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JSE-listed Tharisa has signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MoU) with renewable energy independent power producer Total Eren and Africa-focused transitional energy company Chariot.

The MoU, which is a precursor to the signing of a long-term power purchase agreement for the supply of electricity on a take-or-pay basis, envisages the partners developing, financing, building, owning, operating and maintaining a solar photovoltaic project that will supply power to the Tharisa mine, on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex.

The plant is anticipated to initially provide 40 MW and will adequately cover the mine’s current energy requirements.

In September 2021, Tharisa outlined its commitment to reduce its carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 and become net carbon neutral by 2050.

The reduction in the use of grid power by the Tharisa mine will be accelerated through the implementation of this and other renewable energy projects.

"We are very pleased to be entering into this MoU with Tharisa. Through our partnership with Chariot, we are keen to assist mining companies in Africa to reduce their carbon intensity and energy costs, via implementing renewable power solutions into their operations,” says Total Eren business development global head and executive VP Fabienne Demol.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks Anglo American's low-cost renewables; Ubuntu principles in going green; and clean energy opportunities in Mpumalanga for the GreenCape organisation.

Failure to wholeheartedly embrace the generation of renewable energy is out-and-out business folly.

Anglo American and Engie made this perfectly clear on Thursday when they revealed that renewables come in at less than half the price of South Africa’s currently high-priced carbon-intensive power – which is set to rise even further this year.

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) CEO Natascha Viljoen, who is also the deputy chairperson of the Energy Council of South Africa, summed it up with these words: “The cost of renewables comes in at less than 50% of what we are currently paying for energy.”

On renewables’ intermittency, Engie thermal supply and hydrogen Africa MD Jonathan Debasc, outlined how hydrogen was able to assist significantly on the energy storage front by helping to solve the problem presented by a sun that did not always shine and a wind that did not always blow.

Viljoen emphasised, during the Business Day Dialogues webinar covered by Mining Weekly, the huge role that renewables and storage could play in slashing energy insecurity.

“I certainly think that we’re absolutely underestimating the value that renewables can have for us as a country,” said Viljoen, in reference to the economic stimulation that could be provided by stable and secure solar, wind and storage (SWS), which provided the opportunity to deliver near-zero-marginal-cost excess green energy.

The webinar once again brought home the crucial message that concentration on SWS had the power to reverse the huge opportunity loss that South Africa had suffered through load-shedding, as well as bring with it significantly lower electricity costs, while green hydrogen could be stored for deployment when needed.

Moreover, Amplats market development principal Fahmida Smith said the green Hydrogen Valley project being developed in Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal had the potential to contribute:

$4-billion to the gross domestic product of the South African economy;

$900-million to the fiscus in tax revenues;

14 000 jobs a year by 2050; and

invaluable increased demand for the platinum group metals, which South Africa hosts in abundance.

“There is huge opportunity for us as a country,” Smith emphasised.

Debasc, who leads the African division of a far-reaching global energy and services group, spoke of South Africa being “in a great space” for the hydrogen economy.

He rated South Africa’s sun and wind as being amongst the best in the world and on a par with those of Chile, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Given that 50% of the cost of the green hydrogen arose from the energy used to produce it placed South Africa in a very competitive position.

In addition, the thousands of square kilometres needed for renewable energy generation were available in abundance in South Africa.

“If you take only 1% of South Africa’s land, you can generate 10-million tonnes a year of hydrogen, which is also a competitive advantage,” said Debasc.

Moreover, South Africa’s overall hydrogen knowledge base was decades long and now needed to be applied to green hydrogen.

The country already had the assets and the people who knew how to manage it.

With the Hydrogen Valley being developed, close-proximity demand would be available for locally produced green hydrogen.

With those pillars, South Africa could eventually be transformed into an exporter of green hydrogen to those countries unable to generate their own green hydrogen.

“It’s a big opportunity,” said Debasc, who spoke of action having to be taken to respect the 1.5 °C global warming trajectory.

“Governments today are aiming at not only reducing the carbon footprint, but completely going to net zero. There are different dates, but they’re all aimed in the same direction,” said Debasc, who added that a similar pattern was evident in the independent power producer market in particular, where the share prices of companies that had managed to transition from coal and gas, and establish green footprints, were considerably higher.

The webinar w...

Diversified mining and marketing company Glencore has entered a battery recycling joint venture (JV) with strategic partner and battery pioneer Britishvolt, a UK battery cell technologies and research and development investor.

The JV will 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. BRM will continue with its current production and trading operations.

The project sees a return to recycling for BRM, securing existing jobs and creating new ones, Glencore stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Once complete, the plant will be Glencore and Britishvolt’s first battery recycling facility in the UK, with an expected processing capacity of a minimum of 10 000 t of lithium-ion batteries a year, including but not limited to valuable battery manufacturing scrap, portable electronics batteries and full electric vehicle packs.

The facility, which will process all Britishvolt’s battery manufacturing scrap from its Gigafactory 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.

The JV will leverage Glencore’s multi-decade recycling experience across end-of-life materials such as discarded electronics, copper/alloy scraps and black mass.

Both companies believe that battery recycling will form a key part of the energy transition, efficiently recovering the critical metals needed for the energy transition.

The bold aim, the media release stated, is to help support the creation of a genuinely circular economy that supplies recycled materials and minerals back into the battery supply chain.

Glencore head cobalt trader David Brocas expressed excitement at Glencore’s deepening partnership with Britishvolt, making the point that both companies are united in their ambition to further the energy and mobility transition.

Brocas spoke of Glencore’s decades of recycling experience across multiple disciplines such as electronic waste, copper scrap and batteries.

“This recycling partnership complements our long-term supply agreement for responsible cobalt from our operations in Norway and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he said.

Expressing the belief that the opportunity to use BRM’s operations as a cutting-edge battery recycling would help to support the development of the UK battery recycling industry, he said it would also play a part in furthering UK’s climate change ambitions “as well as Glencore’s, as we work towards net zero total emissions by 2050”.

Britishvolt global COO Timon Orlob stated that the “exciting project” added much to his company’s existing relationship with Glencore involving the supply responsibly-sourced cobalt.

“Recycling is key to a successful energy transition and has always been a major part of Britishvolt’s business model. We’ve been looking for the perfect partner to help kick start a UK battery recycling industry and FTSE 100-listed Glencore has expert historical experience in recycling. This JV will help us both to create a truly sustainable battery value-chain, create jobs and develop new battery recycling technologies,” said Orlob, who emphasised the full commitment of both companies to reducing carbon across the supply chain.

The partnership also aims to research how to make the recycling of electric vehicle batteries easier and more cost effective, maximising their supply chain value and influencing legislation, including increasing regulation of recycling and environmental social and governance requirements.

It will also allow Britishvolt to assist its original equipment manufacturer customers on their path to sustainability, by offering hedging opportunities against swings in raw materials prices.

The media release stated that Britishvolt’s Gigaplant wo...

Diversified mining and marketing company on Wednesday reported 43% higher ferrochrome production in its full year 2021 production report.

The South Africa-centred ferrochrome output rose from 1 029 000 t in 2020 to 1 468 000 t in 2021.

Also up was oil output, which was 34% higher, 20% more coking coal was produced totalling 9.1-million tonnes, and cobalt was 14% up at 31 300 t.

Otherwise, the outputs of all other commodities were down, including overall coal being 3% lower, copper declining by 5%, zinc down 4%, lead down 14%, nickel 7% down, gold 12% down and silver4% down.

Glencore CEO Gary Nagle described the 2021 operating environment as remaining challenging, with the Covid-19 pandemic again dominating the daily lives of many colleagues, families, local communities and society at large.

“As a responsible operator, our top priority is to protect the safety and health of our people and the communities that host our businesses. Maintaining production in 2021 became increasingly important as many of our products, so crucial for decarbonisation, energy supply and industrial output, saw higher levels of demand.

“Overall, our operations largely performed in line with guidance expectations. We completed the Cerrejón acquisition and Ernest Henry disposal in January, such transactions being consistent with our continued strategy to simplify and align our portfolio with the materials needed for the energy transition and the responsible decline of our coal business,” Nagle stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Own sourced copper production of 1 195 700 t was 62 400 t lower than 2020 owing mainly to the disposal of Mopani (23 800 t), lower copper grades at Antapaccay (14 800 t) and lower copper by-products from Glencore’s mature zinc and nickel mines (26 600 t).

Own sourced cobalt production of 31 300 t was 3 900 t higher than 2020 due to the limited restart of production at Mutanda mine in 2021. Mutanda, a large opencast copper/cobalt mine in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was closed temporarily in November 2019.

Own sourced zinc production of 1 117 800 t was 52 600 t lower reflecting mainly the decline of Maleevsky mine in Kazakhstan, being lagged by the slower than expected ramp-up of replacement Zhairem mine tonnage of 19 600 t; Mount Isa producing additional metal from ore stockpile drawdowns in the base period (24 400 t); and Kidd lower grades at Kidd (13 800 t). These factors were partly offset by stronger zinc production at Antamina, which was suspended for part of 2020 owing to Covid restrictions.

Nickel production of 102.300 t was 7 900 t lower than in 2020, mainly due to the lengthy scheduled statutory shutdown and maintenance issues at Murrin Murrin earlier in the year.

Attributable ferrochrome production was 439 000 t higher owing to South Africa’s national lockdown in the prior year, and a strong operating performance.

Coal production of 103.3-million tonnes was 2.9-million tonnes lower, reflecting Prodeco’s care-and-maintenance status and lower domestic power demand/export rail capacity constraints in South Africa, offset by higher production at Cerrejón, following a Covid suspension and strike in 2020.

Oil entitlement interest production of 5.3 million boe was 1.3 million boe higher mainly owing to commencement of the gas phase of the Alen project in Equatorial Guinea. There was no production from the Chad fields in 2021.

In early January 2022, Glencore completed the acquisition of the two-thirds of Cerrejon which it did not already own. The Ernest Henry copper mine disposal was completed in early January.

Deutsche Bank Research analysts described Glencore’s fourth-quarter production as being slightly softer than expected, and full-year production as being at the bottom end of guidance for each division. Although production guidance had been left unchanged, the analysts expressed the view that the bottom end of guidance appeared the more realistic scenario given supply chain issues.

Edi...

An organisation which is providing un-electrified informal settlements with clean, green solar power in the Western Cape – in Ubuntu-hearted fashion – has begun to investigate just transition opportunities in Mpumalanga, where South Africa’s coal-mining and coal-fired power is facing eventual phase-out.

The organisation, GreenCape, assists businesses, academia and government to overcome investment and job creation challenges in the green economy space, along with its Alternate Service Delivery Unit (ASDU).

ASDU, which has already shown community-intensive Ubuntu-hearted solar-power success on two un-electrified sites occupied by 3 000 informal settlers in Cape Town, is now taking steps to play similar roles in areas such as Mpumalanga that are needing to transition to combat climate change, the most pressing problem facing humanity. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

On two informal sites in Cape Town, users of the solar power masterminded by ASDU, pay as little as R50 a month for three internal home lights, phone charging, small direct current appliances such as radios and torches ­– and they can potentially add a television set to the service bundle as well. All of this is co-designed by the communities themselves.

A process was conducted to understand how much people could afford and how much they were paying for alternatives, for example, R5 for a candle that lasted one night.

In a week, some were paying R35 just for candles, and still having to pay for paraffin plus everything else demanded by harsh informal economy living. Currently, 85% of those receiving the solar power are able to pay regularly, a percentage that was far higher pre-Covid.

The solar projects, started by Airports Company South Africa, the owner of the land on which squatters had settled informally, is not a hand-out.

“The communities also have to contribute. They don't have to exchange any money with the service providers. They go to their nearest Shoprite and pay for their monthly allocation as they would for airtime,” ASDU project manager Reshmi Wolvers told Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview.

GreenCape, into which ASDU fits, is a development agency that is working towards removing the barriers to the growth of a green economy.

It straddles the energy, water and sanitation, waste and circular economy sectors.

From typical role of assisting businesses, academia and government to overcome challenges being faced to either investment or job creation potential in the green economy space, GreenCape has recently also ventured into the space of remedying poor service delivery from a green economy perspective.

The ASDU is a data-driven, community-led off-grid service delivery unit established to design, facilitate and manage the provision of tailored service models to unserviced or unserviceable communities on behalf of specific stakeholders like private land owners or even municipalities that need help with servicing some of the communities.

“We co-design with these communities to understand what their preference and needs are and then work with them to choose the right intervention including using an alternative approach to energy,” Wolvers explained

“It’s really a partnership between the funders, service providers and the communities,” she said.

Now ASSD is starting to investigate just transition in Mpumalanga, where it sees many communities powered by mining companies.

“When the mines leave Mpumalanga and local authorities are unable to step in to take care of them, who will? So, there are really some exciting opportunities to include communities in that just energy transition as well,” said Wolvers, who manages the Mpumalanga energy teams.

Despite South Africa’s significant coal resources, there are “binding constraints” impacting on the future growth of the coal industry – an issue Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says is the coal mining industry’s issue to solve.

Speaking at the Coal Colloquium, held at the Council for Geoscience in Pretoria on February 1, he rallied coal producers to band together in tackling constraints within the coal value chain; which, if left unattended, “will result in the stagnation and ultimately the shrinking of the coal industry”.

“It is no secret that the coal mining industry is faced with serious challenges arising mainly from the downstream side in the use of coal, which is energy generation,” said Mantashe.

He stated that, domestically, coal would continue to play a role in developing an economic energy mix, as well as sustaining steel and cement industries. “But, its use will eventually decline as nations and businesses strive to reduce their environmental impact and abide by climate policies.”

As such, to ensure South Africa did not phase out coal, Mantashe said the coal sector must map out, clearly, an engagement strategy in the national interest, which will enable it to “speak with many voices, but one message”.

Further, he said global ambitions to phase out coal should not be applicable to South Africa because “global energy transition discourse is determined solely by what works in the advanced economies” – a case often playing out at conferences such as COP26.

At such events, Mantashe said, advanced economies asserted their own trajectory on the energy transition, often seemingly failing to recognise developing economies’ predicaments.

That said, he urged that South African coal mining companies should naturally be concerned about the downstream use of coal and how they can find technologies and innovations to help move from high carbon emissions to lower levels as part of a just energy transition.

Mantashe noted that the South African government ratified the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on November 4, 2016 – a signal then, that the government was committed to addressing the challenge of climate change.

In this regard, he alluded that it was difficult to meet Paris Agreement obligations because South Africa’s coal sector contributes about 80% of the country’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with 50% of such emissions stemming from electricity generation and liquid fuel production.

“While, as a country, we are committed to combatting climate change as a consequence of burning coal in power stations, we have three major factors to consider pertinent to our national realities,” explained Mantashe.

Firstly, he said, South Africa is highly endowed with coal and, secondly, it is highly dependent on coal for its baseload electricity generation.

“Thirdly, the coal mining and energy generation industries not only bring massive revenue but also employ thousands of employees. The critical question then becomes how can we respond to these national realities? This is what the energy transition discourse and programme must engage with,” stated Mantashe.

All things considered, he said that, as a significant component in South Africa’s economy and considering the value of the commodity, the South African government “intends to introduce interventions that will not sterilise the development of its coal resources”.

Instead, Mantashe said any new coal-fired power projects “would be based on high-efficiency, low-emission technologies and other cleaner coal technologies”, coupled with underground coal gasification, fluidised bed combustion and the development of carbon capture and storage.

Other plans in place to tackle emissions and help South Africa achieve its climate change mitigation commitment include the carbon tax, carbon budgeting system and compulsory GHG emissions reporting, he said.

Aim-listed platinum group metals (PGMs) miner Sylvania Platinum’s dump operations achieved a 5% quarter-on-quarter increase in production to 16 605 oz of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (4E) for the quarter ended December 31 – the second quarter of its 2022 financial year.

A 5% increase in PGMs recovery efficiency, as flotation stability improved during the period, contributed towards the 5% higher PGMs ounce production.

While the plant feed head grades increased marginally compared with the first quarter, the PGMs plant feed grade and PGM plant feed tonnes remained consistent quarter-on-quarter.

Direct operating cash costs per 4E ounce decreased by 6% in rand terms and 10% in dollar terms quarter-on-quarter, to R11.91/oz and $772/oz, respectively; while the average rand:dollar exchange rate depreciated by 5% during the quarter.

During the period, Sylvania incurred capital expenditure of R66-million ($4.3-million), which is aligned with planned capital project schedules and includes the new Lesedi tailings facility, the Doornbosch tailings facility and the roll-out of the Lesedi secondary milling and flotation circuit (MF2).

Sylvania’s revenue increased by 10% during the period under review, to $32.2-million, as a result of the 5% increase in production and the 5% depreciation in the rand:dollar exchange rate, while net revenue (including base metals and by-products), and the quarter-on-quarter sales adjustment increased by 27%.

CEO Jaco Prinsloo says the company’s net revenue increased to $37.9-million, while net profit increased by 80% to $15.5-million, with the PGMs basket price realised from Sylvania’s smelters being $2 892/oz remaining at similar levels as in the first quarter.

Sylvania notes that the average gross basket price for the second quarter was $2 892/oz against the $2 897/oz of the first quarter, but is significantly lower than the $4 576/oz and $4 059/oz prices received in the third and fourth quarters of the 2021 financial year, respectively.

This consequently resulted in a lower-than-originally-planned basket price.

Sylvania’s group cash costs for its 4E basket decreased by 6% in rand value, from R13 674/oz to R12 844/oz, while in dollar terms, it decreased by 11%, from $934/oz in the first quarter to $832/oz in the second quarter.

As such, group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased from $13.6-million to $22.3-million, while net profit increased from $8.6-million to $15.5-million as a result of the increase in output.

The group’s cash balance decreased by 17%, from $132.7-million to $110.1-million during the period under review, as a result of the decrease in cash quarter-on-quarter.

The company paid the yearly dividend of $14.6-million, provisional income and royalty taxes of R163.3-million ($10.2-million) and R42.6-million ($2.7-million), respectively, during the period.

The group spent $4.3-million on capital for the second quarter which included the new Lesedi and Doornbosch tailings disposal facilities and the Lesedi MF2 projects.

“Our capital projects remain fully funded from current cash reserves and we are making significant progress in terms of access to additional chrome tailings resources at both the Eastern and Western operations,” Prinsloo says.

OPERATIONS

To safeguard the Lesedi tailings facility, reduce the water level and load, and resume partial production at the operation, Lesedi commenced with hydro-mining of the affected tailings dam facility in the second quarter.

However, owing to the nature of the temporary emergency tailings deposition facility and the difficulty in recovering return water from it, combined with general water shortages in the area, the operation has not been able to ramp up to normal production levels yet. Consequently, Lesedi produced about 1 500 oz less than anticipated for the period.

Nonetheless, the commissioning this month of a new water supply from additionally installed boreholes, will mitigate water shortages, whil...

Subsidiary of JSE- and NYSE-listed Sibanye-Stillwater – Sibanye Rustenburg Platinum Mines (Rustenburg operation) – has entered into an agreement with Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) subsidiary – Rustenburg Platinum Mines (RPM) – in which the Rustenburg operation will assume full ownership of the low-cost, mechanised Kroondal operation.

This transaction, although valued at R1, also comes with ownership of the Marikana pool-and-share agreement (PSA) and any associated mine closure and rehabilitation liabilities and costs for Kroondal. These costs are currently estimated to be about R415-million.

The transaction facilitates a life-of-mine extension for the Kroondal operation to 2029.

Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman says the agreement will accelerate the extraction of more remote parts of the Rustenburg operation’s orebody, sustain employment for more than 2 500 people until 2029 and ensure the creation of significant value for all stakeholders in the region.

The Kroondal operation is subject to a 50:50 PSA between Kroondal Operations (a 100%-held subsidiary of Sibanye) and RPM, the latter acquiring its interest in the Kroondal PSA following its acquisition of Aquarius Platinum in 2016.

Sibanye currently operates the Kroondal operation, which is located adjacent to, and up-dip of Sibanye’s Rustenburg operation and the shallow Klipfontein openpit operation.

By the end of 2020, certain shafts at the Kroondal operation had reached the boundaries of the Kroondal PSA lease area. To enable the affected shafts to continue operating, with effect from January, a contractor mining agreement was agreed between the PSA parties and the Rustenburg operation, providing for the mining of the Rustenburg operation using Kroondal’s infrastructure – otherwise known as the contractor agreement.

As a result, Amplats will generate cash flows from its 50% share of Kroondal’s 1.35-million ounces earlier (by the end of 2023), at a lower cost of production (after enhancing the mine plan to extract the resource from both the Kroondal and Rustenburg mining right areas) and under the pre-­existing Kroondal purchase of concentrate terms.

Thereafter, Amplats will exit its interest in the PSAs, transferring all assets and liabilities to Sibanye, with no outstanding economic interest in the Kroondal mining operation.

Going forward, Amplats will continue to process the concentrate produced from the Kroondal concentrators until 2026 under the toll-and-­purchase agreement with Sibanye, which was concluded as part of the Rustenburg disposal transaction of 2016.

The latest agreement permits immediate exploitation of parts of the Rustenburg operation’s orebody, which would otherwise only have been mined from the existing Rustenburg operation’s infrastructure sometime in the future. Therefore, the agreement facilitates the early conversion of a portion of the Rustenburg operation’s mineral resources into reserves and extending the life of the Kroondal operation.

The implementation of the transaction is subject to fulfilling three key conditions precedent, including delivering 1.35-million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (4E) by the Kroondal operation to RPM’s designated smelters through the mining of both the Kroondal PSA orebody and the Rustenburg operation’s orebody, as well as the Klipfontein openpit operation.

The 1.35-million ounces of 4E will be delivered in accordance with the terms of the current Kroondal PSA and the current Kroondal purchase of concentrate (PoC) agreement with RPM. This condition precedent is expected to be fulfilled early in 2024.

Thirdly, the transaction requires regulatory approvals, including Competition Commission approval and Section 11 consent in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act for the transfer of the mining right, currently held by RPM, to Sibanye’s Rustenburg operation.

On completion of the transaction, the PSAs with Amplats will be terminated and Sibanye (through the Rustenburg operation), wi...

In decarbonising and going green, South Africa needs to embrace the principles of Ubuntu and show humanity towards others.

That view was expressed by Gold Fields South Africa executive VP Martin Preece during the 'Decarbonisation & Going Green in the Mining Sector' webinar hosted by Creamer Media on January 28.

“Maybe the biggest priority for us as a country is to move from a position of what’s in it for me to what’s in it for us,” said Preece.

Abel Sakhau, the climate change and sustainability strategist of Exxaro Resources, also raised the question of the position of junior miners who may not have the financial muscle of the bigger companies and the need to take these companies into account.

At the same time, he expressed strong confidence that coal and renewables company Exxaro would reach carbon neutrality by 2050 through doing what it already has under way through its renewables company Cennergi and on the action taken with its minerals business.

“It’s not going to be easy but we are determined that with the actions we’re taking and the plans that we have, we’ll get there,” said Sakhau.

Minerals Council South Africa environment, health and legacies senior executive Nikisi Lesufi emphasised the importance of the removal of regulatory bottlenecks to enable mining companies to decarbonise and go green.

“The most important thing is to remove the bottlenecks in terms of mining companies being able to generate their own power supplies, because that first reduces their carbon footprint but secondly reduces the burden on Eskom, and therefore releases scope for other economies to be developed. In other words, it ticks the box of advancing the growth of South Africa’s economy.

“When we have operational excellence from an energy security perspective, we also give the country an opportunity for economic growth. Our engagement with Eskom, Transnet, DMRE, Infrastructure and the Presidency is basically to remove most of the red tape. You need a supportive policy and regulatory environment,” said Lesufi, who advocated the Vulindlela template and a 'fire brigade' to dealing with these issues.

Precious metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater energy and decarbonisation manager and industry association Energy Intensive Users Group chairperson Jevon Martin said he could say confidently on Sibanye’s behalf that the company would reach carbon neutrality by 2040.

“We’ve done a huge amount of work in understanding our carbon profile, the technologies that we need to deploy and the market mechanisms.

“We do recognise there are going to be some hard-to-abate emissions towards the tail end of our journey and on that basis, you need to create offset opportunities to neutralise them.

“There is always going to be a portion of hard-to-abate emissions. You won't get away from that. That’s a reality, but you just need to factor that into your planning and costing to show you’ve addressed it,” said Martin.

These comments were made in response to facilitator PwC energy and infrastructure strategy lead James Mackay enquiring how trust and partnerships with government could be built up to move forward at a faster pace “because, really, speed is of the essence”.

“The reality is that we’re not getting there quickly enough,” said Mackay.