Surface gold mining company DRDGold is using satellite imagery to monitor its tailings dumps, in addition to quarterly drone surveillance.

An international tailings performance management system implemented ensures the integrity of data for day-to-day management and oversight.

“There’s a direct line from this into the board, so there’s no sugar-coating of information,” DRDGold CEO CEO Niël Pretorius disclosed on Wednesday, when the company reported a solid set of results and paid dividends for 15 years in a row.

In a presentation covered by Mining Weekly, Pretorius described the surveillance technology being deployed as something about which he is particularly excited. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“I do believe that technology plays such an important role in managing an industry that is this complex and at this scale,” he added.

He was referring to the use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar imagery known as InSAR.

“This is satellite imagery that picks up the slightest movement in just the shape, height, and width of tailings facilities, so that if there is any movement of a sidewall, then this gets picked up and it’s brought to your attention. And then there’s the quarterly drone surveillance as well,” Pretorius said.

The disclosure points to the phenomenal sophistication is being applied to those tailings dumps so evident around Johannesburg and on the East Rand and West Rand, which is placing the company in pole position to offer a complete tailings management solution to the world.

Tailings management has become a global demand in the wake of the horrific tailings disaster in Brazil and DRDGold considers that it can offer as an additional service, beyond the bounds of its own business, a complete tailings management solution, combined with rehabilitation, which is where its skillset lies.

An external tailings review panel is involved with the management of DRDGold’s tailings facilities, which are characterised by world-leading vegetation that has reduced dust to very low levels.

“This has been work that establishes a benchmark of what good environmental governance is all about comes down to the management of tailings,” Pretorius said.

“We run some of the largest in the industry, and although there’s a big move away from upstream deposition, the reality is that there are many of those out there, and they need to be managed in a way that limits their impact on the environment, and that’s where our focus really lies, in becoming the benchmark in the industry on that,” he said.

Sustainable development and rehabilitation expenditure is deeply embedded in the cash-rich company. Group cash and cash equivalents are 16% higher at R2.5-billion, which puts the company in a strong position to continue with its phase of capex, as well as taking up other growth opportunities. The group remains free of bank debt.

UPDATE ON 20 MW SOLAR POWER

The Johannesburg- and New York-listed company also provided an update on the steps it is taking complete its 20 MW solar power project, which will store power during offpeak hours draw that stored power during peak hours and halve the business’ carbon footprint.

DRDGold is constructing the solar power plant and power storage facility at Ergo, the gold from mine waste operation on the East Rand.

The first phase of the project involves the upgrading of the existing supply line to the Brakpan/Withok tailings storage facility to 88 kVA, the construction of the initial 20 MW photovoltaic plant, and ten power storage batteries of 10 MW each.

The batteries will be charged off the Eskom grid during offpeak periods, and then drawn during peak periods.

“It’s a wonderful financial model. It basically pays for itself if you use it only for storage at the current pricing profile,” Pretorius told the results presentation.

Construction of the Swedish Stirling plant that converts off-gas to electricity will take place at the Lion ferrochrome smelter near Steelport starting in the second half of this year, Merafe Resources CEO Zanele Matlala said on Tuesday, when the ferrochrome company announced a dividend-yielding profit of R925-million for the six months to June 30.

Merafe, which shares 20.5% of the earnings generated from the Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture, is also at an advanced stage of considering on-site and off-site renewable energy solar and wind projects.

Preferred power suppliers for the off-site plants have been identified, Matlala disclosed during the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company’s presentation of 68%-higher half-year earnings of R1 373-million.

In response to Mining Weekly, Glencore Alloys CEO Japie Fullard described the venture’s renewable energy strategy as being “well in hand”.

“We’ve started with our cogeneration project at the Lion Complex with Swedish Stirling. That first block will be delivered within the next month,” said Fullard, with projects being looked at including battery storage technology.

“We’re busy with prefeasibility studies on quite a few behind-the-meter projects,” he said. These on-site projects will typically be photovoltaic (PV).

“We’re also considering starting some capacity at some operations, and also on the eastern side, close to the chrome mines.

“Then if you look at our off-site projects, we’ve signed deals to take the off-site projects to feasibility stage,” he said.

Making up the estimated combined total 744 MW are:

184 MW of off-site PV installation, for which permission has been granted to proceed to bankable feasibility, plus another off-site 300 MW, split equally between wind and solar at 150 MW each, being under consideration;

200 MW of on-site behind-the-meter PV projects, with a prefeasibility study under way in the Wonderboom smelter complex area;

50 MW under consideration for the Eastern Chrome Mines area; and

10 MW of cogeneration at the Lion smelter.

CASH ON HAND

Merafe FD Ditabe Chocho reported that improved earnings had boosted the company’s cash position.

“We started 2022 with a combined cash balance of R972-million. Net cash from operating activities increased the cash balance by R748-million,” said Chocho.

Cash was used to fund half-year capital expenditure of R155-million as well as the 2021 final dividend of R549-million. The closing cash balance of the ungeared company was R1-billion, which includes Merafe’s own cash as well as its share of cash held by the venture.

Ninety per cent of the ferrochrome produced is used in stainless steel and speciality steels, with global stainless steel production in 2021 increasing from 51.5-million tonnes in 2020 to 58.9-million tonnes.

ONE-YEAR PGM PAY BACK

Capital of R44-million has been spent to date on the platinum group metals (PGMs) plant at the Kroondal mine, with R11-million more to come.

PGM concentrate is sold to customers with smelting capacity and pay back is expected within one year.

The PGM plant's main operations are the treatment of chrome waste material arising from the venture's mining operations and tailings facilities at Western Chrome mines. The plant has the capacity to treat 21 000 t of PGM-bearing material a month.

With close 90% of all the datasets for the Southern African green hydrogen atlas having been collected, its official launch will definitely take place before year-end, Sasscal executive director Dr Jane Olwoch assured Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview on Monday.

Moreover, Olwoch enthused that there were already clear signs of the cost of Southern Africa’s green hydrogen being attractively low.

A team of developers will be highlighting the green hydrogen hot spots of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at a workshop in Windhoek this week. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Olwoch expects the workshop to endorse the atlas data ahead of its official launch in possibly September or October.

“Definitely, before the end of this year, we’ll launch this amazing atlas,” Olwoch assured.

Zero-carbon green hydrogen is generated by using renewable energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, with sea water the predominant water targeted.

The German-funded project integrates the SADC region ahead of the already apparent opening up of a multitrillion-dollar market green hydrogen, along with significant job creation.

The project is placing Southern Africa on the road to contributing meaningfully to global sustainable development goals, with €5.7-million having been made available by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

H2Atlas-Africa is the first-phase of BMBF’s ‘Go Green Go Africa Hydrogen’ initiative, with the starting point of the process validating green hydrogen hot spots, which is expected to be followed by the building of a pilot plant able to demonstrate the competitiveness of Southern African green hydrogen generation ahead of commercialisation.

H2Atlas-Southern Africa is focused on the assessment of potential of generating hydrogen in sub-Saharan Africa from the renewable energy resources in the region.

“In this assessment we focused on detailed technological, environmental, economic, and social feasibility assessment. We also considered present and future local energy use and demand and not to mention future climate projections,” said Olwoch.

This work on 12 SADC countries involved 60 experts in the region and about 16 or more developers and mathematical modellers from the Forschungszentrum Jülich research institution in Germany.

The 12 SADC countries that have participated are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The current global focus on green hydrogen as the next universal energy carrier has served to also highlight the value of Southern Africa’s huge platinum group metals (PGMs) endowment, which goes hand-in-hand with the green hydrogen economy, both in terms of the PGM metals used in the electrolysers that produce green hydrogen, but also in terms of the platinum used in the hydrogen fuel cells that provide mobility, stationary power generation and heating in a very wide range of industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential applications. Platinum could see at least 400 000 oz/y of demand from green hydrogen sector, the World Platinum Investment Council estimates.

The Hydrogen Atlas Africa project coordinator is Dr Solomon Agbo, who will be playing a prominent role at the workshop. In an earlier interview with Engineering News & Mining Weekly, Nigerian-born Agbo, the corporate development unit scientist at Forschungszentrum Jülich, emphasised the importance of international collaboration and government-private sector partnership in the development of the green hydrogen economy.

Mining Weekly: What, in your view, should be the next step that Southern Africans should take?

Olwoch: As a result of the excellent partnership and increased trust between Sasscal and BMBF, we initiated a trip of BMBF to Namibia and South Africa in the middle of Covid, in October 2020.

In Namibia, we visited key Ministries and held a broader workshop for stakeholders...

London-listed Rainbow Rare Earths has entered into a master agreement with Moroccan phosphate products producer OCP and Moroccan university Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) to investigate and develop the optimal technique for rare earth element (REE) extraction from phosphogypsym.

Phosphogypsum consists mainly of calcium sulphate and is a waste by-product of phosphoric acid production.

OCP and UM6P have both built up significant intellectual property assets, know-how and expertise in the field of phosphogypsum processing, which provides a synergistic opportunity for joint development with Rainbow, given Rainbow’s own expertise on rare earths extraction and processing.

The company explains in a statement that its own work at the Phalaborwa rare earths project, in South Africa, which incorporates separation technology licenced from US-based K-Technologies, will complement OCP and UM6P’s respective expertise, including on adapted separation technologies.

Rainbow has a proven flowsheet for the extraction of REEs from phosphogypsym for the Phalaborwa project, and therefore seeks to develop a successful flow sheet and economic extraction of REEs from OCP's phosphogypsum as a standalone project.

CEO George Bennett explains that each deposit is unique and OCP's phosphogypsum deposit, combined with Rainbow's expertise, will prove invaluable in developing a successful flowsheet with OCP.

He confirms that only once the OCP testwork results are conclusive and the flowsheet can be proved at lab-scale, will the parties look to build a pilot project.

“Recognising the enormous potential of phosphogypsum as a valuable source of rare earths, our team is focused on securing opportunities for both collaboration and expertise sharing, as well as gaining access to new supply as shown by our recently announced agreement with a diversified chemicals group in South Africa,” adds Bennett.

He further states that the successful global transition to clean energy is reliant on a considerable increase in supply of critical materials such as neodymium and praseodymium, which is required in permanent magnet technology.

A lack of high-quality REE mineral deposits globally has led to companies seeking alternative sources of supply, particularly secondary sources, such as the mining of industrial waste, including phosphogypsym, or the recycling of waste electronic devices.

Therefore, Rainbow continues to explore the best ways of producing rare earths responsibly from secondary sources, which removes significant time, risk and cost from the overall project timeline.

Financially troubled Trevali Mining has suspended operations at its Caribou mine, in Canada, and placed the expansion of its Rosh Pinah mine, in Namibia, on hold, as the miner filed for protection from its creditors.

Trevali was on Friday granted an initial order for protection from the British Columbia Supreme Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

The zinc miner last week defaulted on a $7.5-million debt payment, having suffered several setbacks lately, including a flooding event that shuttered its Perkoa mine, in Burkina Faso, and low productivity rates and equipment availability at Caribou.

The company on Friday opted to suspend operations at Caribou, citing operational and financial challenges.

"The decision to suspend operations is a difficult but necessary step to address challenges at the Caribou mine," said president and CEO Ricus Grimbeek.

"This was not an action taken lightly and we are aware of the uncertainty created and impacts this decision has on the community and on our team. The Trevali team have worked hard to improve the mine's position and Trevali appreciates their dedication."

The mine will be put on a care-and-maintenance programme immediately to preserve the value of the mineral resource and mine assets and protect the environment in the mine's vicinity. While mining and milling activities have been wound down, those employees dedicated to environmental compliance and general maintenance activities at the mine site will continue.

No timeline for a potential restart of operations has been defined.

At Rosh Pinah, the RP2.0 expansion has been suspended, while the company pursues a financing initiative. Trevali recently received credit approval from Standard Bank for $110-million to fund the project, but still has to negotiate other components of a comprehensive package for RP2.0.

The early works programme at Rosh Pinah is also under review, Trevali noted.

Following the receipt of the initial credit protection order, Trevali will continue to operate throughout the CCAA proceedings. The management will remain responsible for the day-to-day operations, under the general oversight of the court-appointed monitor FTI Consulting Canada.

Trevali will fund itself during the proceedings through cash on hand and cash flow generated at the Rosh Pinah mine.

Last week, the company revised its full-year production and cost guidance for the Rosh Pinah mine with production guidance of 62-million to 66-million pounds of payable zinc, a C1 cash cost of $0.84/lb to $0.90/lb and an all-in sustaining cost of $1.22/lb to $1.28/ lb.

The World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) finds in its Platinum Perspectives August 2022 research that platinum’s role in enabling the achievement of global decarbonisation targets could be highly significant, given its use in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers.

In turn, PEM electrolysers, when powered with renewable energy, generate green hydrogen. The WPIC explains that zero-emissions green hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be used in a range of applications to replace fossil fuels.

For example, green hydrogen can be used as a feedstock in the production of fertilisers instead of natural gas, as well as a fuel to power fuel cell electric vehicles.

The WPIC says green hydrogen produced by platinum-based PEM electrolysers could, if solely used to displace the burning of natural gas, deliver more than 10% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction targets by 2030, as set out in the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement states that emissions must reduce by an average of 7.6% a year between 2020 and 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 ˚C above preindustrial levels, or at least reduce by 2.7% a year to limit global warming to 2 ˚C.

In 2020, global CO2 totalled 43.2 Gt, which means that, by 2030, CO2 reduction would have to range between 8.2 Gt and 18.7 Gt to mitigate against the warming scenarios.

The WPIC notes that, with the volume of electrolyser projects currently planned, and assuming the PEM market share of these ranges from 31% to 96%, between 9-million and 29-million tonnes of platinum-enabled green hydrogen could be produced by 2030.

Should this green hydrogen be used to displace natural gas in, for example, heating and industrial end-uses, it would equate to cumulative CO2 emission savings of between 182-million and 573-million tonnes from now until 2030.

At the lower end of this range, this equates to 1% of the savings needed to meet the Paris Agreement’s targets of limiting warming to 1.5 °C, while at the top end of the range it equates to more than 10% of the reductions needed to limit warming to 2 °C.

However, the pace of electrolyser capacity additions is expected to accelerate through the 2030s and yearly CO2 emission savings associated with PEM electrolysers could increase to more than one-billion tonnes a year by 2040.

To put this into context, every megawatt of PEM electrolyser capacity – when powered by renewables – can displace 10 000 t of CO2 emissions, assuming a 48.8% load factor and an operating life of 20 years for the electrolyser.

In terms of yearly platinum demand, this equates to between 400 000 oz and 1.3-million ounces in 2030, depending on PEM electrolyser market share.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Exxaro’s renewables company Cennergi’s agreement with Enertrag for the development of renewable projects in Mpumalanga; Exxaro eyeing green hydrogen; and Thungela's renewables move, as well as its free cash sharing and its initiative to plant a million trees.

A call for funding applications to be submitted for the development of the hydrogen economy is made in an advertisement placed today by South Africa’s Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI).

The call is for funding applications to be submitted for the development of innovative energy technologies which may include fuel cells for mobile and stationary applications, production of green hydrogen, as well as infrastructure for the storage, distribution and dispensing of hydrogen.

Applications for funding are invited from start-up companies, small, medium-sized and microenterprises, private individuals, science councils, higher education institutions, and other recognised entities in South Africa.

The DSI/TIA advertisement, which appears in the latest edition of the Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine, states that applications must meet Hydrogen Society Roadmap (HSRM) criteria, demonstrate a viable, feasible and sustainable business case, show positive socioeconomic impact, and have a proof of concept – that is, a proven, tested, and validated idea that requires support for further development or scale-up.

Applicants applying for funding must be South African citizens, be registered or registering for the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and be on National Treasury’s central supplier database.

In the case of foreign-owned intellectual property (IP), the IP will need to be licensed or assigned to the applicant before funding is approved.

Co-funding from the applicant or other funders is preferred, with primary technology development activities conducted within South Africa.

Attendance of briefing sessions on Microsoft Teams to assist applicants to understand the requirements of the call is compulsory, with Teams links being shared once applications are received.

Briefing sessions will take place in Gauteng, North West, Limpopo, Northern Cape, and Mpumalanga on Thursday, September 8, and in KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape on Friday, September 9, from 10h00 to 13h00.

Individuals who are interested in attending the compulsory briefing sessions are required to send a confirming email to [email protected] by no later than Friday, September 2.

The closing date is Friday, September 23, by which time applications must be submitted on:

The advertisement has been placed at a time of global activity on the green hydrogen front, with South Africa’s potential being widely acknowledged owing to its superior sun, prime wind, available land, local hydrogen haul truck already deployed, decades of experience in grey hydrogen, plans advanced for the development of a hydrogen corridor, energy storage pilot projects already under way, local skills, required metals and minerals, and unfolding regional projects.

Proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells and PEM electrolysers are hugely enhanced by South Africa’s vital platinum group metals endowment.

Green hydrogen, produced by PEM electrolysers and powered by renewable energy, is acknowledged as the only net-zero fuel source. Unlike other fuels, it doesn’t remove oxygen from the atmosphere – or add more water vapour to the atmosphere than it consumes during production – which helps retain the earth’s existing oxygen and water balance. What is more, it has no negative impact on air quality, ITM Power points out.

In terms of high-level outcomes, the vision of South Africa’s HSRM is designed to create an inclusive, sustainable and competitive hydrogen economy to support net-zero carbon economic growth and societal well-being, as DSI chief director: hydrogen and energy Dr Rebecca Maserumule pointed out in an address covered by Mining Weekly in January.

The address to the North West Provincial Mining and Energy Investment Conference outlined the roles being played by several government departments and direct engagement with close to 50 organisations on the subject of the DSI-led HSRM.

Maserumule ...

Coal and renewable energy company Exxaro has built a renewable energy business that is said to be well positioned to contribute significantly to addressing South Africa's electricity deficit.

Emphasised by the JSE-listed company is that South Africa's economic growth and social progress depends on energy security, which it is setting out to help to provide. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“We have installed 229 MW of wind energy, which is a strong base from which we will build and grow this business,” new Exxaro CEO Dr Nombasa Tsengwa said after the company presented 147%-higher group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of R10 603-million on mainly the 142% increase in coal Ebitda in the six month to June 30.

Cash flow from operations increased 137% to R9 433-million and, together with the dividends received from its equity-accounted investments of R3 030-million, was sufficient to fund capital expenditure and dividends paid.

An average equipment plant availability of 97.4% allowed Exxaro’s wholly owned renewable energy company Cennergi to generate 307 GWh of electricity at an Ebitda margin of a whopping 80%.

In Exxaro’s endeavour to green its energy business, Cennergi has concluded a joint development agreement with Enertrag South Africa to collaborate on the development and execution of renewable energy products for the Mpumalanga region, on an exclusive basis.

Enertrag South Africa is a subsidiary of Enertrag SE, the German-based renewable energy company founded in 1992 by owner, Jörg Müller, who conceptualised his first wind farm in 1989, constructed it in 1993 and which is still operating in Germany’s Uckermark region, the company’s website states.

Both Cennergi and Enertrag will contribute skills and project pipelines in realising our joint ambitions, which will accelerate renewable solutions for our mines and beyond.

Furthermore, both companies also have strong presence within the region and therefore this partnership helps to support the company’s just energy transition strategy, Tsengwa told the presentation covered by Mining Weekly.

REPRIORITISED IMMEDIATE INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Although Exxaro communicated a 3 GW growth target by 2030, with the rapid and positive local policy developments in this sector, it has repaced its growth to 1.6 GW by 2030 and reprioritised immediate investment and development in South Africa.

“Overall, it’s really imperative to be agile whenever market opportunities change, looking at how you really want to optimise the balance sheet to service the needs of the business.

“There are going to be opportunities that come up that are going to challenge our repacing of our energy strategy, and those opportunities will be looked at very carefully. But there will also be opportunities that arise, because of market conditions, that call on us to repace, and that’s the agility we are talking about.

“We believe that this approach is responsible and its value goes beyond just returns but also to look at the direct impact to the people of South Africa and our economy,” Tsengwa emphasised.

As the energy transition continues to guide the pace, Exxaro’s ability to supply key minerals to support clean energy technologies has become much more urgent.

A common theme in copper, bauxite and manganese, its three chosen minerals, is the expectation of insufficient supply in the long term, relative to demand.

The Russia/Ukraine war has heightened global geopolitical tensions resulting in increasing political instability and a higher inflation environment.

Higher borrowing costs and political instability brought about by inflation, threaten to further widen the supply deficit of these critical minerals by delaying investments necessary for the growth of additional supply.

“The bottom line is that the world needs significant investments to be made in these minerals to support the much-needed energy transition, and failure to make investments today in preparation ...

Diversified miner Sibanye-Stillwater and precious metals refiner Heraeus Precious Metals have agreed to collaborate on the research and development of novel electrolyser catalysts containing platinum group metals (PGMs).

These electrocatalysts will be high activity and possess the necessary stability for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers, which are used in the production of green hydrogen.

Sibanye, which mines platinum, iridium and ruthenium among its basket of PGM products, is looking for ways to invest in market development and technologies that enhance demand for its products.

“Our objective is to ensure our metals, including PGMs, play a vital role in unlocking the future green economy, including hydrogen. The partnership with Heraeus and the investment in the successful development and commercialisation of catalysts for PEM electrolysers will enable another aspect of a greener future,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in an August 18 statement.

Heraeus has technical and intellectual expertise in the design of electrocatalysts for PEM electrolysis, as well as in terms of developing more sustainable and cost-effective uses of precious metals catalysts.

“With our mutual know-how and resources, we are confident [of developing] novel solutions that will further strengthen the role of PEM electrolysis in the hydrogen economy,” Heraeus new business development executive VP Dr Philipp Walter added.

The novel catalyst project will be equally funded by the two companies over three years, the results of which will be mutually commercialised, with cooperation on all aspects of communication and marketing of the novel catalyst.

Platinum and iridium are currently essential components of electrocatalysts for the generation of green hydrogen by means of PEM electrolysis. However, iridium is one of the scarcest PGMs and its limited availability is a potential constraint on the future widespread adoption of PEM electrolysers.

“Without cost-effective PEM electrolysis, the targets for the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy cannot be achieved. We are ready to invest into a sustainable raw material strategy to make it happen,” Walters said.

Sibanye and Heraeus believe that reducing iridium loadings in PEM electrocatalysts is key to ensuring a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem, enabling PEM technology to be cost competitive enough to make triple-digit gigawatt-scale a reality within the next decade.

Technologies that reduce iridium use or replace it with ruthenium, for example, offer significant potential. The partners, therefore, aim to develop a new and robust solution based on finding ways to substitute iridium with alternative metals, as well as developing more sophisticated metal oxide structures.