-listed gold mining company with significant flexibility to pursue its strategic objectives.

The turnaround of South Deep has been sustained, with the mine performing well and on track to ramp up to around 380 000 oz over the next two to three years. Gold Fields is also focused on delivering the first gold at Salares Norte in Chile by the end of the second quarter of next year and then building up to full production in 2024.

The first potential underground mining at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena platinum group metals (PGMs) mine in Limpopo is targeted to start towards the end of 2024 and build up slowly to a full underground unit by the end of the decade.

“We’re nearing the end of phase one of the decline development, which will start to give us the access to the underground drilling,” Anglo Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen disclosed in response to Mining Weekly during the company's latest investor day media call.

The aim of the development of the two exploration declines, now under way, is to gain access to the underground orebody faster, as well as supplement surface drilling with underground drilling.

“If everything goes according to plan, and pending the conversion of the current exploration decline permits to mining permits, and the completion of the mining feasibility studies, we’re targeting to start the first potential underground mining towards the end of 2024 and slowly building that up to a full underground unit by the end of the decade,” said Viljoen, with the underground life-of-mine (LoM) continuing as part of the 100-year life-of-asset.

“At the moment, we see that the openpit runs into 2045 and we’ll see the transition to underground by the end of the decade,” Viljoen added.

Investment decisions are being carefully sequenced, with the most value accretive options including continuing with Mogalakwena’s current opencast configuration while fast-tracking underground development through twin exploration declines to enable faster underground drilling to understand the orebody better, building the third concentrator and successfully relocating communities.

Regarding capital expenditure (capex), Anglo Platinum FD Craig Miller said the company would step up to R2.5-billion in 2023 on the exploration decline itself.

He put the capital estimate for the third concentrator in the range of $1-billion to $1.5-billion.

The earliest the third concentrator would be needed is in 2026 and the latest 2028, with approvals commencing in 18 to 24 months’ time.

Targeted is a 12-million-tonne-a-year concentrator of simpler design, the level of tonnage implying possible closure of the south concentrator. A coarse particle recovery plant being commissioned should improve recoveries of the third concentrator.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Meanwhile, climate change is delivering production blows and creating new risks for the JSE-listed company to mitigate and manage, said Viljoen.

As part of climate resilience and water management at Mogalakwena, Anglo Platinum has doubled its pumping capacity, learning from its experience in January and setting the operation up to better respond to downpours.

Activities to reduce carbon emissions at the mine and along the operational value chain are being advanced. Renewable energy and green hydrogen mobility are also being brought in to lower carbon footprints.

Despite recent rainfall events still having impact, Mogalakwena is viewed as now being far better set up for high rainfall events as mining operations across all five continents shield themselves increasingly from profound climate disruptions in what is seen as a rapidly changing world.

Capital reinvestment in processing assets at Mogalakwena is creating the opportunity to learn what the future of project execution will look like in the current environment.

Learnings include how the disrupted supply chain is navigated, which continues to be impacted.

“I think it is starting to set us up for this new world and how we respond to the energy transition, and the competition that we will see for human and capital resources in a highly capital-intensive environment,” said Viljoen.

These issues were evident during the full rebuild of Anglo Platinum’s Polokwane smelter, which began in the third quarter of this year and was set back by the delivery of sub-standard refractory materials and companies involved in furnace rebuilds for Anglo Platinum over a decade-and-a-half going into bu...

The world changing at a rapid rate has resulted in profound disruptions to the business of Anglo American, CEO Duncan Wanblad told analysts and investors on Friday.

Speaking during an update presentation covered by Mining Weekly, Wanblad said the London- and Johannesburg-listed diversified mining and marketing company was seeing many more volatile and geopolitical and sociopolitical issues arising that affect the business.

One of those issues is giving rise to the company taking longer to obtain permits and maintain permits.

“If you add to that the impact to supply chains from the significant market dislocations that are created by conflicts that are happening more dominantly over the world, these are pushing economies, if they are not already there, into recession.

“There are material impacts arising from that, on top of what we have seen over the last few years, as rising and legitimate, I believe, societal set of expectations for companies like mining companies,” Wanblad added.

Inflation now being in Anglo’s costs was also coming to bear in the cost of capital, with the impact of all of this being exacerbated by real evidence of climate change.

Weather events were, he said, becoming more and more extreme and more and more frequent, and Anglo was having to take that into account as it planned the forward direction of the business.

Anglo had responded to these challenges, despite personnel shortages and turnover of skills availability in various jurisdictions across the world, the impact of supply dislocations and the high inflationary environment.

What had put the company on a good footing for 2023 and enabled it to execute the balance of its business plan was the way it had got back to the basics of mining with, in many areas, completely new workforces.

He conceded, however, that considerable work still had to be done to elevate the operating model to a level at which it is able to continue to present sustainable and safe performance.

“But is now significantly further advanced than it was this time last year,” said Wanblad.

Notwithstanding the recovery of the second half of this year from the gritty first half, thought was still having to be given to whether any fundamental systemic short-to-medium term issues remained as the company progressed through its planning process.

DIFFICULT GRADES

Ore qualities were among three sets of issues impacting the business on a go-forward basis that analysts and investors needed to be cognizant of.

“We are seeing very difficult grades, much lower grades, recoveries, and challenges with very hard ore in our operations in Chile, at our platinum group metals operations in South Africa, in our South American nickel and iron-ore businesses.

“We call this mining inflation and we saw this coming at us at some point in time. We had an expectation that through our technology programmes and through our market management programmes that we would offset the rate at which some of this mining inflation was impacting the business.

“But realistically, given the fact that we were operating for a couple of years with very people in the work face that our technical teams were not able to deploy to these operations, we just have not been able to get ahead of them at the pace at which we expected to get ahead of them in the previous guidance.

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t still an opportunity here for us. I think that there is. We have some of the technical ideas and developments that will deal with these sorts of ore characteristics. We’re just delayed in deploying those,” he said.

The second set of issues fall within logistical and operational parameters, affecting primarily Kumba Iron Ore in South Africa’s Northern Cape and the steelmaking coal business in Australia, where longwall operations are restarting after a two-year hiatus, and the rate of building the operations back to full production needing to proceed at a slower pace owing to tighter regulatory conditions.

The primary constraint of running...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the Coega Green Ammonia project receiving government support to fast-track development; Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande urging collaboration in green hydrogen; and South Africa’s first flat-steel investment in decades, in Ekurhuleni.

Over and above the carbon emission reduction that automatically results from declining coal assets, diversified mining and marketing company Glencore is working on reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions across its entire portfolio of assets in a manner that is largely value accretive or cost free.

With most of Glencore’s Scope 3 emissions associated with its coal business, the London- and Johannesburg-listed company is able to lower the emissions of the rest of its portfolio by lower exposure to this bulk fossil fuel.

At the same time, its larger non-coal assets are positioned to source renewable energy largely from electricity grids in Latin America, Europe, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Europe, Australia, and 100% renewable supply in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Grid supply takes capital intensity out of the transition.

To reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions, a range of operating efficiency, fuel switching, renewables and technology options are evaluated, costed, ranked and mapped on a marginal abatement cost curve, or MACC, which was outlined on a slide displayed by Glencore industrial assets head Peter Freyberg during this week’s investor update covered by Mining Weekly.

MACC provides the framework for Glencore to pursue the most cost-effective reductions and set out to stay one step ahead of any carbon price. In this way, it intends to decarbonise in a manner that is value accretive or free of charge.

All new mine projects have renewable energy as Glencore embarks on its journey to reduce emissions by 15% by 2026 and by 50% by 2035.

“Overall, we have a healthy portfolio of opportunities identified totalling half of our baseline of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a very significant number of these should be value accretive in the short term and the balance will likely become value accretive as we see carbon prices increase,” said Freyberg.

Regarding ferroalloys, he spoke of Glencore being “very advanced” with work on offsite power purchase agreements (PPAs) that will abate more than a million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) through offsite PPAs, as well as onsite solar projects, that will abate around 300 000 t of CO2 a year.

Ferroalloys is a big emitter because of its very significant power consumption, with heat-intensive smelting processes offering the opportunity to generate electricity from waste heat, which is being pursued.

A slide flighted showed renewable power purchasing being under way at South Africa’s Boshoek, Lion, Rustenburg and Wonderkop ferrochrome smelters, with the Rhovan, Kroondal, Waterval, Lydenburg and Wonderkop operations being in line for solar, wind and solar stream renewable onsite power generation.

Regarding copper, several PPAs were shown to have been concluded in South America, with operational efficiency improvements at the Antapaccay mine in Peru being brought about by coarse particle flotation.

In addition, a fleet electrification process is under way at the Altonorte mine in Chile, which, once proven, will enable Glencore to implement fleet electrification at other commodity sites and new projects.

Regarding coal, Glencore reported that it has abated 28-million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by flaring waste gas or using the gas for generation and is continuing to spend $60-million a year on gas management.

Onsite solar photovoltaic and virtual PPAs are under way and work is being done on energy storage, with pumped storage seen as an option at several deep pits. Electrification is to reduce diesel usage by large opencast mining diesel fleets, another option that is being worked on.

Regarding nickel, renewables are poised to displace gas and diesel and work is under way to address emissions arising from solution neutralisation at the Murrin Murrin operation in Western Australia.

Regarding zinc, high power consumption at zinc smelters and higher European power bills are providing efficiency and renewable energy opportunities.

Meanwhile, at oil refineries, steps are being taken to reduce oil usage a...

Diversified mining and marketing company Glencore will halve the production of its fossil fuel business between now and 2035 and in that time use the cash flows from that fossil business to double production of its copper business.

“So, a very neat and tidy use of our fossil fuels, firstly to provide the energy of today and also to provide the cash flow to build the energy infrastructure of tomorrow,” Glencore CEO Gary Nagle stated during the company’s investor update covered by Mining Weekly.

Even if Glencore builds all the copper assets it has, including its greenfield copper asset in Argentina, and even if all its competitors do whatever they can in copper, the world is still likely to be short of copper, said Nagle of a planet that is transitioning from fossil-fuel-based energy to renewables.

On recycling helping to fill the copper supply gap, Nagle drew attention to Glencore’s recycling business last year producing more than 40 000 t of copper and this year showing even more circularity potential to produce considerably more metal.

“The circular economy is critical towards a decarbonised future and as we invest in our recycling business and we produce more and more material out of it, it becomes integral in how we develop our mining operations and how we work in our marketing business,” said Nagle.

Partnerships and relationships have been established with recyclers such as Li-Cycle, Ace Green Recycling and Lohum. In addition, Glencore is repurposing its own Britannia Refined Metals into a more developed recycling business.

Historically, Glencore mining companies have operated in mining refining, after which they have handed down to the battery manufacturers and the e-manufacturers.

But there are now several circularity enhancement opportunities that Glencore can take up by reprocessing, refeeding, refining and reselling battery scrap back into the precursor market, for instance.

“We take the batteries, we recycle them, we refine them and we refeed them back into the precursor market and into the cathode active material market – a neat recycling loop. We participate at various points along the cycle, ensuring the circular economy of reusing that material,” Nagle explained.

With its suite of smelting assets, collecting/distribution networks, and marketing business, Glencore is able to access, process and redistribute the materials to customers.

“The markets we operate in are really uninvested today. We see stock levels within the commodities that we market and we produce at record low levels. We see investment in new operations around the world also at very low levels and no material new tonnes coming on.

“But we see a huge growing demand for the materials that we produce, both for today’s energy needs and for tomorrow’s decarbonisation and that’s where the opportunity arises for us, to be able to fill that gap and really maximise value for our stakeholders,” said Nagle.

“We produce, we recycle, we market, we distribute, we source, we’re across the spectrum in everything that we do in all the commodities that we’re in and it allows us huge amounts of flexibility in our business to be able to adjust to the needs of the world and what our customers need to maximise value.

“Associated with that is also our pipeline of projects. As the world grows and as we see the continued push towards decarbonisation, our pipeline of projects, and in our copper department, will be able to fill part of the gap required to meet the growing demands of the world tomorrow,” said Nagle.

Glencore, as it stands, is multi-dimensional and multi-functional, producing minerals needed for now as well as future metals and advancing a well-established marketing business.

These two businesses, the industrial business and the marketing business, lever off each other and together, the whole is considerably greater than the sum of its parts.

The marketing business is able to use the units and the tonnes of the industrial business to create value, and the in...