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This week Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer talks about the just energy transition providing South Africa with significant opportunities for new jobs; Glencore’s new global marketing relationship with United States Strategic Metals; and Webber Wentzel's warning that mining and energy directors could be liable for climate change risks.

Demand already foreseen is providing South Africa with the far-reaching and very welcome opportunity to create sufficient new jobs – “and then some” – to ensure a just energy transition away from the country’s current climate-threatening carbon intensity, Mining Weekly can report.

South Africa’s R100-billion-plus renewables industry has already been able to recruit highly skilled people from all sectors of South Africa, including from the coal sector, and the transition is providing South Africa a nice-to-have entry into a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

This involves moving out of a carbon-intensive sector, which has a finite horizon, into a new clean energy era, which has an infinite horizon in that it is largely based on the generation of power from sunshine and wind, which are delivered perennially with no price tag attached.

Moreover, the majority of the people working in the renewables industry are South African, Mainstream Renewable Power Africa GM Hein Reyneke told Creamer Media’s webinar on Advancing South Africa’s Energy Transition, which was held earlier this month.

EY Parthenon executive director Paul O’Flaherty facilitated a panel made up of Eskom Holdings Group CEO Andre de Ruyter, Impala Platinum (Implats) executive sustainable development Dr Tsakani Mthombeni and Reyneke, who reported that 100 % of the employees of Mainstream Renewable Power, for example, are South African – personnel who are delivering on their own energy future.

Mainstream Renewable Power had, he said, been able to recruit highly skilled people from all sectors of South Africa ­– from Eskom, from the coal sector, from the banking sector.

“We do foresee a challenge, maybe in a medium term, of getting enough human resource to deliver on the scale and demand that we foresee, but we view that as a nice problem to have, and it provides an opportunity for the renewables energy industry to deliver on our obligations in terms of job creation and the just energy transition.

In terms of financing the projects, local debt from local banks dominates the funding of local renewables projects.

In addition, there is also a considerable volume of foreign capital flowing through, with webinar attendees hearing that South Africa’s renewables industry has not experienced any significant challenges in raising the capital needed to deliver the projects that South Africa needs to bring back energy security – a need that Mthombeni emphasised as being pressing.

In opening, O’Flaherty drew attention to the fact that Europeans are driving their recovery from Covid through green investments and raising money to do that.

“Working back towards home, when I have been speaking to the government set-up and Presidential Climate Commission that became operational in January of last year, their first priority was to understand the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and assist in landing that NDC, which has set significant new targets for South Africa to reduce its [emmission of] greenhouse gases from 2025 going through into 2030.

“We’ve got the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 in play. So, there are lots of dynamics in South Africa. We had COP26, it was called the finance COP, and South Africa has a commitment that we will be provided $8.5-billion.

“Then we’ve got the energy-intensive users who sit in the mining industry in South Africa,” said O’Flaherty, a former Eskom financial director.

In posing the first question to Mthombeni, O’Flaherty spoke of the Energy White Paper of the 1990s and the regional electricity distributors, or Reds, of the 2000s.

“We now talk about the unbundling of Eskom, we have an Integrated Resource Plan, which has a specific trajectory of reducing the coal content of the energy mix from more than 70% to 44%.

“Lots of intent, lots of good thought. But when you look at it, Tsakani, Implats is a major user of energy. It has 24/7 production, shareholders, employees, investors, communities and the supply chain who rely on Eskom. How do you think a...

Diversified mining company Anglo American announced on Wednesday that its new Aquila mine has achieved its first longwall shear of steelmaking metallurgical coal on schedule and on budget, marking the project’s final stages of construction and commissioning.

The new mine, which will have a total average yearly saleable production of around five-million tonnes of hard coking coal, benefits from low capital intensity owing to existing infrastructure and systems from adjacent operations being used.

“Aquila offers us highly attractive returns and margins at conservative long-term consensus prices,” Anglo Bulk Commodities CEO Themba Mkhwanazi stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Owned 70% by Anglo and 30% by Mitsui, Aquila has been developed as a technologically advanced underground mine, leveraging advancements in underground automation technology, remote operations and data analytics.

The project came in within the budgeted attributable cost of $226-million.

The mine’s two longwalls allow operations to continue without the downtime usually required for longwall moves. Both longwalls will be sequentially operated from an on-surface, site-based remote operations centre.

Located near Middlemount in central Queensland, Australia, Aquila extends the life of Anglo’s existing Capcoal underground operations by seven years, after the company’s nearby Grasstree mine reached its end of life in recent weeks. Anglo’s Capcoal complex comprises Aquila, Capcoal opencast mine, Grasstree, the coal handling and preparation plant and associated infrastructure.

Anglo metallurgical coal business CEO Tyler Mitchelson described the safe original-schedule startup of longwall mining at Aquila, despite the effects of the pandemic, as an important milestone for the metallurgical coal business that provides ongoing support to the Middlemount community and the Queensland economy.

The mine supports around 600 ongoing operational roles for Anglo’s Queensland-based workforce, including providing continuity of employment for the company’s Grasstree mining team.

Diversified mining and marketing company Glencore has entered a strategic global marketing relationship with United States Strategic Metals, formerly Missouri Cobalt.

Involved is a long-term offtake agreement for 100% of the US company’s products, which include cobalt and nickel sulphates, lithium products and copper cathode.

Significant embedded prepayment forms part of the deal, which includes both companies also exploring other commercial arrangements relating to recycling and raw materials sourcing to underpin the ramp-up of a hydrometallurgical processing facility being developed by US Strategic Metals.

As a vertically integrated cobalt and nickel producer, US Strategic Metals is described as being positioned to supply “clean, domestic and ethically sourced battery metals” required to meet the demand for electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries.

The North American company is reportedly in the final stages of constructing a proprietary hydrometallurgical processing facility which will allow it to begin production of large-scale quantities of battery-grade products, starting in the third quarter of this year, Glencore stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Glencore US cobalt marketing Ash Lazenby stated in the release that Glencore would be supporting US Strategic Metals towards becoming a leading domestic supplier of battery metals critical to combating climate change and realising the energy transition.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with the US Strategic Metals team and leveraging our complementary skill sets,” said Lazenby.

US Strategic Metals CEO Stacy W Hastie said US Strategic Metals would benefit from Glencore’s customer relationships across the electric vehicle supply chain, including with global auto original equipment manufacturers and battery manufacturers.

Additionally, proceeds from prepayment would allow US Strategic Metals to accelerate the construction and commissioning of its hydrometallurgical processing facility, said Hastie.

OTHER RECENT PARTNERSHIPS

Earlier this month, Glencore clinched a battery recycling joint venture with battery pioneer Britishvolt to develop an ecosystem for battery recycling in the UK. This ecosystem will be anchored at a new recycling plant located at the Britannia Refined Metals (BRM) operation in Northfleet, a Glencore company. The project saw a return to recycling for BRM, securing existing jobs and creating new ones.

Once complete, the recycling facility will have an expected processing capacity of at least 10 000 t/y of lithium-ion batteries, including but not limited to battery manufacturing scrap, portable electronics batteries and electric vehicle packs.

The facility, which will process all Britishvolt’s battery scrap from its factory in Blyth, is expected to be operational by mid-2023, with the long-term aim of being 100% powered by renewable energy.

The partnership will also look to develop other recycling activities such as the refining of black mass into battery grade raw materials.

Late last month, Glencore and Managem partnered to produce cobalt from recycled cobalt, nickel and lithium, at Managem’s Compagnie de Tifnout Tiranimine (CTT) hydrometallurgical refinery in Morocco, North Africa.

A five-year tolling agreement for 1 200 t/y of recycled cobalt, as well as nickel hydroxide and lithium carbonate, is planned by Glencore and CTT to support the electric vehicle industry in achieving its metal recycling targets.

The partnership is conditional on a feasibility study to assess the commercial viability of modifying and deploying the CTT refinery for recovering cobalt, nickel and lithium from black mass – a refinery feed comprised of recycled lithium-ion batteries.

The feasibility study will focus on achieving high recoveries and a low carbon footprint. It is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter.

Glencore will leverage its long-established ability in sourcing and recycling cobalt and nickel-bearing products at its Canadian ...

Directors face potential liability if they fail to carry out their fiduciary duties to curb climate change risks and do not make complete disclosures about climate-related risks, Webber Wentzel partner Merlita Kennedy and associate Tobia Serongoane stated on Tuesday.

In a release to Mining Weekly, the law firm outlined how climate change, economic inequality, and numerous other issues fundamental to the success and sustainability of companies, are placing greater responsibility on boards of directors in the mining and energy space.

“The traditional assumption about climate change was that it was purely an environmental, or ethical, concern. Companies viewed it as an issue of moral significance, but not one which posed any real risks beyond reputation.

“This is no longer the case. Climate change is now a corporate governance issue which presents potentially enormous financial and litigious risks to companies, especially in the mining and/or energy sectors. The standard of care required from company directors with regard to climate change has risen and continues to rise,” Kennedy and Serongoane stated.

Climate change litigation has dramatically increased in recent years, owing to increased global urgency to tackle climate change, the stated.

They pointed out that in May last year, Shell became the first company in history to be held legally liable for contributing to climate change, when a Dutch court ordered it to cut its global carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030 – and ruled it was responsible for its customers’ emissions too.

Recently, in South Africa, the High Court in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, blocked Shell from seismic testing to explore for oil and gas in the Indian Ocean.

“These recent cases suggest that boards should be more sensitive to ‘red flags’ on climate-related risks in their management and reporting obligations. There is a well-established tendency, in the US and some other jurisdictions, for plaintiffs to cite directors of a company as defendants alongside the company, whenever possible, as they could be additional sources of potential recovery,” they wrote.

Under the sub-heading ‘Understanding climate change and its impact on directors' fiduciary duties’, Kennedy and Serongoane pointed to Section 76 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 codifying the standard of directors’ conduct.

“The standard sets the bar very high for directors, with personal liability if the company suffers loss or damage because the director’s conduct did not meet the prescribed standard. Section 76 (3) of the South African Companies Act and Section 172 of the UK Companies Act may be wide enough to include a duty for the directors to take into account climate risks in decision-making.

“In the context of climate risk assessment and management, breach of Section 76(3) may occur in similar circumstances to those discussed above, namely, where climate risk poses a foreseeable and material financial risk to the company and directors have not considered that risk or have failed to do so adequately.

“Directors may also breach this section if they have assessed climate risk but failed to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence in managing it. The adequacy of the resources available to the company to deal with climate change risk should be objectively assessed, and external expertise sought, as appropriate,” they stated.

DUTY OF DISCLOSURE

Kennedy and Serongoane described the growing investor demand for climate and environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure as being “tremendous”, with shareholders expecting companies to report more fully and transparently on climate risks, and directors potentially being held liable for misleading or deceptive conduct for “greenwashing” – such as making “net zero” commitments without reasonable evidence.

Under Section 29 (2) of the Companies Act, financial statements prepared by the company must not be false or misleading.

Moreover, Principle 5 of the King IV report required the board to ensure th...

Steps are being taken to progress the Sandpiper marine phosphate project offshore of Namibia in compliance with last year’s High Court ruling, Namibian Marine Phosphate stated on Tuesday.

The High Court confirmed the ongoing validity of Namibia Marine’s mining licence on June 30, 2021, and an independent environmental assessment practitioner has been appointed to manage the application and assessment process for the proposed Sandpiper project, Namibian Marine Phosphate stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Notice of the application and details of public meetings for Sandpiper have been published in newspapers and public meetings will be held in Windhoek on Wednesday and in Walvis Bay on Friday.

Stakeholders as well as interested and affected parties have been encouraged to register their details at the public meetings, or online at/.

The proposed project will employ more than 600 Namibians directly and indirectly for construction and operations in Walvis Bay, said Namibia Marine Phosphate, which added that analysis by the Chamber of Mines of Namibia found last year that seven additional new jobs are created indirectly in the economy by every new mining job. In terms of that multiplication, Sandpiper is expected to create 4 200 jobs.

Marine phosphate mining and processing, the company stated, was also able to provide Namibia with the phosphate concentrate required to develop an integrated fertiliser industry.

Commitment to responsible commercial, social, and environmental development was reaffirmed.

Aim-listed metal processing company Jubilee Metals is poised for growth following the successful recommissioning of its significantly upgraded and fully integrated new Inyoni platinum group metals (PGMs) processing facility, in Gauteng.

“The new integrated facility sets a strong foundation for sustained future growth and is the culmination of Jubilee’s extensive investment into achieving class-leading efficiencies,” the company said in a statement to shareholders on February 8.

The project entailed a complete rebuild of an old chrome plant, which Jubilee acquired in 2019. The plant was previously owned and operated by chrome producer Hernic Ferrochrome.

The R377-million investment programme included the construction of a new 80 000 t/m chrome processing facility – named the OBB Chrome Plant – which has been integrated with the new upgraded Inyoni PGMs circuit.

The new integrated facility can produce up to 44 000 oz/y of PGMs, compared with the previous output of 30 000 oz/y PGMs, as well as 615 000 t/y of additional chrome concentrate. Among the PGMs produced are platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and gold.

The new processing facility is uniquely able to process both a variety of chrome- and PGM-containing mined ores, as well as historical tailings. Previously the plant was limited to processing only a single feed source.

“Despite this challenging undertaking that lays our foundation for future performance, the team delivered [and] displayed exceptional commitment and ingenuity by implementing on-time and in-budget the complex integration of the newly constructed OBB Chrome Plant, with a fully upgraded and expanded Inyoni PGMs circuit,” Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer said, noting that the full project was delivered without a single lost-time injury.

Jubilee reported that monthly production levels had risen by 66% in January compared with those recorded in the second half of last year. The higher production levels reflected the new Inyoni facility reaching its full design capacities, the company said.

During the second half of last year, Jubilee further increased its access to both mined chrome and PGMs material, as well as historical tailings, which further supported the targeted processing capacity expansion into the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex.

The company said this expansion would not only offer an offset to the current transport costs incurred for moving this material but would also offer significant growth opportunities in the region.

For the second half of last year, Jubilee reported an increase in chrome concentrate production of 41% to 609 734 t compared with the previous period, illustrating the early contribution from the new OBB Chrome Plant, which was brought online at the end of the second quarter last year and ramped up during the third quarter before being integrated with the Inyoni plant in November.

The new chrome beneficiation facility follows the completion of the Windsor 8 chrome plant in October 2020. The two plants combined raised Jubilee’s chrome feed capacity to 250 000 t a month of both chrome run-of-mine ore and historical tailings.

Moreover, the increased chrome processing capacity directly contributes to increased PGMs feed supply as a tailings stream produced from the chrome processing circuit.

Jubliee told shareholders that the new integrated plant sets the example of the type of facility that it plans to develop as it expands its chrome and PGMs operational footprint in the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex.

“This is a strategic development, demonstrating Jubilee’s ability to continue to grow its business by reinvesting its earnings into high growth projects,” the company said.

Jubilee’s current PGMs operational footprint has historically been largely focused on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex. The eastern limb, however, is now a key focus for Jubilee to expand its PGMs reach and operational capacity following the completion of the Inyoni facility.

“The additional P...

Precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater has tabled a revised wage increase offer to employees working at its South African gold mines, after meeting with the four major trade unions that represent their employees on February 4.

This follows after seven months of deadlocked negotiations between Sibanye and unions - Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, National Union of Mineworkers, Uasa and Solidarity.

Trade union Solidarity reports that the mining company resumed negotiations after the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) issued a certificate granting trade unions the right to embark on strike action.

“It would appear as if an agreement may now be within reach with Sibanye after a marathon negotiation session last Friday,” notes Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis.

He confirms that the trade unions will this week consult with their members about the revised offer.

Solidarity says it will encourage its members to consider the new offer favourably.

Sibanye’s previous offer for the miners, artisans and officials represented by Solidarity was a 4.1% increase in year one; a 4.7% increase in year two; and a 4.7% increase for year three.

The offer has been increased to grant a 5% increase to this category of employees for each of the three years.

Sibanye confirms that the 5% offer is higher than 2021’s average inflation rate, and is higher than the average inflation forecasts for 2022 and 2023, as forecasted by the South African Reserve Bank and National Treasury.

The company’s previous offer to category 4 to 8 employees was an increase of R520 for year one; a R610 increase for year two; and a R640 increase for year three, but has been amended to offering an increase of R800 in each of years one, two and three.

“It was a frustrating seven months of negotiating during which parties negotiated with each other mainly through CCMA facilitation,” Du Plessis points out.

The unions will present the offer to its members, and, after finalising agreements, wage negotiations for Sibanye’s platinum mines will start.

A combination of renewables, storage and flexible gas are needed to create a stable and resilient energy system that provides a reliable source of electricity while transitioning away from carbon-intensive coal-fired power, marine and energy technology company Wärtsilä Energy Europe and Africa VP Kenneth Engblom has told Engineering News.

“Making such smart strategy decisions will lead to more resilient electricity systems and save billions of dollars in the process,” he said in a February 3 interview.

Engblom said Wärtsilä experts believed that, by 2030, the ideal energy mix in Africa would comprise a mix of flexible power plants based on internal combustion engines, large solar photovoltaic (PV) plants and storage solutions.

Wind and solar PV would complement one another well and, therefore, Engblom said an ideal system would incorporate both.

He said Africa needed cheap and reliable energy to support its developing economy. However, the continent suffered from poor electricity infrastructure despite increasing electricity demand.

Moreover, global pressure to decarbonise had further complicated matters.

The upside was that Africa was home to significant renewable energy resources, such as sun, wind and water. Engblom said that, owing to the lower cost of building renewable energy capacity and the low cost of operating such technologies, many African governments had adopted ambitious renewable energy targets.

While renewable energies provided cheap electricity – which should be maximised as much as possible – they were inherently intermittent. Moreover, the demand for electricity also varied widely throughout the day, Engblom explained.

“To maintain a balanced system, flexible forms of electricity must be available to ramp up output at the same rate that wind or solar output fluctuates. Systems need to respond across different timeframes, from seconds, to minutes,” he said.

In a grid with a high renewable quotient, gas engines would be the “ideal” technology to provide both the baseload and peaking capacity to meet fluctuating energy demand, as well as balance the fluctuating renewable energy production, Engblom explained.

“A lack of flexibility would incur a high indirect cost, as it would limit the amount of cheap renewable energy that can be economically integrated into the system,” he said.

Engblom believes that, using a hybrid approach, ambitious renewable objectives in Africa are not only achievable, but will also be optimal from a cost-system and grid stability point of view.

However, it would be conditional on electricity systems being balanced by a sufficient amount of flexible thermal and storage capacity to counterbalance the intermittence of renewable energy.

Studies conducted by Wärtsilä in Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and other countries globally – using advanced energy systems modelling – indicate that this strategy would provide efficiencies worth billions of dollars over the next few decades, he said.

Engblom said the most advanced African countries in terms of their decarbonisation journeys were South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya, which are all ramping up investments in renewable energy and decarbonisation.

Wärtsilä provides solutions in energy storage, engine-based power plants and hybrid power plants. The company also provides a range of support services, including lifecycle services such as operation and maintenance.

The company’s flexible engine power plants are capable of running on 100% synthetic and carbon-neutral methane and methanol. They are also capable of using hydrogen or natural gas blends containing up to 25% hydrogen. Engblom said the company was developing a pure hydrogen solution as well.

He said that, while some might decry the burning of natural gas – since it is still a fossil fuel that emits some carbon dioxide – it is much cleaner than coal.

Moreover, Engblom said that denying Africa the opportunity to use gas at a grid level would introduce instability to the grid,...

A consortium of South African and European experts will be developing new seismic, electromagnetic and magnetic methods for deep exploration targeting.

The project team includes researchers from universities, geological surveys, equipment manufacturers and mining companies from both continents and will support the exchange of knowledge and experiences across zones.

The consortium is made up of experts from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), gold miner Gold Fields, and the University of Venda, in conjunction with European counterparts, including Uppsala University in Sweden, Polito University in Italy, seismic equipment manufacturer Sercel in France, Swedish government agency Geological Survey of Sweden and Swedish iron-ore mining company Nordic Iron Ore.

In a statement issued by Wits earlier this week, it was claimed that the methodologies being developed would have “unprecedented penetration, sensitivity and resolution”.

The project aims to advance high-resolution imaging and modelling of the host rock and any mineralisation between tunnels and the surface, and in the down-dip direction.

Uppsala University's Professor Alireza Malehmir noted that the consortium would employ fibre-optic sensing technologies and unmanned aerial vehicle- (UAV-) based magnetic and electromagnetic surveys for high-definition target generation and subsurface imaging.

The project, named “Future: Fiber-optic sensing and UAV-platform techniques for innovative mineral exploration”, will start in April and will continue for about two years.

The project has a total budget of R21-million and will be funded by the South African Department of Science and Innovation, Swedish government agency Vinnova, the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research and the French National Agency for Research through pan-European research funding organisation network ERA-NET Confund on Raw Materials.

Wits said the discovery of new metal and mineral resources was necessary to supply raw materials for emerging technologies, and that these technologies were required to meet the public expectations and demand for higher living standards.

The university noted that the geological conditions of Africa and Europe suggest that various critical metals and minerals may be found in these regions, but that their discovery would require nondestructive, high-resolution and deep exploration techniques.

Wits Seismic Research Centre director and Future project leader Dr Musa Manzi said the project sought to develop innovative, environment-friendly and cost-effective technologies for deep exploration, primarily in the challenging mine environment.

EXPLORATION SITES

The Blötberget iron mine in Ludvika, Sweden, was identified as one of the two target sites for research owing to the wealth of information available from previous studies. The mine has significant iron-oxide deposits.

There continued to be high demand for iron-ore products in maturing economies – including Europe, Japan, China, Africa and, increasingly, in the Middle East and India, Wits said.

Higher iron-ore grades are needed to facilitate improvements in the automotive sector, the construction sector, as well as other demanding types of specialised infrastructure. Other technology developments are driving increased demand for sophisticated forms of steel.

The second site identified for research is Gold Fields’ South Deep mine, in Gauteng, where mining at depth increasingly requires an improved understanding of potential resources deep below surface and the relevant host rock structures.

At more than 2.5 km deep, South Deep is one of the deepest and largest gold-producing mines globally. Given the deep nature of the mining operation and the prevailing rock stress fields, the mine is geologically complex and subjected to comparatively high levels of mining-induced earthquakes.

Wits said South Deep was ideal because the Future project might improve the life of the mine by mapping the mineralisation between the surface and...