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Oil and gas plants are methane mines and opening new ones is an anathema that fails to take the livelihoods of today’s offspring seriously, says Fortescue Metals Group chairperson and green hydrogen protagonist Andrew Forrest.

“I argue strongly that opening up a new coal mine, or even a methane mine, which is what an oil and gas plant is, a methane mine, and opening up a new one is an anathema, it's a contradiction, it’s actually not taking the livelihood of our kids, ourselves, seriously.

“So, yes. I’m very public on this and I will be strident,” Forrest said during an interview with Christiane Amanpour, a host for CNN, the multinational news-based television channel.

Forrest has called out some of the big fossil fuel companies for not doing enough to combat climate change and merely ‘green-washing’, but Amanpour pointed out to him that his own Australian government not only has no plans to limit fossil fuels but is controversially continuing to subsidise them.

Amanpour: Given where you are, and how powerful you are in the industry, would you seek to persuade your government – which has one of the worst records in the world on fossil usage and emissions – to change tack as well?

Forrest: I have, and I will continue to do so.

On the Australian government continuing to subsidise fossil fuel, Forrest responded that being on the receiving end of such subsidies also gave him the insight to be highly critical of such subsidisation.

“People often say, hey, you’re a big beneficiary of fossil fuel subsidies, and I say, exactly. If someone wasn’t a beneficiary, they would not have the credibility to argue so strongly against them.

“I advocate very strongly that opening up a new coal mine or even a methane mine, which is what an oil and gas plant is, a methane mine, opening up new one is an anathema, it’s a contradiction, it’s actually not taking the livelihood of our kids, ourselves, seriously.

“So, yes. I’m very public on this and I will be strident. I really do believe that green hydrogen is the practical, implementable solution, which this planet needs, which the atmosphere needs right now, to stop global warming.

“The danger is what you correctly described as green-washing. This is when the fossil fuel sector comes through and says, hey, we can do hydrogen, too. Look over here, it’s hydrogen. Yes, the molecule is the same, but the journey of getting the molecule there, if it’s chock-a-block full of carbon, and far worse methane, i.e., gas, then that just makes the problem a whole lot worse by extending the life of their mines and deposits and saying, don’t worry about that, it’s hydrogen. Well, my very strong contention, around the world to every leader on this planet, is that if it’s not green hydrogen, if it’s not renewable, it’s a farce. The only hydrogen we should be going for right now is green hydrogen and we should be moving away from everything else.

As reported by Mining Weekly earlier this month, Forrest sees the hydrogen fuel cell as having an inexhaustible future as a means of maintaining the planet’s high standard of living. Hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen elecrolysers make use of platinum group metals, with which South Africa is well-endowed.

“Our little planet’s cooking, the world’s impatient and there’s any amount of capital, provided your projects are great,” said Forrest in a discussion with Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh.

He admitted that Fortescue is a heavy carbon-emitting, heavy manufacturing and heavy industry company – “like the thousands of others out there which cause global warming. But that’s our opportunity – to make our company green and then to take on the fossil-fuel sector, which is even bigger and uglier and hairier than the big iron-ore and major miners of the world, which we took on 15 years ago.

“But we know how to do this. We’re going to produce green hydrogen, green ammonia, green electricity in proportion to them but, of course, ours won’t be polluting the planet,” said Forrest during the symp...

Saudi Arabia recognises the importance of building lasting international partnerships to support its minerals ecosystem – a move that will ultimately result in the mapping of the kingdom’s mineral-rich territories for the benefit of all local and international investors.

Saudi Arabia Vice Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Mudaifer tells Mining Weekly that the country’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has a mandate to regulate the Saudi mining sector.

“Although we don’t influence the expansion plans of our local investors, we recognise the importance of building lasting international partnerships to support our ecosystem – this can be seen in the work done by the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), which is working with the brightest minds from around the world, including geological survey companies from South Africa, to map the kingdom’s mineral-rich territories for the benefit of all investors,” he explains, noting that, ultimately, local and international successes go hand-in-hand.

However, Al-Mudaifer noted that the success of any mining nation starts with geology, adding that the Regional Geological Program (RGP), managed by the SGS, will serve as the bedrock for the kingdom’s mining strategy.

“The RGP is the largest geological survey in the world, operating on a budget of two-billion Saudi Riyals. The program is taking a three-pronged approach – airborne geophysical surveys, geochemical surveys and detailed geological mapping.”

He added that critical data is being gathered that will be made publicly available, providing local and global investors even greater knowledge of potential opportunities for mining operations in the region.

South African company XCalibur Airborne Geophysics Company is one of the four world-class partners executing the three-year program as a first phase of a six-year airborne geophysical survey.

Although there are currently no companies from South Africa holding exploration or mining licences in Saudi Arabia, Al-Mudaifer notes that international mines operating in South Africa are turning to the kingdom to expand their operations and to capitalise on growth and synergies between the two markets.

In addition, the kingdom has also been approached by investors from South Africa who are eager to learn more about the mining ecosystem in Saudi Arabia.

Referencing the country’s transformed mining ecosystem, which features a new legal and regulatory framework designed to ensure efficient and transparent licensing, simplified business activities and support a dynamic and sustainable mining industry, Al-Mudaifer explains that having a strong and welcoming mining ecosystem is critical to investors.

“Our mission has been to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s position as a world-class mining destination, placing a great deal of emphasis on creating an attractive investment environment,” he notes.

For example, Saudi Arabia’s financing and taxation climate, and the incentives the country offers investors, are “best-in-class”, according to Al-Mudaifer.

“We provide a royalty licence to miners for the first five years of their mining licence, combined with royalty discounts of up to 30% for each stage of local downstream production.”

He adds that the investor journey for setting up a legal entity typically includes a few steps, from reserving a trade name, through to applying for a commercial licence, to opening a bank account.

“We have worked hard to ensure that our international partners have a world-class experience. We know that ease of business is a critical factor for those wanting to invest in the kingdom’s mining sector,” he states.

Further, earlier this year, when talking to prospective mining sector investors from South Africa, Al-Mudaifer discussed the $1.3-trillion potential of the Arabian Shield, which is home to a number of minerals critical to the technologies that will drive a sustainable future, including gold, copper, phosphate, iron-ore and rare earth elements.

Many of these mi...

A binary, this-or-that debate on technology for a just energy transition is unhelpful and does not consider the unique circumstances for each country in the pursuit of carbonisation, the World Coal Association (WCA) argues.

The association’s stance is that it will respect coal users and non-coal users alike, since energy affordability, reliability and development are the key considerations to ponder, and these will differ for each country in the world, WCA CEO Michelle Manook tells Mining Weekly.

Responding to the criticism that coal often gets, particularly during climate change summits such as the recent COP26, she says the WCA and its members are not in denial about climate change, but are realists and prefer to have pragmatic discussions about decarbonising coal, instead of advocating for options that disregard socioeconomic imperatives.

More than 40 countries committed to shift away from coal in pledges made during the COP26 summit, which signals quite a drastic sentiment, but Manook says it remains to be seen whether the pledges will all be ratified.

“The global norms around language for a ‘just transition’ have been set, but developing countries are not necessarily within the global norm. We should challenge the definition of just transition as it is currently being presented.

“Each industry, or even company, has its own interpretation of what a just transition to decarbonisation is. I do not believe it can be defined by replacing everything with one or two types of technology, but looking at clean technologies overall.”

She believes the just transition conversation should be led by emerging economies, since they grapple the most with the balancing act demanded.

Manook says biased information is another crisis that the world is experiencing, as it leads to misinformed decisions.

She strives for more balanced commentary in the public and private domain, and finds solace in stakeholders increasingly questioning the large-scale efficacy of many renewable energy options, because it opens the possibility for a fair debate and fair consideration.

“We have seen energy price crunches, supply issues, underperformance of renewables in China and Europe,” which shows the need for balanced considerations.

Manook is a firm believer that no one technology is a silver bullet for a just energy transition, particularly not in countries with sensitive socioeconomic contexts.

For the sake of more practical and realistic solutions, the WCA believes that more conversations on carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), and carbon capture and sequestration, need to be held, since many decarbonisation roadmaps will have to be based on these options if they are to transition to cleaner, more reliable and more affordable energy at all.

“Some countries will prefer clean coal, others will prefer to cut out coal entirely; the original Paris Agreement intentions were inclusive and not divisive,” Manook points out.

Besides, she notes, millions of dollars’ worth of coal abatement technology does not seem that ludicrous when weighed against continued social inequality and losses that economies experience as a result of unreliable or unaffordable power.

The future of coal lies in partnerships to change its narrative, she states.

For example, the WCA and intergovernmental organisation the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Centre for Energy released a joint research report on clean coal technology in September.

The report finds that the ten-member Asean will require about 234 GW of new coal-fired generation capacity by 2040 if it is to meet growing energy demand, and with modest investment in clean coal technologies, such as high efficiency low emissions coal, CCUS and pollution control technology, there is capacity to significantly cut emissions.

The WCA also signed a formative memorandum of understanding with the Russian Financial University’s Centre of Sectoral Research and Consulting, aimed at furthering clean coal studies in Russi...

Zambia zoomed into town today and did all it could to sweep investors off their feet with pledges to be private-sector driven, surge into green energy, and do everything it can to regain top spot in global copper at a time when the metal is set to play such a key role in the fight against climate change.

Zambia Commerce Trade and Industry Minister Chipoka Mulenga, the MP for Chingola, a Copperbelt area, was very impressive in providing assurances of very near-term incentivisation and showing great conscientiousness in re-entering proceedings to ensure that government would deal immediately with the perceived drawbacks to investment raised on the day. (Also watch attached Cramer Media video.)

Mulenga informed mining investors on the spot that to promote investment in the mining sector, the government would, with effect from January 1, 2022, implement mining tax incentives that:

reintroduce, in alignment with international best practice, the tax deductibility of Mineral Royalty Tax, or MRT, for corporate income tax assessment purposes; and

increase from five years to ten years the period for which unutilised disallowed interest for the purpose of corporate income tax may be carried forward.

He spoke with great conviction at the spotlight on Zambia event hosted by Webber Wentzel and Musa Dudhia & Co.

Webber Wentzel Zambia country partner Mmadika Moloi moderated the in-person and online discussion in which panellists that included Energy Ministry private power chief engineer Clement Chiwele, Musa Dudhia managing partner Arshad Dudhia, Webber Wentzel partner Robert Appelbaum, Fraser Alexander CEO Keith Scott, Webber Wentzel partner Jonathan Veeran, Enel Green Power business development lead Kachinga-Wankunda Phiri, and Zambia economic advisory transition team member Nitesh Patel took part.

An upbeat Mulenga informed the event that Zambia is so focused on propagating green energy that it has created a special Green Ministry to advance sun and wind energy, in addition to the development of more green hydropower in non-drought regions.

The focus of the new Zambian government was to create investment and economic policies aimed specifically at enabling an environment for business and investment in Zambia to thrive.

“As a government, we’re committed to making the environment very conducive for investment and for expansion,” he told the event, covered by Mining Weekly.

He cited vigorous energy and mining investment as the pivots on which Zambia wished to turn its economy around to the point where its economic soundness would be acknowledged on international platforms.

He referred constantly to the incumbent government as the New Dawn Zambia, which recognised energy as a key sector for development and an enabler of productivity.

A better policy framework would deliver clean energy from renewable green sources to allow the country to lower its dependency on drought-prone hydroelectric power systems.

With global warming threatening, solar, wind and geothermal power possibilities would be heaped on to the hydroelectric baseload.

“To make this a reality, we're calling on the international community to come on board and fulfil this noble cause with us,” Mulenga urged.

The Zambian government has invested in ensuring that proper framework policies are implemented with structural and financial reforms on the way for the petroleum sector.

The Zambian government aimed to facilitate the flow of trade and investment effectively and before the country considered going outside of the continent, it would do everything in its power to boost intra-Africa engagement.

“We need to emphasise and strengthen the ties that we have within ourselves. We should only seek from outside the region that which we are not able to provide from within,” he said.

Zambia’s administration was, he emphasised, eager to attract more investment in the electricity subsector by putting in place cost-effective tariffs.

Further investment would be made into the expansion of electr...

During its first quarter of production, ended September 30, TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula joint venture, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sold 41 490 t of payable copper and recognised revenue of $342.6-million.

It achieved an operating profit of $209.7-million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $233.2-million.

The initial 2021 production guidance range for copper-in-concentrate of between 80 000 t and 95 000 t was raised to between 92 500 t and 100 000 t, reflecting the successful completion of ramp-up of the Kakula Phase 1 concentrator.

Kamoa-Kakula's cost of sales per pound of payable copper sold was $1.08/lb during its first quarter, while cash costs (C1) per pound of payable copper totalled $1.37/lb.

Costs for the quarter reflect the measured ramp-up of production at Kamoa-Kakula to steady state and are expected to trend downward as the Phase 2 concentrator plant is commissioned and the mine's fixed operating costs are spread over increased copper production, Ivanhoe said on November 15.

Kamoa-Kakula's Phase 2 construction is progressing well toward a start-up in the second quarter of 2022, which the miner said would see a doubling of the mine's nameplate milling throughput to 7.6-million tonnes a year.

Phases 1 and 2 combined are forecast to produce about 400 000 t/y of copper.

The Kamoa-Kakula project began producing copper in May and achieved commercial production on July 1. Production for the third quarter was 4 545 t of copper-in-concentrate, with year-to-date production of more than 77 500 t as of November 15.

Ivanhoe Mines is also advancing development of the Platreef palladium/rhodium/platinum/nickel/copper/gold discovery in South Africa, which is scheduled to begin production in 2024, and is upgrading the historic Kipushi zinc/copper/lead/germanium mine, also in the DRC, for a resumption of production.

Ivanhoe is also exploring for new copper discoveries on its Western Foreland exploration licences in the DRC, near the Kamoa-Kakula project, the miner confirmed.

Ivanhoe Mines recorded a profit of $85.4-million for the third quarter of 2021, compared with a loss of $5.3-million for the same period in 2020.

The company's share of profit from the Kamoa-Kakula joint venture and the finance income therefrom were the principal contributors to the profit recorded in the current quarter, where the company has a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of $579.7-million on hand as at September 30, 2021, and expects that the majority of Kamoa-Kakula's expansion capital expenditure on Phase 2 and Phase 3 will be funded from copper sales and facilities in place at Kamoa.

Based on current market conditions, Ivanhoe anticipates that shareholder loan repayments from Kamoa-Kakula will start in 2022.

During the third quarter, Ivanhoe continued its 2021 copper exploration programme on its Western Foreland licences that cover about 2 550 km2 in close proximity to Kamoa-Kakula.

Work in the third quarter was primarily focused on completing the project's infrastructure programme, which was needed to allow Ivanhoe's drilling crews to access the highly-prospective exploration licences located to the south and west of the Kamoa and Kakula orebodies.

Geophysical surveys were advanced during the quarter and are either complete or are nearing completion, Ivanhoe said, noting that drilling during the quarter was focused on extending the copper discoveries at Makoko and Kiala.

Further, Platreef's updated feasibility study for the phased development plan is progressing well toward completion in early 2022.

All design and engineering work has been completed with the cost estimates well advanced. The Shaft 1 changeover is progressing well in preparation for permanent rock hoisting in early 2022. Construction activities on the Shaft 2 headframe are also advancing.

The initial scope of the phased development plan is to fast-track Platreef into production in 2024, starting wi...

Because of the collapse of investment in greenfields exploration in South Africa, any mining graduate entering the profession today can expect to be unemployed from the age of 40, said AmaranthCX director and founder Paul Miller on Monday, when he pointed out that South Africa is now at an all-time exploration low of 0.76% of global exploration spend.

He warned that with the global standard taking a tier 1 deposit from discovery to full production being between ten and 20 years, South Africa would likely have fewer than ten long-life operating mines in the next couple of decades.

Against that background, many mining graduates could find their careers seriously curtailed – unless South Africa began to attract significant investment in exploration, Miller said in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

He could thus not recommend to any 18-year-old in South Africa, who wanted to remain employed in mining past the age of 40, to enter the mining industry – ­ “not until we see significant additional investment in upfront greenfields exploration, and there’s nothing in our policy environment that suggests it’s going to happen”, he added.

“A mining industry, by definition, is a declining industry. Every mine, on the day it opens, is in decline until the day it closes, and the only way of sustaining the industry is through exploration, discovery of new deposits and building new mines to replace those that have been mined out.

“We know, from the statistics, that exploration spending in South Africa has collapsed. Inevitably, that means that in ten to 20 years only the very longest life mines will still be operating. The rest are going to close. There’s nothing to replace them,” said Miller, who advocated in a recent opinion piece that existing legislation and policy needed to be:

replaced by an internationally competitive, World Bank-standard mineral rights regime; and

be accompanied by internationally competitive tax incentives structured to encourage both exploration and the development of public capital markets.

Only then, he stated, would South Africa have any chance of reaching the target set by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe of attracting 5% of global exploration expenditure in five years.

South Africa was, meanwhile, lagging very badly behind other mining jurisdictions, which were poised to attract orders of magnitude more investment in exploration in 2021, when:

Australia is expected to attract exploration budgets of $1.9-billion;

Canada is expected to attract $2.089-billion;

all of Africa is set to receive $1.13-billion; with

South Africa is on only $85.9-million.

“It’s not a happy story,” said Miller. “We’ve actually, on a relative basis, declined from just on 1% to just on 0.76%, an 18% decline in the time that the Minister had set to take it from 1% to 5%.

“To give you some perspective, if we were to attract 5% of global exploration, we would have to attract between R6.5-billion and R8.5-billion a year in exploration spending but we’re doing just more than R1-billion at the moment, so it's a sixfold increase that we would require in our current exploration spending. The question is what actions were taken between when the Minister set the target and two-and-a-half-years later, which is halfway to the target, and I’m afraid, I haven’t seen any at all,” said Miller.

South Africa will receive only 17% of the combined 2021 exploration budgets meant for the countries of Southern African Development Community, and Botswana and Namibia will together attract $10-million more in exploration budgets than South Africa.

Mining Weekly: Why is it that our neighbours Botswana and Namibia are continuing to knock South Africa into a cocked hat when it comes to attracting exploration investment?

Miller: These countries, as geologically endowed as they are, have tiny populations. They have tiny economies and yet, collectively, Botswana and Namibia now attract more exploration bu...

As mining companies look to lower their carbon intensity, low-carbon-economy software developer Minviro sustainability manager Laurens Tijsseling encourages miners to not rely solely on carbon offsetting techniques, but instead employ a range of measures.

Speaking at the Energy and Mines Virtual World Congress on November 10, he said carbon offsets should only be used when companies have exhausted all other methods of lowering carbon.

“Investors are really understanding that,” added Tijsseling.

As a first step in their ambitions to lower carbon and meet future net-zero targets, he explained that mining companies firstly need to understand where their emissions come from and then undertake the appropriate measures to reduce those areas of generation, such as replacing fossil-fuel burning machinery with those that instead use hydrogen or green electricity.

“The last resource you can use is planting trees or broader offset projects,” said Tijsseling.

In addition, he described the carbon offset market as the “wild west” at present as companies race to invest in such measures fearing that, in a few years’ time, they could be paying much more to decarbonise the same amount they were doing this year.

This, Tijsseling said, meant that, for an investor, the inherent risk of that potential price of the carbon offset on the overall return on their investment could be much larger if emissions generation impacts were not mitigated initially.

Nonetheless, he said carbon offsetting had a place in the mining industry, especially for those who have already taken significant steps to lower their carbon. “In the end, we are not going to be able to escape from offsets, because there are some technologies which are not yet as mature, for example carbon capture, and depending on where it is being used.”

In this regard, Tijsseling said, carbon offsets would be crucial in getting to net zero, or potentially to a point where the mining industry was carbon negative. “Depending what happens in the next decade, we might even go further than net zero, and then [carbon] offsets will be the answer.”

West Africa-focused gold miner Endeavour Mining has reported strong third-quarter results and says it is well positioned to beat its full-year production guidance.

The TSX- and LSE-listed miner produced 382 000 oz at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $904/oz in the third quarter, taking year-to-date output to 1.14-million ounces. Production decreased by 7% quarter-on-quarter, mainly owing to the rainy season, while AISC increased by $50/oz.

The group’s full-year guidance, which it looks set to beat, is 1.37-million to 1.5-million ounces at an AISC of $850/oz to $900/oz.

President and CEO Sebastien de Montessus noted that this would be the ninth year in a row that Endeavour would exceed its production guidance.

The gold producer reported revenue of $692-million in the quarter, down from $753-million in the June quarter, mainly owing to lower sales together with a lower realised gold price.

Adjusted earnings fell to $153-million, or $0.61 a share, from $183-million, or $0.73 a share, in the preceding quarter.

“Given this strong performance we expect to generate well in excess of $1-billion in operating cash flow for the full year, which has already significantly improved our balance sheet strength and bolstered our ability to reward shareholders,” said De Montessus.

“Having already returned $224-million in dividends and share buybacks this year, and considering our near zero net debt to adjusted Ebitda leverage ratio, we expect to continue to supplement our shareholder return programme with further share buybacks and deliver more than the guided minimum dividend of $125-million for the full year.”

Commenting on the group’s growth projects, De Montessus said that Endeavour’s growth pipeline continued to develop with the Sabodala-Massawa Phase 1 expansion, in Senegal, on track for completion in the fourth quarter.

The definitive feasibility studies for the Sabodala-Massawa Phase 2 expansion, and the Fetekro and Kalana projects, in Cote d'Ivoire and Mali respectively, were progressing well, he added.

"We expect to publish the results from all three studies in the first quarter of next year."

Mineral exploration should be incentivised so that South Africa’s great mineral endowment can be optimally leveraged to lower unemployment, improve export revenues, and strengthen this country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

That is the view of Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) mining, metals and beneficiation head Thabiso Sekano.

“Our country is indeed endowed with minerals, but we haven’t actually explored it that well,” said Sekano, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

He expressed the view that government, through the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and the Council for Geoscience, needed to get to a point of being able to leverage the benefit of the minerals in this country.

He expressed the belief that an important relationship hinged on government and the private sector reaching a point of effectiveness.

“Private partnership with the State is what is needed. If you go to a typical bank in South Africa, you will find that banks are not interested in funding exploration in the early-stage phase,” said Sekano.

“Banks are more interested in projects that are about to be implemented and have been proven. But the challenge for a DFI such as ourselves, which gets involved in early-stage exploration projects, is that we cannot do this on our own. We need the private sector to be involved as well,” he stated.

He expressed the view that private sector companies could be given tax breaks of some kind to encourage exploration because many minerals in South Africa are untouched.

On the economic benefits that could accrue to South Africa from exploration, Sekano drew attention to mining’s role as a significant employment and supply chain flywheel.

“When we look at the real benefits of exploration, they include the long-term benefits of the project ultimately being implemented and this includes employment and regional economic development. What must also be taken into account is mining’s contribution to South Africa’s GDP,” he said.

Mining Weekly: Last year the Economic Transformation Committee of the African National Congress said in its document on reconstruction and growth that “the listing of mining companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange should be encouraged and South African retail investors willing to invest in mining exploration should be incentivised, as is the case in other mining jurisdictions”. Everybody seems to agree with this sentiment, so why is it not happening?

Sekano: It’s a tough market, I think, and companies are focusing their energies on projects that have got quick economic benefit for them. Other companies are moving into other geographies like South America. But exploration is a very important thing for South Africa to have. Proper exploration comes with all those benefits of employment and all the economic benefits we need as a country. The issue of poverty and unemployment in South Africa is a very serious issue that I’m personally passionate about trying to fix and it is my job now, within the IDC, to try and ensure that we reduce unemployment as far as possible. I’m not absolutely certain why exploration is not happening at the pace that we expect it to happen, but in future, we should be able to incentivise companies to do exploration and to tap into South Africa’s mineral endowment.

Mining Weekly: Small companies are not being supported on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Do you agree that investors should be incentivised to invest in small companies on the JSE?

Sekano: I agree. A typical small company or junior mining company faces serious lack of capital challenges when trying to list. This is a chief thing for the IDC to focus on - all these companies that would otherwise not get funding from anywhere else. It’s extremely important that these companies are helped to overcome the challenges they are facing, and the IDC is there and playing that role. We have funded quite a significant number of junior miners in South Africa...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks the Royal Bafokeng/Northam deal that will see a green business boost; Minerals Council South Africa's call for government to speed up electricity procurement processes; and the recent performances in gold mining, with Gold Fields and Harmony recently reporting.