Diversified mining and marketing company Anglo American has signed a memorandum of understanding with global renewable energy company EDF Renewables to work together towards developing a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa.

The regional renewable energy ecosystem is expected to be designed to meet Anglo's operational electricity requirements in South Africa through the supply of 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

This partnership supports the resilience of the local electricity supply systems and the wider decarbonisation of energy in the country, the London- and Johannesburg-listed company stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Anglo has already secured 100% renewable electricity supply for all its operations in South America, resulting in 56% of its global grid supply expected to be sourced from renewables by 2023.

In South Africa, while there is an abundance of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, there is limited renewables infrastructure to harness it, the company noted.

As Anglo progresses towards its 2040 target of carbon-neutral operations, the partnership with EDF Renewables is designed to abate the largest single source of its Scope 2 emissions, being its current grid supply in South Africa. The regional renewable energy ecosystem aims to support South Africa's decarbonisation ambitions and the country's just energy transition, creating a sustainable and inclusive future.

The regional renewable energy ecosystem will draw on South Africa's natural renewable energy potential to develop a network of on-site and off-site solar and wind farms, amongst other opportunities, while offering 24/7 renewable energy to Anglo's operations.

Anglo American anticipates that a number of partners will provide equity financing for the regional renewable energy ecosystem, in addition to the system attracting debt financing that is typical for high quality energy infrastructure projects.

The benefits the partnership is expected to bring to South Africa and the region, include:

implementing 3 GW to 5 GW of solar and wind renewable electricity and storage over the next decade, thereby increasing total grid supply resilience;

supporting the decarbonisation initiatives of governments across Southern Africa; and

stimulating the development of new economic sectors, local production and supply chains.

Anglo CE Mark Cutifani described the announcement as a further major step towards addressing on-site energy requirements, which are the largest source of the company’s operational emissions.

In addition to addressing Anglo’s Scope 2 footprint in South Africa, Cutifani said the partnership complemented the company’s FutureSmart Mining™ programme's abatement of its Scope 1 emissions through low- and zero-emission technologies, including the hydrogen haul truck system, and the development of South Africa's Hydrogen Valley.

“Step by step, we are changing the very nature of mining and how our stakeholders experience our business, while supporting a just transition," Cutifani added.

EDF Renewables chairperson and CEO, and group senior executive VP renewable energies Bruno Bensasson expressed delight at being able to take a step forward with Anglo towards what he described as an ambitious partnership.

“We are committed to supporting industrial players by providing low carbon competitive electricity that substitutes fossil energies and improves wider social and environmental issues.

“This project is also contributing to the country's energy ambition of furthering the development of decarbonised energy,” stated Bensasson in noting its alignment with EDF Group's CAP 2030 strategy, which aims to double its net renewable installed energy capacity worldwide – hydropower included – from 28 GW in 2015 to 60 GW in 2030.

Anglo's management board chairperson in South Africa Nolitha Fakude said South Africa was embarking on the next phase of its economic development, with clean, reliable and affordable energy playing a critical role in...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Fortescue Metals Group’s Andrew Forrest's call for energy sovereignty; Seifsa urging the metals sector to take advantage of the Steel Master Plan opportunities; and the comparison of mine-linked Solar PV power projects with the Koeberg nuclear power station.

The growing use of surveillance technologies, drones and wearables has serious implications for employees’ and individual's rights – to privacy, for one – which civil society and the private sector have yet to fully explore, diversified major Anglo American international, government and sustainability relations group head Froydis Cameron-Johansson has said.

Speaking during a Human Rights Dialogue hosted by the Minerals Council South Africa on March 17, she outlined themes and trends that had emerged post-Covid, including the restriction of civic freedoms, violence and harassment, low-carbon transition risks, corporate accountability and litigation, increasing expectations, labour rights, and technology and human rights.

She pointed out that drone adoption in the mining industry had increased by 198% between 2017 and 2018 alone and cited the increased use of artificial intelligence and wearables to monitor employees’ behaviour and record health-related data.

This, combined with the introduction of various ‘track and trace’ applications adopted by organisations and governments to combat the spread of Covid-19, has created an environment where companies and governments have access to personal information that can be exploited, if these actors do not respect basic human rights.

“Everybody has a phone. You're going onto an app, it asks you for all this personal information that you probably wouldn't ever give a stranger, except you're just [sending] it into the Metaverse, so to speak.”

Cameron-Johannsson explained that, over the last two years, this dispensing of personal information “exploded exponentially”, because of Covid-19. She noted that, before the onset of the pandemic, the notion that the general public would willingly allow the government to track their everyday movements was laughable.

“But here we are with our iPhones.”

She commented that she does not believe civil society as a collective has truly grasped data and the implications of data surveillance, or what it all means from a rights perspective.

Further, she remarked that, while it was “incredibly valuable” to have track and trace applications and technologies to manage the pandemic response, “it’s a huge risk now to human rights, to the right to privacy, to the right to not be surveilled all the time”.

“The interesting thing will now be in countries where they instigated a lot of surveillance; what happens now? Do they roll those back? Are people just used to it? How is this now going to work?”

She also stressed that the implications of using these technologies, particularly in terms of respecting and safeguarding rights, had not really been explored in their entirety, from a mining perspective.

“There are a lot of wearables. We use them for monitoring in terms of health and fatigue monitoring, as well as speed monitoring. But how then is that data being used? Even simple things like storing vaccination records under the General Data Protection Regulation rules is very, very difficult. So how do we balance those health requirements to keep people safe, [while] ensuring the right to privacy as well?”

With regard to drones, she mentioned that, aside from being used for mapping and geosciences, they can also be used for security and monitoring. She stressed that the fact that drones record activities on and around the mine licence means that companies must be “very mindful” when creating privacy policies with respect to video capabilities, as well as when engaging people that are affected.

University of Johannesburg Professor Shafika Isaacs commended the dialogue for raising the topic of digital justice and cautioned against the “dominant evangelical narrative around the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)”.

Isaacs noted that there was an erroneous perception that the 4IR is “going to save us”, and that many stakeholders look to technology and the 4IR as a panacea; that if everybody had access to the Internet, that would solve problems ranging from a lack of compe...

Titanium dioxide miner Tronox KZN Sands’ Fairbreeze mine, near Richards Bay, in Kwazulu-Natal, is planning to start a new development phase to extend the mine’s life.

Speaking to Mining Weekly on March 17, Tronox KZN Sands Fairbreeze mine site director Shalen Poorun said work on the new development was expected to start later this year, initially as an 800 t/h operation but with the aim of ramping up to 2 168 t/h by mid-2023.

With new developments factored in, the life-of-mine will be extended to 2037.

Poorun said continuous work was under way to quantify additional reserves.

In 2015, mining began on the northern side of the Fairbreeze orebody. At its inception, production was planned for six years and is, therefore, nearing depletion.

The primary mining method at the Fairbreeze mine remains hydraulic mining. As the mine begins mining the southern orebody, the throughput will be increased by more than 80% against the backdrop of falling grades. This will allow the mine to maintain feed to the smelting facility at Empangeni.

The new expansion project will include an upgrade of the current mining system and the mineral concentration facility.

Poorun said Tronox was busy with the backfilling and rehabilitation of the Northern portion of the mine, having already completed the backfilling of the C orebody – the first orebody mined at Fairbreeze.

So far, about 50% of this orebody has been rehabilitated to indigenous grass, while final shaping and rehabilitation on the remainder continues. In addition, backfilling has begun on a portion of the C extension orebody where mining is expected to be completed within the next 12 months.

The initial portion of the orebody previously mined is currently under rehabilitation in line with the mine’s environmental management plan. Soil coverage by vegetation on the rehabilitated area is in excess of 50% over much of the area, successfully limiting the erosive effects of stormwater runoff, Poorun explained.

“These activities are currently executed, tracked and monitored against the environmental management plan to ensure sustainable post-mining land use,” he said.

Backfill and rehabilitation is undertaken in conjunction with the ongoing mining activities, thereby keeping the mining footprint to a minimum.

“Undertaking continuous rehabilitation alongside mining operations presents various complexities, such as positive and ongoing water ingress into the mining area. It presents safety and technical challenges,” Poorun noted.

In light of this, Tronox has established bespoke methods to manage such ingress which includes significant investments in major infrastructure to control and divert the water away from the active mining areas, he concluded.

Let’s give energy sovereignty to the world. Renewable energy is everywhere. Every country can produce it. Now is the time to capture it, and have full energy freedom, enthused Fortescue Metals Group nonexecutive chairperson Andrew Forrest, while being interviewed by CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour.

“The world does have a choice. It's green energy, green ammonia, and green hydrogen. These are all made from renewable electricity and can answer 100% of the global economy's energy needs. Now's the time to kick it in,” urged Forrest, who was interviewed while holding green energy meetings in North Africa.

His own Australian mining group is setting out to be fully green by 2030.

In his view, now is the moment when everybody who is interested in renewables and green energy is able to set the agenda.

The time is right to adopt a practical implementable solution, he said, while noting that emission-free fuels can be made in enormous quantities by virtually all countries, to satisfy energy demand, and at the same time combat global warming.

He acclaimed the European Union (EU) nations for setting out to source 100% of their energy from renewables by 2035.

“I fully applaud the progress of the EU and the direction of the EU. I applaud the Government of Germany; I know how difficult it is for my company to go green. We've had to invent ship engines, train engines and truck engines. We've had to make technical breakthroughs everywhere, just so we can get our company completely green by 2030.

“EU countries have given themselves only another five years. This is a Herculean effort, but they're determined to do this, and we’re determined to support them,” said Forrest in response to Amanpour.

He also drew attention to Saudi Arabia, which was being visited by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while the CNN interview was under way, going full tilt into renewable energy and green hydrogen.

He said his discussions with Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates pointed to both countries seeing a new green future unfolding before them, and both wanting to play intense roles in generating renewable energy and producing green hydrogen.

He also highlighted the fact that virtually every country in the world has the potential to become a green energy generator, owing to the ubiquity of sun and wind.

“I see fascist fossil fuel in most places I look, and now's the time to stop it,” said Forrest.

Carbon Brief Daily reported on Thursday that Johnson had let it be known that Saudi Arabia would be announcing a £1-billion investment in Teesside, in the north of England, to produce green aviation fuel.

GREEN ENERGY PROJECTS IN EASTERN CAPE, NAMIBIA

As reported by Engineering News & Mining Weekly in January, Hive Hydrogen and Built Africa – together as Hive Hydrogen – as well as Linde plc, through its wholly owned South African subsidiary Afrox, have teamed up to establish a green ammonia export plant in Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Eastern Cape.

The first phase is planned to go live in 2025, with full operation by the end of 2026.

The proposed 780 000 t/y, $4.6-billion green ammonia plant – with its own dedicated green power supply at the Coega Special Economic Zone alongside the Port of Ngqura – is a significant South African response to the world’s need for green solutions to limit the devastating impact of climate change and to deliver on COP26 commitments.

The renewable energy and energy storage component alone will be substantial.

Former Eskom CEO Thulani Gcabashe, as chairperson of Hive Hydrogen South Africa and executive chairperson of Built Africa, expressed Hive Hydrogen’s delight at bringing what he described as a landmark green ammonia project.

“This certainly heralds a new era for the country in its commitments to greener solutions for industry. The pure scale of the project and the clean technology being used is truly remarkable,” Gcabashe enthused at the time.

In December, the government of Namibia announced the selection of HYPHEN Hydrogen Energy as...

Magnet metals and rare earths miner Pensana has completed the front-end engineering design (FEED) for its UK-based Saltend rare earths production facility and its Angola-based Longonjo mine, reducing the capital expenditure (capex) costs of the projects and improving the operating profitability of both.

A comprehensive value engineering and enhancement programme is well advanced and is expected to be reported in April, which is intended to result in a further reduction in the capital costs.

Saltend is being designed as the UK’s first rare earths processing facility and will produce 12 500 t/y of separated rare earth oxide, of which 4 500 t/y will be magnet metal rare earths – neodymium and praseodymium oxides, equivalent to about 5% of the projected world demand.

Working alongside Wood Group’s Perth (Australia), Reading (UK) and Johannesburg (South Africa) offices, project management and engineering company Paradigm Project Management (PPM) and Professional Cost Consultants (PCC) have managed to reduce the capital required to establish the projects.

As such, the estimated capex for the projects has been reduced from $525-million to $494-million, with Saltend requiring $195-million and Longonjo needing $299-million.

Although the cost of the Saltend refinery is set to increase from $190-million to $195-million, the mixed rare earth sulphate refinery cost is set to decrease from $152-million to $127-million; while the Longonjo concentrator will decrease from $134-million to $123-million.

This leaves both the Longonjo mine and infrastructure costs, and the operational expenditures, unchanged at $49-million and $15/kg, respectively.

This adjustment will result in Pensana producing higher revenues, increasing from the December 2021 estimate of $648-million a year for the first five years, to $705-million a year for the first five years.

In turn, this will result in Pensana’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increasing from a previous estimate of $413-million a year for the first five years, to $459-million a year for the same time period.

In addition, the adjustment increases the project’s net present value from $2.1-billion to $2.4-billion, and its internal rate of return from 50% to 61%.

Considering these metrics, Pensana plans a payback period improvement on its investment from 2.3 years to 2.1 years.

Pensana chairperson Paul Atherley says that reducing its capital and operating costs is a significant achievement by the technical team led by CEO Tim George, especially considering the inflationary pressures and supply chain constraints affecting projects globally.

“The lower capital and strong operating margins will make the project attractive to our Financiers and are expected to lower the overall cost of finance,” says Atherley.

Global supply chain constraints and inflationary pressures, which could have impacted both the Saltend and Longonjo projects, have been largely mitigated by the detailed enhancement and value engineering processes.

Consequently, specific workstreams involving capital and operation cost savings are currently under way, including using spent acid regeneration to increase the recycling efficiency of the sulphuric acid plant.

This will be integrated with off-gas from the calcining of concentrate at Longonjo, which is an important aspect of the process and constitutes a significant reduction of the carbon footprint through reduced reagent consumption.

The piloting of a more cost-effective flotation concentrate calcining process offers a vendor alternative post-FEED, which would enable a significantly shorter lead time for fabrication and ease of installation at Longonjo.

In addition, enhancement of Saltend’s civil and earthworks for load-bearing structures is being undertaken alongside the completion of detailed geotechnical investigation, which will shorten the construction period and enable future affordable expansion into downstream activities associated with magnet metal p...

South Africa’s historic metals sector employer organisation on Wednesday urged all the sector’s employer bodies to roll up their sleeves on May 19 and 20 and get their teeth into the Steel Master Plan, which is seen to have promising reindustrialisation elements.

President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the Steel Master Plan in last month’s State of the Nation Address.

An upbeat Lucio Trentini, in his capacity as the CEO of the nigh-80-year-old Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa), described the challenges faced by the metals and engineering sector as being “quite daunting” and highlighted the amazing resilience that members had displayed in the last 12 to 18 months. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Seifsa has a combined membership of more than 1 200 companies that employ more than 170 000 personnel. Formed in 1943, its members range from giant steelmaking corporations to microenterprises employing fewer than 50 people.

“The message that I want to put out is that this industry stands ready to make its contribution to translating government’s vision of reindustrialising the metals and engineering sector, and to start translating visions, promises and policy into action and deliverables

“What we need is for the government to roll out its promised infrastructure spend, which is absolutely central to the reigniting of industrial capacity in the sector. I can assure you, if we see half of what government has promised, the sector will ignite, move forward and create the much-needed economic growth and consequent jobs and job opportunities that this country so sorely needs. We’re ready, we want to do our bit,” said Trentini in a Zoom interview with Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

The knock-on effects are felt throughout the economy owing to the sector’s role as supplier and customer into the mining, automotive, motor, construction and other manufacturing sub-industries.

“Because of the nature of our economy and its size, the major sectors of our economy are all interrelated, so when one cog in the wheel experiences a stutter, the effects are felt throughout the value chain,” said Trentini.

During the three-week stoppage of the sector last year, more than R300-million in lost wages and more than R600-million a week in lost revenue was shed by the sector – and those are very conservative figures.

“The knock-on effect into mining, construction, automotive component manufacturers, automotive assemblers was felt very deeply,” said the head of the organisation that sets out to foster mutually-beneficial relationships between employers, labour and government in creating a business environment conducive to growth.

When Trentini joined South Africa’s metals and engineering sector from JCI Gold and Uranium Company 30-odd years ago, it employed more than half a-million blue-collar workers. Sadly, it is now down to half that number.

“Jobs are scarce and we need to hold on to the jobs we have and allow the government to create an enabling environment,” said action-orientated Trentini.

He sees the Steel Master Plan, already signed by representatives of business, labour and government, as being an integral part of the new enabling environment that the government is heralding, and urges all relevant organisations to put their shoulder to the plan’s wheel at its upcoming conference on May 19 and 20.

“It’s not going to create any miracles overnight but it’s the first time that government, through Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel, has come to business to ask what it can do together with labour, to address the challenges that we face as a sector,” he said.

Localisation and designation without having to compromise on cost and quality is the plan’s focus.

“We now know that there are going to be massive increases in the price of steel because of what is happening in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the price of steel, which is a major input into all of this industry, is a major issue up...

The appointment of mining stalwart Sipho Nkosi to cut red tape is crucial to encourage new investment and expand existing investment in South Africa, says Menar MD Vuslat Bayoglu, whose private investment company has about R1.5-billion worth of investment being delayed by regulatory processes.

While Nkosi was appointed to reduce government red tape in general, Bayoglu believes that his background and skill would be better used in the mining regulatory space. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“There are huge bottlenecks in mining approval processes, from prospecting rights, where it is relatively easy, to water use licences (WULs) and environmental authorisation, where things get harder,” said Bayoglu in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly.

“Often, different government entities contradict each other. Some NGOs take advantage of the red tape to block mining investment. They don’t care about the taxes that the state is losing when it delays mining investments, exploit this to their own advantage and to the detriment of the country,” said Bayolu, who pointed to Minerals Council South Africa’s members having R90-billion worth of ready-to-execute projects being stalled by red tape.

“South Africa cannot afford to lose out on the current upswing in the commodity market. It is only during such times that investors have appetite to expand existing operations and develop new mines from scratch.

“If we don’t take advantage of this now by cutting the red tape, we should kiss goodbye to employment creation and the prospect of reducing poverty and inequalities – all of which are the key priorities of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration. The President clearly knows this. We hope various departments will support him,” said Bayoglu.

His second takeway from last month’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) is that reforms are under way in the field of logistics. “Allowing third party access to the rail infrastructure is key to solving the logistics bottlenecks. While Transnet has performed better than many SOE’s over the years, it has experienced challenges lately and this has impacted on mining exports. So, the President’s initiatives, which Transnet has already embraced, are also a welcome development,” Bayoglu added.

His third Sona takeway was the President firmly stating that business is responsible for creating jobs and the government should create an enabling environment.

“I think if he can act on this statement and ensure that government takes decisions quickly, then we can succeed in creating economic opportunities,” he said.

GROWTH STRATEGY DEVELOPMENTS

The company’s latest growth strategy development includes the commencement of mining at Kangra Coal’s Udumo mine in February, marking the beginning of the extension of the life-of-mine (LoM) at Kangra, through the mining of the Kusipongo reserve of around 41.9-million tons, which could extend the LoM by more than 20 years.

Kangra is targeting a production rate of 1.5-million tons a year from the underground mining sections for the duration of the LoM, with 360 000 t/y of anthracite being produced from available opencast areas. Located in Saul Mkhizeville, Mpumalanga, Kangra employs 549 people including contractors. The extension of the LoM of Kangra is described as being critical for local communities that derive employment and business opportunities from the mine.

In addition, negotiations are continuing with stakeholders at Canyon Coal’s fully licensed but yet to be developed Gugulethu colliery, which will create 430 jobs. Through Canyon, some R600-million is being invested in the Phase 1 development of Gugulethu, which is near Hendrina, also in Mpumalanga. The project has an estimated LoM of more than 35 years based on a run-of-mine (RoM) production of about 200 000 t/m from opencast areas and 150 000 t/m from underground sections. Mining will take place through underground and opencast methods. Phase 1, which will entail opencast mining, has a reserve of 14.3-million...

The equivalent of a Koeberg power station is arising in the form of new largely mining-linked private-sector solar power photovoltaic projects across South Africa, according to AmaranthCX director and founder Paul Miller, whose company is working on the second edition of its electronic map of the utility scale power projects in the region, where there has up to now been an absence of particularly non-technical data required for investors, financiers and traders.

“Increasingly, the more recent projects are all coming out with battery storage as well,” said Miller, who was speaking to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

AmaranthCX has effectively produced a Google Earth map of all the Southern African developments, prompted by very strong demand for the data it is compiling, even from people in government.

“It’s because there's no central authority collating or publishing the information,” said Miller.

Although there have been some big programmes announced that do not have specific projects detailed as yet, many projects are going ahead with some already in the construction phase.

“We do a lot of work assisting companies that sell to mines, and we discovered when putting together the addressable market of all mines in Africa that there are, of course, there are no street addresses.

“So, immediately you’re having to geo-locate mines and mining projects, and once you've geo-located something, it's not long before you have a map,” said Miller.

AmaranthCX thus produced a range of maps, particularly during the darker days of Covid lockdown.

“People were very interested in chrome, coal and manganese. But when we surveyed all the buyers of those maps, they often turned out to be traders, rather than suppliers, in other words, people buying commodities rather than people selling things to the mines, and a strong response came back that they needed more information on the power situation,” said Miller.

This resulted in AmaranthCX mapping all the power stations and major substations of the Southern African Power Pool, taking in South Africa and many of its neighbours.

“That turned out to be a somewhat shifting terrain, because in mining, you can make a judgment call on what an advanced project is. In other words, a mine that's likely to be built based on public or historical information on the geological resource, and you can say, okay, well, actually, there’s likely to be a new colliery here or new manganese mine there, and you can add it to the mines so that people who are interested in perhaps buying the commodity or supplying that mine, have a fairly reasonable understanding.

“But when you start mapping power projects, it's quite different. In South Africa, for example, there are hundreds of permitted sites for renewable projects. In other words, there's lots of information online of basic environmental studies that have been done to get permitting for projects,” Miller pointed out.

Those are the projects that compete in the different rounds of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) aimed at bringing additional megawatts onto the country's electricity system through private sector investment in wind, biomass and small hydro, among others.

“Now, if the projects don't win in one of those rounds, they might never be built. So, in South Africa, you can take a view that if a project has been awarded preferred bidder status in one of the REIPPPP rounds, it's quite likely to be built. Not all of them have, but it's quite likely to be built and you can map it.”

But since South Africa’s self-generation embedded power cap was lifted to 100 MW, very positive and widespread development of projects outside of the REIPPPP have arisen rapidly.

Mining Weekly: Is it something of a free for all out there?

Miller: From an information point of view, it is because there's no central authority collating or publishing the information. As we went into mining company results...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks the need for mining to seize the many obvious lucrative opportunities that are available; Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s renewable energy study on an embedded 30MW solar plant that is close to completion; and Eskom's battery storage system.