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The goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change are best achieved through the circular economy, says diversified mining and marketing company Glencore, which sees recycling as being a significant means for relieving the growing burden that global decarbonisation is set to place on finite raw materials.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed company, headed by CEO Gary Nagle, views narrowing the gap between global resource use and recycling as being essential to minimise climate impacts on the world. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Glencore, which has recycled more than a million tonnes of electronic scrap since the 1990s, has smelting and refining assets that allow a wide range of recyclable materials to be processed, especially end-of-life electronics, batteries and battery metals.

The company stated during its 2021 investor update, covered by Mining Weekly, that it is targeting a step-change in its recycling capabilities over the next five years through a larger global capacity in its core and new markets.

The company mentioned its help with the launch of the Circular Electronics Partnership and its work with the industry and governments to improve circularity in electronics and batteries.

New technologies to recycle more complex materials in a safe and sustainable manner are also being tested.

“We aim to be a leader in the circular economy and will leverage our marketing business to help our customers decarbonise their supply chains,” the company stated on a slide.

In addition, the vast majority of Glencore’s capital expenditure is allocated to metals that enable the transition to a greener world. Copper features the most prominently by far in the company’s growth pipeline that includes cobalt, nickel and zinc.

RENEWABLE ENERGY, HYDROGEN FUEL CELL FLEET

As a vertically integrated producer of metals, consumption of electricity by its smelting assets is a key decarbonisation focus, with a shift to renewable energy in grids where viable and the investigation of best options for on-site renewables for off-grid assets.

The carbon reductants drive the largest Scope 1 footprint, though the downstream processing into final metal products are harder to abate and require new processing technologies such as hydrogen.

As diesel is also a large contributor to Scope 1 emissions, the company will assess fleet electrification opportunities at assets connected to grids with renewable energy, supplemented by battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell fleet as they become commercially available, expected towards the end of this decade

“The responsible decline of our coal assets will also materially reduce diesel and fugitive emissions,” Glencore stated.

Glencore’s business case includes these aspects:

commodity solutions that support the journey to net zero through production, recycling, sourcing, marketing and distribution.

an asset portfolio focused on larger, longer-life operations.

a marketing business that includes a carbon and power strategy that provides carbon solutions within the commodity supply chain.

commodity and geographic diversity of production, marketing and recycling, all of which provide resilience and cash generation.

Marketing’s carbon strategy is expected to create additional value over time as demand for carbon solutions in the commodity supply chain evolves.

Revealed during 2021 Investor Update and media conference were Glencore’s involvement in:

reducing Scope 3 emissions by prioritising investment in green metals and decisively reducing its coal production over time.

producing, recycling, sourcing, marketing and distributing commodities needed by its customers to decarbonise, while simultaneously reducing its own Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

embracing a just transition away from coal and planning renewables for its ferrochrome production in South Africa.

recycling end-of-life electronics, batteries and battery metals in current and new markets.

The withdrawal of a portion of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) has created a major challenge for mineral exploration in South Africa, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) co-sponsored exploration webinar highlighted on Thursday.

Taking part in the panel discussion under moderator and seasoned geologist Dr John Bristow were IDC mining, metals, and beneficiation head Thabiso Sekano, IDC head of mining and metals, infrastructure and energy Reginald Demana, Minerals Council South Africa junior and emerging miners' leadership forum chairperson and Orion Minerals CEO Errol Smart, JSE origination and deals head Sam Morokosi and AmaranthCX director Paul Miller. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Raised during the debate was that the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) introduced international best practice by placing privately held mineral rights under the custodianship of the State so that these rights could be made available to anyone who met the licensing conditions to licence.

But the webinar hears that this freeing up mineral rights has been reversed by NEMA, which has now placed these rights under the control of the surface rights owner and permission of the surface rights owner is required to make an environmental impact assessment application for the prospecting rights.

In this way, surface rights owners now control access to the mineral rights and can negotiate their commercial terms and a major benefit of the MPRDA, which led to considerable junior mining uptake in South Africa prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, has been undone.

“Before you can put foot on the ground to see what’s there, you’ve got to agree the compensation terms with the farmer who owns the land. So what’s happened? We’ve completely wasted the what the MPRDA was all about,” said Smart, who made a call was made for all government Ministries to work together to promote mineral exploration.

Bristow, who is credited with developing a unique micromineral (perovskite) age-dating technique at the Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES), Australian National University, Canberra, with Hugh Allsopp (Bernard Price Institute, University of the Witwatersrand) and Bill Compston (RSES) in the 1980s, courtesy of De Beers, spoke of the need for greenfield exploration down to unlock “the amazing jewel box of deposits that South Africa still has”.

“I think we are delinquent if we don't actually get back to proper exploration and try and liberate some of these smaller deposits. Exploration creates new capital, infrastructure and most of all it creates jobs,” said Bristow.

Miller emphasised that public market development to attract funding for exploration and incentives must stimulate both exploration and participation in the development of South Africa’s public markets.

While most prospecting licences issues do not discover mines, they do generate knowledge that needs to be curated.

“The payback for the State for the people of South Africa should be that the knowledge is then collected and turned over to the next person who wants to have a look,” said Miller.

Demana expressed confidence that a fund with critical mass could be developed and channelled into exploration funding. He also acknowledged the promising engagement under way to unlock the regulatory and policy issues and the efforts being made by the JSE to open and educate markets to exploration.

Sekano spoke of the IDC being well positioned as an experienced funder, with one of its core competencies being the conducting of due diligences.

“We’re experienced in assessing businesses for funding opportunities,” he said, adding that the IDC was looking at an opportunity to crowd fund an exploration fund that can be used for any stage exploration.

“Our commitment is to ensure that this fund happens, to ensure from our side that we can use our BEE-facilitator status, ensure that we can bring the DMRE to the party, and talk to people like Errol to bring the i...

Diamond miner De Beers Group’s $2.2-billion Venetia Underground Project (VUP) is nearing 54% completion.

The VUP is designed to transition the mine from an openpit to an underground operation and, in so doing, extend the mine life by 23 years to 2046.

At steady-state production, 5.9-million tonnes of ore will be treated through the existing process plant to produce about 4.5-million carats of diamonds a year.

While the miner’s budget and targets were set in place before the Covid-19 pandemic, VUP project director Allan Rodel says the miner’s site team has “done a fantastic job” in recovering some of the losses experienced over the last two years.

The VUP is now targeting first production by late 2022 as it is tracking well against the post-Covid forecast. It is also expected to remain within budget.

However, over the course of the last 18 months, Rodel says, the VUP has achieved a 280% improvement in mining development rates.

The miner is now targeting to double the development rates at the top-of-mine within the next 12 months, while the bottom-of-mine is targeted to double capacity within the next nine months. This, Rodel explains, will enable first production in the fourth quarter of 2022 and a ramp-up to full production from 2024 onwards.

First production at VUP is targeted for December 2022, says VUP senior site manager Andre Trytsman.

The underground infrastructure comprises two vertical shaft systems for personnel transport, ore transport, routing of services, and lateral access to levels on the 54L, 91L and 94L stations for the services shaft and 100L station for the production shaft.

Once in operation, Venetia’s two kimberlite pipes (K01 and K02) will have fully transitioned from openpit to underground operations. However, the K02 openpit is already depleted and the K01 pit should conclude surface mining in late 2022, thereby accommodating a smooth changeover to the underground mine.

For now, both pipes at VUP will be mined using a sublevel cave method.

K01 – a sizeable orebody measuring 550 m x 120 m – will be responsible for the majority of production, generating an average of 3.5-million carats from about 4.5-million tonnes a year of material.

The K02 orebody – measuring 200 m x 300 m – will provide the balance, producing about one-million carats from 1.5-million tonnes to 2.5-million tonnes a year of material.

Both orebodies will be accessed through two vertical shafts, blind sunk to a depth of 1 065 m; however, there are indications that K01, in particular, extends well below 1 000 m, and De Beers may explore options that extend the underground operation’s life beyond 2046.

The service shaft has a finished internal diameter of 7 m and will eventually provide all the services and people transport to the underground workings, while the production shaft, also with a finished internal diameter of 7 m, will be fitted with two rock winders, each having two 24 t payload skips.

Both the service and production shafts will serve as downcast air intakes to the underground workings, while a decline and pit ramp will assist with early underground access for the construction of the production infrastructure for K01 and K02, which will be developed concurrently to the vertical shafts.

They will also serve as an additional air intakes and logistical access points, which VUP says will mitigate the immediate requirement for the use of the shafts for ground handling.

De Beers contracted Murray & Roberts Cementation (MRC) to sink the shafts for the underground project. The contractor used what is now known as the presink gantry methodology.

Overall, VUP will undertake 61.5 km of initial excavations as part of the expansion project, as well as a further 177 km of excavations over the remainder of the underground life-of-mine.

The surface infrastructure, which includes change houses, a heat tolerance testing centre, a lamp room, a proto room, a control room, winder houses, workshops, warehouses, ventilation systems and a state-of-t...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks:

Anglo American is urging the use of renewables to cut carbon and create hydrogen and then using that hydrogen to replace diesel.

South Deep will increase its 40 MW solar power project to 50 MW after it procured more efficient solar panels.

Impala Platinum is acquiring a further 7.39-million Royal Bafokeng Platinum shares, bringing its total shareholding in RBPlat to 31.94%.

Diversified miner Exxaro Resources expects demand for export coal to remain strong amid constrained global supply.

FD Riaan Koppeschaar said in a pre-close message to shareholders on December 2 that high gas prices and expected cold weather in the northern hemisphere would continue to drive stable demand for coal.

South African coal miners, including Exxaro, would, however, continue to struggle with the evacuation of coal destined for the export market, as a result of challenges with railing coal to ports.

The lower rail performance would also continue to put pressure on the domestic coal market, as a result of the availability of increased volumes.

“As previously communicated, rail performance has put strain on the mining value chain and impacted our ability to produce coal at desired levels,” he noted.

He lamented that the poor rail performance continued to impact on domestic coal markets, exacerbating high stock levels at the mines.

In the year-to-date, the miner’s coal operations were influenced by international coal prices having reached an all-time high amid constrained supply, as gas prices saw a substantial increase that supported the switch to coal, further driving the increase in demand for coal.

The ongoing political tension between China and Australia has resulted in China exploring different supply options, including South Africa. While China has reacted negatively to the current high pricing, it does appear that prices will remain strong as the northern hemisphere braces itself for a cold winter.

In contrast, Exxaro experienced poor demand from India as affordability has become a crucial factor.

Domestic market demand for power station coal also remains depressed as Eskom remains well supplied with average stock of about 48 days, which is significantly higher than its minimum requirement of 20 days, Koppeschaar said.

Production at the Mpumalanga commercial mines is expected to be 18% lower than previous guidance, mainly owing to Mafube and Leeuwpan being impacted by lower rail performance, with Leeuwpan further impacted by market constraints and the Exxaro Coal Central disposal in September, offset by higher production at Belfast where export sales product was diverted to the local market.

Exxaro expects its export sales volumes for the year to end December 31 to be 13% lower than previous guidance, mainly as a result of the rail constraints.

Metallurgical coal production is anticipated to decrease by 16% owing to poor rail performance, and coal buy-ins are expected to be in line with previous guidance.

Metallurgical coal sales are expected to decrease by 12% from previous guidance, owing to lower rail performance negatively impacting the offtake from ArcelorMittal South Africa.

“The poor rail performance's effect on domestic and export flows is most alarming and it is continuing to negatively impact on our ability to move coal to customers and ports, resulting in lower than previously guided sales volumes in the export and domestic markets,” Koppeschaar stressed.

As a result, the guidance now includes four-million tonnes being at risk, compared with the three-million tonnes reported in August, bringing the original 11.6-million tonnes export guidance for the full year down to 7.5-million tonnes.

Transnet Freight Rail has railed 48.4-million tonnes of coal to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal from January to the end of October, which Koppeschaar said was equivalent to an annualised tempo of 58.8-million tonnes a year.

As a result, the performance from Grootegeluk has dropped from seven trains a week in 2020 to four trains a week in the year-to-date.

The Mpumalanga export rail performance dropped from 25 trains a week in 2020 to 15 trains a week for the period from January to October.

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has approved and availed R100-million in funding to assist in closing the different funding model gaps in South Africa’s exploration sector.

In collaboration with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), it is working towards the establishment of a fund that will, in particular, help to overcome the funding issues experienced by this sector.

The fund is still awaiting black economic empowerment facilitator status, which the IDC is hopeful will be finalised by the second quarter of next year.

Once the fund is in place, the IDC will be involved in all stages of funding, from prefeasibility study to the bankability stage of a project.

The IDC is also aiming to increase the available funding to R300-million at a later stage, so that these funds can be used “for a variety of early-stage exploration opportunities that may exist in South Africa”, IDC mining, metals and beneficiation head Thabiso Sekano said during a webinar on December 2.

These opportunities, he added, have the potential to unlock additional opportunities, particularly in the employment and foreign exchange earnings space.

While a good initiative, change would not happen overnight, said Minerals Council South Africa junior and emerging miners' leadership forum chairperson Errol Smart, who is also the CEO of Orion Minerals.

A conducive regulatory environment would be key to creating an environment wherein explorers and investors could operate, he noted.

This is a frustration known to many in the industry, as the current environment is often characterised by talk, rather than action, and government departments working in silos to address a particular problem.

“It’s not easy when you’re dealing with the government and the DMRE, and while we have come a long way, we also need to find each other,” he said, noting that the biggest frustration was often found in the solution being known, but that “nothing is actually happening to make the solution happen”.

Once a working and conducive regulatory environment is in place, Smart is confident that investors will “have trust in investing in exploration” within South African borders, leading to “the whole game just kicking in and moving”.

Getting to this point, however, is the challenge, he stressed.

Talking to junior mining specifically, JSE origination and deals head Sam Morokosi said junior miners in exploration, specifically, “are subject to two challenges”.

Firstly, there is a worrying trend in small cap companies (a category applicable to junior miners) delisting from stock exchanges like the JSE, which Morokosi said was the backdrop to regulatory, exploration and valuation challenges these miners experience.

“We’ve been engaging with government on some of the things that could make it easier [and] that could attract this kind of exploration,” he said, highlighting that the JSE was considering employing similar methods as the TSX, which is considered “a global leader in listing exploration companies”.

Additionally, Morokosi said the JSE was looking at what was "within its control” in the sense of cutting red tape in the listing requirements that made "life unnecessarily difficult without adding value to the broader ecosystem”.

The JSE is also considering some of the liquidity challenges within the small cap space, with one of the options being the potential issuing of exchange-traded funds.

AmaranthCX director Paul Miller, however, stressed that the problems with mineral exploration in South Africa “need to be diagnosed correctly” in that regulations such as the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the Mining Charter “have not worked for exploration”.

Miller referred to statistics showing South Africa accounted for 5% of 2004’s global exploration – a number that has significantly decreased to 0.76% this year.

Miller stressed that the industry’s demise was owing to a combination of “bad policy and poor administration”.

“It’s exasperating to think th...

Use renewables to cut carbon and create hydrogen, and then use the hydrogen that has been created to replace diesel.

Anglo American CE Mark Cutifani proposed this climate blueprint while also outlining his London- and Johannesburg-listed mining company’s entry into crop nutrients that can free up land for carbon sinks.

The Anglo American CE was speaking during a GlobeScan climate webinar in which United Nations special climate action envoy Mark Carney and Shell Foundation chairperson Gail Klintworth also took part.

Cutifani used copper as an example of mining’s need to slash its consumption of energy and water.

“In the last 100 years, energy consumption to produce a pound of copper has gone up by a multiple of 16 times, and we use twice as much water to produce that same pound of copper today as well,” Cutifani said during the event covered by Mining Weekly.

“For us to really change our competitive position and do better, we’ve got to change the energy and water dynamic and mines have to be far more productive in terms of what we produce,” said Cutifani.

Climate change, he said, not only provided mining with an addition to its own burning ambition to change, but the world around it also understands its need to change and everything has now come down to how such change should be brought about.

Not only did mining have power plays to improve its own competitive position but the world had also given it the opportunity to change without being questioned on the need to do so.

“That opportunity for me is the most significant opportunity you can ever get, and you don’t get those opportunities very often in business,” said Cutifani.

He said mined products were required everywhere and described mining as a key player in the global energy transition.

Moreover, the crop nutrients Anglo was producing would help to improve agricultural productivity.

“Don’t forget, agriculture takes up 50% of the world’s land in producing food and the fertiliser products we produce can double agricultural productivity.,” he said.

Without mining, the world would not be able to free up enough land to create the carbon sinks required.

Based on the new processes and technical designs, he expressed the belief that Anglo could take 30% out of its energy consumption by 2030.

“We also believe in committing to renewables and by taking up investment opportunities, we can take ourselves into renewable energy, and by developing new hydrogen-consuming trucks and loaders, we can continue to improve our footprint by using renewable energy to create hydrogen and then using hydrogen to replace diesel,” Cutifani said.

The rights issue that Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Sable Exploration and Mining is to undertake at R1 a share will be followed immediately by a transaction at R5 a share, giving an immediate fivefold uplift to the shareholders of the company.

This follows mining company Magni Investment Holdings announcing its intention to acquire a majority stake in Sable Exploration and Mining – formerly Middle East Diamond Resources – and its subsidiaries.

“We’re proceeding with a R50-million rights issue at R1 per share and we’re acquiring these assets at R5 per share so there is an immediate uplift for shareholders who follow their rights in the first part of the transaction,” Sable Exploration and Mining CEO James Allan told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview.

“For Magni, this deal unlocks value and accelerates growth for us – a medium-sized commodity player in South Africa,” a Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) notice quoted Magni co-founder Ellington Nxumalo as saying.

It further quoted Magni co-founder Aubrey Chauke as adding that the company’s mandate is to invest in broadly inclusive and commercially sound businesses that drive sustainable growth and social transformation, while delivering shareholder returns.

With its diversified commodities portfolio, Magni aims to enlist some of this portfolio into Sable to enable growth, sustainable value and better returns for investors, SENS stated.

In this reverse listing, Sable will undertake, in the first stage of the transaction, the rights issue of 50-million shares at R1 each, of which about R20-million worth of shares will be underwritten by various Sable shareholders.

Magni will underwrite a further ten-million shares at R1 apiece for R10-million and Sable will issue up to 240-million shares at R5 each to acquire assets from Magni.

Against the background of the shares of Sable Exploration and Mining being suspended on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange since September 2016, Allan took a step back to explain how prospective diamond investors in the then Middle East Diamond Resources – which is now Sable Exploration and Mining – decided against going ahead with their original alluvial diamond investment plans.

As a result, the then Middle East Diamond Resources ran out of cash in 2016 and, being unable to publish its financial statements, was suspended in September of 2016.

In the five years since, Allan has investigated very many assets and in doing so came across Magni’s suite of assets, which he describes as being very interesting.

“There are three assets that are cash generative in this transaction. One of them is a very good coal asset,” he said, adding that this would Involve reprocessing a 40-million-tonne dump owned by Seriti at Van Dyk’s Drift plus the sale of the reprocessed coal to Eskom and back to Seriti.

The other two cash-generative assets are chrome assets, one a processing plant in Mooinooi, and the other a chrome mine in the Rustenburg area.

A fourth asset is an anthracite mine held under a prospecting right in Swaziland. Originally operated by Gencor in 1992, it was closed on the grounds of being too small for Gencor’s portfolio.

Mining Weekly: What will the transaction do for Magni's involvement in the resources business?

Allan: Magni is a very successful unlisted company that’s put together a decent suite of assets, not all of which are coming into Sable at this stage. Potentially some more of them could come in at a later stage but then it will be a related party transaction. What it does for Magni is it gives them access to a listed vehicle in which to raise capital and importantly it gives them access to the Gem Global Yield facility, which is initially a debt facility but with shares linked to it and the debt converted in shares.

Mining Weekly: What role is Gem Global Yield playing?

Allan: At the moment they’re not playing any role in the transaction that we’re actually doing. That will come down the line once the Magni assets are listed – and then Gem has s...

Glencore’s coal strategy favours a Paris-compliant coal runoff, which increases investability, say Barclays equity research analysts in a note.

Analysts Ian Rossouw, Amos Fletcher and Tom Zang see little value to unlock in the current coal market environment and question whether a coal business of Glencore’s scale could be successfully demerged.

Their analysis follows hedge fund Bluebell Capital Partners asking the diversified London- and Johannesburg-listed mining and marketing company to separate its thermal coal business on the grounds that it had become a ‘barrier to investment” by being “morally unacceptable and financially flawed”.

Bluebell argued that Glencore could realise more value for shareholders if it separated its coal business, simplified its asset base, disposed of noncore asset Viterra, and tackled governance issues.

On Glencore’s current strategy increasing investability, the Barclays analysts contend that Glencore is already addressing many of the concerns raised and remains a Barclays top pick because of its catalyst-rich investment case.

“While the coal spinoff argument is not new, Glencore’s strategy has clearly outlined that the favoured route is to reduce coal exposure via depletion in a Paris-compliant pathway (50% reduction by 2035) and growing its future-facing commodities.

“We believe this is one of the catalysts for Glencore becoming more investible, given investors with over $60-trillion assets under management (AUM) are prepared to invest in companies undertaking responsible transition (Climate Action 100+) versus $39-trillion AUM with absolute coal exclusion policies (Disinvestment),” the analysts stated in a note to Mining Weekly.

They also noted that 94% of Glencore’s shareholders voted in favour of the company’s climate action transition plan at its annual general meeting in April.

South Deep gold mine in Gauteng, where a 40 MW solar power project was initially announced, will now have a 50 MW solar plant as a result of the procurement of more efficient solar panels.

Mining Weekly can report that the construction of the R715-million solar power plant at South Deep will provide the mine with about a quarter of its power requirements and save it over R120-million a year in electricity costs.

“We’ve been able to increase the 40 MW and today we announce that that will actually be a 50 MW solar plant that’s under construction as we speak. The first panels will arrive in the first or second week of January,” Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith said at the company’s presentation of 2030 targets for its most material environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities.

The targets include a commitment to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 30% on a net basis and by 50% on an absolute basis by 2030. As a signatory to the Paris Agreement on climate change, Gold Fields is committed to net-zero carbon by 2050.

The company expects to spend $1.2-billion in the next ten years on going green.

The Johannesburg- and New York-listed company has also set new goals for its water and environmental stewardship, the management of its tailings facilities and to creating value for its stakeholders, particularly host communities. For its employees, Gold Fields is seeking to further improve safety, health and wellbeing, and to achieve greater inclusion and diversity, by targeting a 30% female workforce by 2030.

“Gold Fields has already made significant progress in many ESG priority areas, and we now have to build on this to meet our commitments to stakeholders and the environment,’’ said Griffith.

Gold Fields has, therefore, embedded ESG as one of the three pillars in its strategy. The three pillars are:

maximise potential from current assets through people and innovation

build on commitment to ESG; and

grow the value and quality of its portfolio of assets

Furthermore, Gold Fields has developed new purpose and vision statements that reflect the strengthened commitment to ESG. The new vision, which replaces the previous commitment to leadership in sustainable gold mining, is to be the preferred gold mining company delivering sustainable, superior value.

The company’s purpose statement is to create enduring value beyond mining.

Gold Fields’ new ESG Charter is built on the substantive work that the company has carried out since 2016, including investing $400-million in energy projects, largely funded through power purchase agreements (PPAs), already ensuring that two of Gold Fields’ Australian mines are partially powered by renewable energy.

The percentage of women in the workforce has been increased from 15% in 2016 to 21% at present.

It is also ensuring that 30% of the value Gold Fields creates remains with its communities through a focus on host community employment and procurement.

It intends curtailing serious environmental incidents, recycling over 70% of the water its operations use in their processes and limiting freshwater usage by its mines.

Gold Fields has committed itself to reporting progress against these targets as part of its annual results reporting each year.

“In finalising these targets we ensured that they were informed by detailed programmes, strategies and budgets. These targets are ambitious, but we realise that without this commitment to creating enduring value beyond mining and positively impacting our local stakeholders we cannot guarantee the long-term sustainability of our assets where we operate,” said Griffith.

The investment in decarbonising Gold Fields will total about $1.2-billion until 2030, of which about a quarter will be financed by the company, with the remainder being funded through PPAs. All projects are expected to be net-present-value positive.

The capital investment required to ensure even safer tailings storage facilities (TSFs) at operations and reduce the number of upstream facili...