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Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer says that Anglo American sees massive opportunities for energy; South Africa needs a radical boost of renewables and green hydrogen capacity by 2040; and as the world turns to renewable energy, Kumba Iron Ore sees itself in a good position.

In the six months to June 30, rough diamond production of the De Beers Group increased by 10% to 16.9-million carats, reflecting a strong operational performance and higher planned levels of production to meet continued strong demand for rough diamonds.

Underlying earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) increased by 55% on sales recovery and unit costs were flat at $59/ct.

“I'm really pleased to report a very strong set of results for the first half of 2022. We reported a revenue of $3.6-billion and an Ebitda of $944-million – and this is on the back of some really strong production from across our portfolio,” De Beers Group CFO Sarah Kuijlaars told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“It all starts with production and safe production, and we produced 16.9-million carats, which is a very strong performance – and up from 2021. We had good operational performance across all our assets, and this is in contrast with the beginning of 2021, when are our assets, particularly in South Africa, were impacted by heavy rainfall, and this year, we've had a really strong operational excellence across all assets.

“We're at the at the last cut in the Venetia open pit, so it's a really important part of getting the remaining carats from open pits before we transition to the underground in 2023,” said Kuijlaars.

The new diamond recovery Benguela Gem vessel, which come in ahead of schedule, ahead of budget, is contributing markedly to the high quality carats coming from Namibia.

“Looking ahead, I think we've got to acknowledge that with inflation and more vulnerability on the macroeconomic environment, there's a bit more uncertainty ahead, so I think we've got a more cautious approach for the remaining six months of the year.

Total revenue increased to $3.6-billion with rough diamond sales rising to $3.3-billion as the midstream replenished stocks following strong consumer demand over the holiday season.

Rough diamond sales volumes totalled 15.3-million carats and the average realised price rose by 58% to $213/ct, driven by a larger proportion of higher value rough diamonds sold, as well as growth in the De Beers rough diamond price index. The rough price index increased by 28% compared with the same period in the prior year, reflecting positive consumer demand for diamond jewellery as well as tightness in inventories across the diamond value chain.

Capital expenditure increased by 22% to $250-million,largely owing to a ramp-up in the Venetia Underground project, ahead of first production in 2023.

In Botswana, production increased by 10% to 11.7-million carats owing to increased processing at both Orapa and Jwaneng, as well as planned higher grade at Orapa. The Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers Group have extended their existing agreement for the sale of Debswana’s rough diamond production by 12 months until 30 June 2023. Following further positive progress towards a new agreement being made in the first half of 2022, the two parties have agreed to the one-year extension to enable the finalisation of the ongoing discussions.

Namibia production increased by 50% to one-million carats, primarily due to continued strong performance from the new diamond recovery vessel, the Benguela Gem, in the first quarter of 2022.

South Africa production increased by 20% to 2.9-million carats on the treatment of higher grade ore from the final cut of the opencast mine at Venetia.

Production in Canada decreased by 22% to 1.2-million carats, mainly as a result of treating lower grade ore and covid-related absenteeism.

Mining Weekly: What are you guiding?

Kuijlaars: On the production side, we've increased our guidance to 32-million carats to 34-million carats, and that reflects the strong reduction beginning of the year and reflects our confidence in the longer term market for diamonds. But you're aware we don't give any more forward looking guidance on prices. (Full year unit ...

Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad on Thursday expressed delight at the energy announcement of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has unveiled several far-reaching interventions, including a doubling in the allocation for the next renewables procurement round, an uncapping of the 100 MW licence-exemption threshold for distributed generators, and a proposal of a feed-in tariff for self-generating households and businesses, as part of a much-anticipated action plan for ending load-shedding.

“We’re delighted with the news,” Wanblad told a media conference covered by Mining Weekly.

In 2020, roughly one-third of the electricity Anglo American used globally was drawn from renewables. Having secured 100% renewable electricity supply across our operations in South America, by 2023 Anglo expects to be drawing 56% of its global grid supply from renewables.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed company has been working with partners and government to enter an environment where it can liberate energy constraints sooner rather than later.

The renewable energy ecosystem that Anglo is designing and implementing for Southern Africa will provide 3 GW to 5 GW of new energy, including the transmission and the distribution elements associated with that.

He described the President’s announcement as helping to smooth the regulatory issues to enable the right projects to be executed more rapidly, “so actually a very positive move for us, we’re very pleased with what the President said”.

On the overall green electrons and green molecules solution, he said in response to Mining Weekly: “It’s a very, very viable way forward, which is why we put so much energy and effort on developing that hydrogen truck, and it’s more than just a hydrogen truck, of course, it’s a little bit of the ecosystem that fits around that.”

The advance into green molecules had to start with the availability of green electrons and then there is a distribution system that goes into that, which only three years ago nobody thought would be possible to develop at scale.

“Well, here it is, and I think it’s probably going to develop much faster than anybody’s going to give it credit for, because the need for it is real and I think people are starting to realise that we’ll be in real trouble if we don’t get this transition, and I think mining is perfectly placed to be a very fundamental part of that solution.

“We’re not technology providers but look what we did on the hydrogen truck. We used technology, and we can develop technology, but what’s really important is that our minerals go into these technologies that will make this change.

“I think we are going to see an acceleration of the pace of the development and the commercialisation of those sorts of technologies, and that’s also, by the way, why we’ve tried to enter this joint venture and expansion project with First Mode, so we can bring some more capital to this, and we can put the commercialisation of these sorts of things on steroids,” said Wanblad.

On Anglo’s plans to convert its entire 400-unit mine haulage fleet to green hydrogen, Wanblad added: “We’re hoping to have the first of those rolled out towards the end of this decade and, to the extent that we’ve got great solutions, then the 400 trucks over the next ten or so years is what we would be targeting."

Financially, Anglo’s portfolio quality in the six months to June supported underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $8.7-billion, profit attributable to equity shareholders of $3.7-billion and net debt of $4.9-billion, which represents three times annualised underlying Ebitda.

The $1.5-billion interim dividend declared is consistent with Anglo’s 40% payout policy at a time when the multi-decade new Quellaveco copper operation in Peru is expected to produce an average of 300 000 copper equivalent tonnes a year over the first 10 years of operation.

As climate change-worsened droughts and floods impact operations, Anglo is intent on be...

A radical ramp-up of renewable energy and green hydrogen capacity will be needed by 2040 to take South Africa towards a net-zero climate change commitment, the Coal & Energy Transition Day heard on Wednesday.

On the coal-fired power front, South Africa would from the 2040s/2045s need to have exited coal-fired power generation with the exception of this country’s two newest Kusile and Medupi power stations.

In addition, a fork-in-the-coal road future is foreseen owing to the need of all coal-fired power stations to comply with air quality and emission standards, , the event covered by Mining Weekly was told.

While some Eskom power stations are heading for retrofitting of flue-gas desulphurisation and other technologies used to remove sulphur dioxide from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, air quality compliance for those coal-fired power stations approaching the end of their lives is unlikely owing to the prohibitive cost of R36-billion to R46-billion per power station.

The hybrid in-person and online audience heard that all modelling is pointing to a radical dropping off of the coal market in the 2030s and particularly after 2035 amid several Western countries imposing carbon border taxes and several Asian countries signing net-zero targets.

Having built all the local industrial capacity to drive the production of batteries and the renewable energy transformation, key country China, for example, is approaching the transition away from fossil fuels in what was described as “a very systematic way” that pointed to a major move away from fossil fuels going forward.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s carbon emission intensity of twice that to China and 75% that of India has to be rapidly descaled to avoid serious long-term economic risk.

“We want to urgently start working with the coal industry to plan what we call the just transition,” Presidential Climate Change Commission executive director Chrispian Olver emphasised at the Coal & Energy Transition Day, chaired by mining stalwart Bernard Swanepoel.

Olver described the just energy transition as a process including economic diversification and the comprehensive exploitation of the Mpumalanga province as a renewable energy and green hydrogen hub.

Describing green hydrogen being South Africa’s long-term energy carrier of choice, Olver spoke of South Africa’s “two very serious advantages”, the one being having among the best renewable resources in the world, and the second being the number of major companies with the technical and managerial capacity to make that the gren hydrogen industry a reality.

The Presidential Climate Change Commission, Olver revealed, was doing detailed research to understand exactly when South Africa would be able to attain net-zero status, with recommendations on a feasible carbon budget targeted for 2023.

“South Africa is well endowed with minerals and we need a vast amount of minerals for the future green economy.

“We’ve got vanadium, cobalt, iron and steel, copper, manganese, rare earths, and all of this is going to be in huge demand as we go into the future green economy, and we need to be sorting out how we properly exploit that,” said Olver, in raising the need to fix the cadastral system to support minerals exploration, come up with energy solutions for mining operations, and help the sector with the security issues being experienced at some mines.

Olver expressed the willingness of the commission to “roll up our sleeves” and work productively mining to help solve its problems, in the hope that reciprocity would ensue around discussion on South Africa’s just energy transition.

Seen as being a crucial part of the energy transition is the the reskilling and retraining of mineworkers, the identification of their path into future jobs, and the aligning of diversification strategies.

The pilot world-first hydrogen haul truck launched early in the year, has had some final changes made to it before it heads into the pit and goes into operational mode from August.

Meanwhile, the second prototype is already underway, where learnings from the first truck are being taken into the development of the second prototype.

“It's important to recognise that as we were driving to get the first prototype out to market as soon as possible, we used existing components and retrofitted them into an existing truck.

“The next prototype is already learning some of the engineering design and also the layout. All of that is happening, as we speak. Then we’re targeting to have our full fleet replaced, as well as the broader Anglo American fleet, by the end of the decade.

“It’s a truck fleet of just over 400 trucks, if we look at Anglo American’s full truck fleet, with 40 of those at our Mogalakwena operation,” Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Anglo Platinum’s underground mines, such as the Amandelbult platinum mine, by way of example, are not as reliant on hydrogen fuel-cell heavy-duty applications, but will be very reliant on the Anglo American group’s regional renewable energy ecosystem, which is targeting between 3 GW and 5 GW of renewable power.

Mining Weekly: Is there any way that the green hydrogen footprint at Mogalakwena can be extended to provide energy to local communities, or is that out of the question?

Viljoen: It's absolutely part of the question, and such an important part of this journey for us, and it supports the just transition that we require in our country. We have announced the first 100 MW photovoltaic plant that we are building at Mogalakwena that will be used to generate green hydrogen, and in that project, we have a 10% free carry for our communities. Our community participation is really important to us, not only for the economic development that it will bring, but certainly also to help decarbonise the broader South Africa. Beyond that, there’s probably something that's even more exciting, and that is the potential for SA Inc. to become an exporter of renewable energy. Now, that probably seems a little bit far-fetched if we think about the current challenges that we have. We don't even have enough power for ourselves, let alone to export. The reality is with that kind of new economic sector, I'm hoping that it can create such new potential for us as a country, that we look beyond our current challenges, really drive the renewable energy space, make sure that South Africa is totally energy self-sufficient. It is an opportunity for us to make sure that we are energy self-sufficient as a country, but also create a new energy export opportunity, and then obviously bringing back so many other industries that we've lost over many years, as a result of energy uncertainty and energy cost.

Can South Africa’s unused mines help our country to decarbonise?

That’s a good question because there are so many old mines in South Africa. Carbon capture and storage is one of a number of tools that we have available to decarbonise society. It is definitely a potential to understand what can be done in many of our existing old mining operations. But, as Anglo American, there's also work being done in looking at how we capture carbon in some of our own tailings dams, certain mineralogy like kimberlites, for instance, being quite amenable to carbon capture and storage, so certainly, even more opportunities for us, as South Africa, in alternative ways to decarbonise.

I used to get taken to a technology company down in Elandsfontein many years ago and told how they would drop mine water down mine shafts from surface and the water would turn turbines on the way down, and, in that way, would generate electricity when electricity was needed. Later, when there was surplus electricity, they would use that surplus electricity pump the wate...

Kumba Iron Ore CEO Mpumi Zikalala on Tuesday expressed excitement at the energy announcement of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who unveiled several far-reaching interventions, including a doubling in the allocation for the next renewables procurement round, an uncapping of the 100 MW licence-exemption threshold for distributed electricity generators, and a proposed feed-in tariff for self-generating households and businesses, as part of a much-anticipated action plan for ending load-shedding.

“We’re very excited by the President’s announcement,” said Zikalala in response to Mining Weekly during a telephonic media briefing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed iron-ore company’s impressive 98% return on capital employed in the six months to June 30 and the declaration of an interim cash dividend of R9.2-billion. The average realised free-on-board export price of $136/wmt was achieved by Kumba in the period, which was 15% above the global benchmark price.

The company contributed R31-billion to the Northern Cape’s societal economy in the half year and capital expenditure for 2022 has been increased by R1-billion to R11-billion.

Kumba delivered half-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of R23.1-billion at an Ebitda margin of 54%, and closed the period with net cash of R17.6-billion on hand.

On the energy front, Kumba, as part of the Anglo American group, is working on a regional renewable energy ecosystem that will have 3 GW to 5 GW infrastructure made up of solar, wind and hydropower, which the President’s announcement helps to facilitate.

“Our first phase for Kumba is 65 MW,” said Zikalala, which is being developed to match Kumba’s requirements at its Sishen iron-ore mine.

GREEN HYDROGEN

“Clearly, the green hydrogen economy is certainly part of what we are looking at, together with Anglo American Platinum, as we consider what we need to do from a Scope 1 emission reduction perspective. Green hydrogen is something that we're looking at very closely, said Zikalala.

On the green iron-ore and steelmaking front, Kumba marketing and seaborne logistics executive head Timo Smit said the company was setting up a number of partnerships with steelmaking customers.

“We announced just a few weeks ago that one of these partnerships is with Nippon Steel of Japan,” said Smit.

The Nippon Steel partnership is, he added, focused on tweaking the specifications of Kumba’s premium lump ore to reduce emissions in a blast furnace context.

Announced last year was a partnership with Salzgitter of Germany, which also involves Kumba’s highly-sought-after and environmentally friendlier premium lump ore, with Salzgitter seeking to use it in direct reduction iron (DRI) steelmaking, in which it is investing very heavily.

‘We have a third partnership that we haven’t announced yet, but which will also be focused on DRI steelmaking, because we believe we’ve got a product that is potentially suitable for DRI steelmaking, which has the potential to reduce carbon emissions very significantly.

“But our product can also be used very efficiently in a blast furnace and allow carbon dioxide reduction in a blast furnace complex as well,” Smit said in response to Mining Weekly.

With two partnerships in place and at least one more on the horizon, work is ticking over in earnest to determine what Kumba’s products can do to help reduce emissions.

Kumba Iron Ore’s major share of lump and iron (Fe) content ore positions the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed mining and marketing company well at a time when steelmaking companies are taking strong steps to decarbonise.

At the same time, steel demand expected to increase in the global shift towards renewable energy.

Steel intensity in renewable power infrastructure is 10 to 30 times more than the steel intensity of fossil-based power infrastructure and steel is vital for the energy transition.

“The buildings we live and work in, the infrastructure and even the vehicles all of us used to get here this morning are all manufactured from steel, said Kumba Iron Ore CEO Mpumi Zikalala noted on Tuesday, when the company reported an impressive 98% return on capital employed in the six months to June 30 and declared an interim cash dividend of R9.2-billion.

The average realised free-on-board export price of Kumba’s quality iron-ore in the half year was $136/wmt, 15% up on the global benchmark price.

“Steel is not only central to how we live today, but it is also pivotal for the future. It is a critical ingredient and enabler for the energy transition across all renewable power infrastructure and electric vehicles, and we also know that the steel market is embracing the need for decarbonisation,” said Zikalala during the presentation of results covered by Mining Weekly.

To decarbonise the steelmaking process, steel mills are investing more in direct reduction iron (DRI), which is produced from the direct reduction of iron-ore into iron by a reducing gas, with green hydrogen the gas needed to fulfil the DRI process in the most environmentally protective manner.

“There is a healthy pipeline of DRI projects coming on line in the next 30 years and the share of DRI in global steel production is expected to almost triple to 26% by 2050. This will drive demand for high-quality ore as it offers higher productivity and has lower energy requirements.

“In fact, for every 1% increase in Fe, one will see a decrease of in carbon emissions. Kumba is well positioned as a leading provider of high-quality, high-lump iron-ore. Our Fe quality, in lump to fines ratio, remains high relative to our peers but more importantly, Kumba continues to focus on premium products,” Zikalala said.

To augment its quality position, Kumba is scheduled to commission a R3.6-billion ultra-high dense media separation (UHDMS) project in the second half of 2023. The UHDMS processes waste into premium product.

“The UHDMS will approximately double the volume of premium lump and further improve the quality of our product portfolio,” said Zikalala.

Kumba CFO Bothwell Mazarura told the first-half financial results presentation covered by Mining Weekly that since 2018, Kumba’s attributable free cash flow has totalled R85-billion, which includes the R9.4-billion of free cash flow generated in the six months to June 30. For the period, Kumba will be paying an interim cash dividend of R28.70 a share, which represents a payout ratio of 80% of headline earnings and a dividend yield of 6% on the period and the share price.

“In the past four years, we’ve paid over R70-billion in base dividends and R16.6-billion in top-up dividends. Despite the cyclical nature of our business, the operational and macro challenges and market volatility over the past few years, we’ve provided consistent returns to our shareholders.

“During the same four years, we’ve returned just over 100% of free cash flow and on average more than 90% of headline earnings to our shareholders. This underscores the financial and operational resilience of our business. We remain committed to maintaining a balance between investing to sustain and grow our business, while returning excess cash to shareholders,” said Mazarura.

INCREASING EVIDENCE OF GLOBAL WARMING

Turning to Kumba’s environmental performance, Zikalala highlighted that the company had not suffered any major level 3 to level 5 environmental incidents for seven-p...

Platinum group metals (PGMs) mining and marketing company Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) on Monday declared a gross interim dividend of R21.5-billion from profits accrued during the six-month period ended June 30, when it made a R71-billion economic contribution to society.

The dividend is equivalent to a payout of 80% of headline earnings while the societal economic contribution to society is made up of R6.8-billion in half-year (H1) wages and salaries, and R15.3-billion to local suppliers, including R1.1-billion of this going directly into doorstep communities.

The community spend and dividend payout to the community trust of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company equated to R350-million and R6.1-billion was invested in the business itself to ensure stability and sustainability. Significant contribution has also been made to the South African and Zimbabwean fiscus through R9.5-billion paid in H1 taxes and royalties, and R33.1-billion paid to shareholders in respect of H2 of 2021.

Full-year metal-in-concentrate production of 3.9-million PGM ounces to 4.3-million PGM ounces and refined production of between 4-million PGM ounces and 4.4-million PGM ounces is guided, with unit cost at R14 000 to R15 000 per PGM ounce, based on an oil price of around $100/bl. Capital expenditure guidance for the full year has been reduced to between R16-billion and R17.5-billion.

The company has felt the impact of higher oil, explosives and chemicals prices, with expenditure on consumables up 18% year-on-year on the back of a 61% increase in oil, 71% increase in chemicals, and a 55% increase in explosives.

“Overall, we’ve seen a 10% increase in mining inflation. However, we’ve been able to contain those costs to around about 8%, so our cash operating costs are up 8% year-on-year, despite those commodity-linked price escalations,” Anglo American Platinum CFO Craig Miller outlined during a media conference in which Mining Weekly participated.

“That’s what we’ll continue to work on in the second half of the year in order to maintain our margins and to continue to ensure that we continue to deliver value for all stakeholders,” Miller added.

In the PGM markets, the forecast is for platinum’s surplus to gradually move towards a deficit owing to a significant increase in automotive platinum demand, as some platinum replaces palladium in gasoline catalysts.

Palladium is likely to move into surplus for the opposite reason, though to what extent will depend on what happens to automotive production. Rhodium should head back into deficit after two years of surplus, the company reported. “Longer-term, we’re excited with the momentum we are seeing in the development of the hydrogen economy and our options to grow and deliver into a transitionary and future decarbonised world.

“With more countries announcing hydrogen-specific strategies, there is more investment committed to broader hydrogen infrastructure and more green hydrogen production, which will enable us to unlock incremental PGMs demand in new segments such as hydrogen production and storage, as well as mobility,” Amplats CEO Natascha Viljoen told the media conference.

While PGM basket prices decreased in the first half, the realised price of $2 671 per PGM ounce is the second-highest average price on record, illustrating the robust underlying market fundamentals for the suite of metals.

This contributed to another strong financial performance, with revenue of R86-billion, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of R43-billion, and an Ebitda mining margin of 59% achieved.

The 20% decrease in revenue and 32% decrease in Ebitda was a result of lower sales volumes compared to the prior period, mainly owing to H1 2021 recording the benefit of increased refined production owing to higher-than-normal work-in-progress inventory following the ACP Phase A rebuild.

This strong financial performance enabled the company to contribute to broader society.

Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen on Monday expressed the firm belief that decarbonisation and renewable energy have the potential to create new economic sectors in South Africa.

On the renewable energy front, Viljoen also revealed that Anglo Platinum is itself ahead of schedule in the development of its broader national renewable energy strategy, which involves developing between 3 GW and 5 GW of wind, solar and hydropumping and storage power.

On new economic development that decarbonisation and renewables can spawn, Viljoen expressed the need for South Africa to have "big vision".

“A big vision will help us to work towards some solutions together, and perhaps I’m an eternal optimist, but I do really think that we’ve got what we need.

“In addition, if we just consider the local manufacturing we’ve lost and how, for instance, we’ve lost beneficiation of chrome due to unreliable energy sources and increased energy cost, we’ll be able to renew lost manufacturing sectors as well,” Viljoen said in response to Mining Weekly during a media conference following the company’s presentation of solid half-year results.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed platinum group metals (PGMs) mining and marketing company on Monday declared a gross interim dividend of R21.5-billion from profits accrued during the six-month period ended June 30, when it made a combined R71-billion societal economic contribution.

New local manufacturing opportunities linked to decarbonisation, Viljoen pointed out, included the potential to locally manufacture hydrogen fuel cell membranes, for which South Africa already had in-country capacity and capability.

The University of Cape Town, with Babili Energy, already has the intellectual property required to produce the membranes that go into fuel cells, “with quite a unique application and up to a 20% reduction in production time, for instance”.

“We’ve got the skills and the capability and the innovation in the country. But energy does play the foundational role and I think if we can get the right policy behind it, there is an opportunity for us to unlock the potential. We’ve got some very exciting opportunities," Viljoen said.

On Anglo Platinum’s own target of generating between 3 GW and 5 GW of renewable energy, she said: “Developing that, and finding the right partners, is also part of the work we’re currently doing, and we’re ahead of where we wanted to be at this stage. Those plans, with some very realistic delivery, are well under way.”

Longer term, Anglo Platinum expressed excitement about the momentum in the development of the hydrogen economy and the options for the company to grow and to deliver into a world striving for a decarbonised future.

“With more countries announcing hydrogen-specific strategies, there is more investment committed to broader hydrogen infrastructure and more green hydrogen production. This will enable us to unlock incremental PGMs demand in new segments such as hydrogen production and storage as well as mobility,” said Viljoen, who reiterated the reality of South Africa being one of a handful of countries that has the minerals, land, and renewable resources in the form of wind and solar to produce more renewable energy than what it needs in the country, which could make it a potential energy exporter.

This week the European Commission approved €5.4-billion of public support by 15 member states for a hydrogen technology value chain taking in hydrogen generation technology, fuel cells technology, storage technology and end-user technology.

The week before, Shell started building Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant – Holland Hydrogen I – which will be Europe’s largest green hydrogen plant once operational in 2025, with the ‘I’ indicative of more to come.

That followed Australia’s Viva Energy ordering a platinum-using proton exchange membrane, or PEM, electrolyser from Nel Hydrogen US, which when installed, will provide green hydrogen to a fleet of heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), which also use platinum group metals (PGMs) to catalyse the conversion of hydrogen into electricity for vehicle mobility and, if needed, also stationary power.

Airbus has joined the world’s largest clean hydrogen infrastructure investment fund which is at the ready to fund credible large-scale green hydrogen projects anywhere in the world.

Transport Canada has launched a new incentive to make it easier for business to purchase heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles platinum-using fuel cells provide.

Australia, which has aspirations to become a green hydrogen superpower, is one of the countries expected to become an exporter going forward.

Cheap green hydrogen would be a massive breakthrough in clean energy, Bill Gates says on Gates Notes on LinkedIn.

Bloomberg reports that Britain is moving forward with policies to ramp up its nascent green hydrogen industry as the government looks for ways to reduce dependence on imports of natural gas.and the list could go on.

Against backgrounds like these, it is little wonder that Minerals Council South Africa comprehensively outlined in a 13-slide presentation earlier this year that green hydrogen presents a “significant opportunity” for economic development in South Africa, in that it has the capacity to create jobs, monetise the platinum industry, contribute to South Africa’s decarbonisation objectives and give South Africa a chance to export energy.

As pointed out more recently by Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen, South Africa is one of only four countries that have more renewable energy available to them than what they need for themselves, which places the country in a very strong position to be able to export energy in the form of hydrogen derivatives or even as hydrogen gas or liquid hydrogen itself.

On the jobs front, South Africa’s proposed Hydrogen Valley alone could potentially generate 14 0000 to 30 000+ jobs and add $3.9-billion to $8.8-billion to the economy by 2050, the Minerals Council document by its CEO Roger Baxter calculated.

The Minerals Council’s document on the development of the hydrogen economy in South Africa calls for the facilitation of high-level strategic thinking about the current state, potential and future of the green hydrogen economy in South Africa and globally.

It proposes that South Africa Incorporated discusses what a green hydrogen industry could look like by 2030 and 2050 and suggests that an industry view of the key foundational pillars be agreed to support the establishment of a large-scale green hydrogen industry in South Africa.

This could include:

policy support for promoting adoption of green hydrogen technologies, including development of targets and milestones, hydrogen codes and safety standards, policy support to enable early scale up of capacity and scale;

tax incentives that encourage investment in research, development and innovation to help produce green hydrogen-related applications;

collaboratively establishing hydrogen corridors and refueling infrastructure, supply chains and green hydrogen industrial nodes;

engagement with original equipment manufacturers in heavy trucking, rail, sea and air transport, and in stationary base load fuel cells; and

consideration of skills requirements and potential changes to curricula to enable...