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Platinum is viewed as an investment case for the moment and is offering good relative value, says Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne.

Palladium appears more vulnerable than platinum to vehicle production downside risks, says World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) institutional distribution head Brendan Clifford in a detailed analysis.

In delivering a market review at Northam’s presentation of spectacular operational and financial results, Dunne said we may expect platinum and palladium to reach parity over time as platinum benefits from the hydrogen economy, towards the end of this decade and into the 2030s.

However, he described current market conditions as being peculiar, owing to the semiconductor chip shortage the automotive industry brought upon itself slowing demand for platinum group metals (PGMs). (See also attached slides.)

Clifford's analysis suggested that automaker efforts to protect higher margin product lines favoured platinum demand over palladium demand.

“Most importantly, the chip shortage adds less to any platinum oversupply estimates for 2021 than the market might be assuming,” Clifford stated.

Regarding the importance of the automotive sector to the PGM market. “We only have to look at the percentage of metals employed in autocatalysis to appreciate how important the automotive sector is to the PGM market. Around 85% of palladium and 90% of rhodium is used in this single application,” Dunne noted at the results presentation covered by Mining Weekly.

But automotive production in quarter three of this year has been very badly below par when compared with quarterly global light duty vehicle production for calendar years 2019 to the present, together with quarterly projections out to 2024, as shown on the attached graph.

“What we’re seeing here is a very unusual set of circumstances brought about by Covid-19 and the resultant logistical constraints across the global supply chain,” said Dunne.

During this period, the spot market for palladium and rhodium has been very depressed.

But Dunne emphasised that it remains important to realise that the underlying demand for cars by the general public, together with an aging commercial fleet, is creating substantial and as yet unsatisfied demand into the future.

CHIP BOTTLENECK SLOWLY MOVING DOWNSTREAM

“What we’re seeing is that the semiconductor chip bottleneck is slowly moving downstream, in fact to the testing facilities now, as opposed to the production facilities, situated mainly in Southeast Asia, and that region is currently experiencing lockdowns associated also with Covid.

“We would expect metal price recover to follow a similar path to the recovery in automotive production and this should be led by palladium and rhodium,” Dunne said.

Northam’s longer-term view for its major metals remains largely unchanged with palladium remaining the metal of choice for gasoline engines while rhodium will continue as the only viable solution for the control of nitrous oxide. or NOx.

“Demand for these metals will remain strong throughout the decade. Platinum is viewed as an investment case for the moment, offering good relative value. We may expect platinum and palladium to reach parity over time as platinum benefits form the hydrogen economy towards the end of this decade and into the 2030s,” he reiterated.

The emerging energy crisis in China, and to a lesser extent Europe, should, he said, convey to all investors that electrification of mobility through battery electric vehicle technology would face very substantial headwinds.

In the meantime, on Northam’s PGMs front, ruthenium, for fuel cells, and iridium, for green hydrogen, were continuing to grow in prominence, as was its base metal byproducts of nickel, for battery storage, copper across the board, and chrome for stainless steel.

“There is a growing shift towards renewable energy sources, and this will continue to support prices for all the minor metals,” said Dunne.

During Northam’s media roundtable, Dunne elaborated ...

A globally significant chrome producer operating six chrome mines and employing 7 000 people inside South Africa – with a social labour plan obligation on every mine, with tax and royalty obligations paid to the State – is permitted to operate in this country with no ongoing public disclosure requirements.

Yet, a tiny exploration company with six employees that happens to have listed on the stock exchange, would have the full King Code to contend with.

“It makes no sense that the one with the far greater impact on society and the economy and the environment does not have to disclose anything on an ongoing basis, and the other, which is barely in operation, has to disclose everything every six months,” says AmaranthCX director and owner Paul Miller, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Transparency is important and it is interesting how South Africa has chosen its own unique path on how the country goes about ensuring transparency in the mining industry, even though the minerals of South Africa are held in custodianship for the benefit of all people of South Africa.

South Africa has gone from 770 JSE-listed mining companies to about 305 still trading “and at the same time, we’re piling all the reporting requirements on to this ever-diminishing group of companies that happen to be listed – and yet giant significant private companies, or companies that don’t have more than 100 shareholders, don’t have to report anything publicly”.

With mining being socially, environmentally and economically significant, all mining companies should, in his view, be public companies.

Well established globally, he says, is the concept that a listed company reports to a whole range of stakeholders. No major listed company reports only financial information to shareholders; they also have to report on their environmental, social and labour performance.

“Certainly, we see that in South Africa as well, but only in listed companies and in State-owned enterprises, and that’s interesting because surely if your reporting and your interest groups are way more than just shareholders, why is it only companies that have public shareholders that have to report?

“Think about this for a moment. We have companies that have a high social, environmental and economic significance in our economy and yet they have no public disclosure requirements.

“The gap between large significant private companies that have tremendous impacts on society and the environment as a whole, and companies that may be smaller and have less significance, but simply happen to be listed, have to disclose far more, and that surely makes no sense.

“If we have moved from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, then every company with a significant impact on stakeholders generally should have the same reporting requirements as a company that simply happens to have a portion of its balance sheet or capital as a listed security on the stock exchange,” says Miller.

In 2008, the Companies Act appeared to recognise that a company can be significant without being listed and introduced a concept of public interest entities.

“Now they’ve got an elaborate method of scoring public interest entities and there are some consequences that come if a company is a public interest entity. For example, such a company may have to have a social and ethics committee. Alternatively, audited financials may have to be submitted to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

“However, where it gets strange is that the public interest documents submitted are not public. The public interest is not served by the fact that public interest entities have to submit documents to government and perhaps they should be called government interest entities.

"What South Africa has are major mining companies, with significant environmental rehabilitation, tax and royalty obligations and a huge number of employees that have no obligation to report to the cit...

Trade unions the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and UASA have united in their rejection of precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater’s latest wage offer for employees of its South African gold operations.

Together, the unions primarily want a wage increase of R1 500 a year for three years for Category 4 to 8 surface and underground workers, in addition to other increases in benefits.

Sibanye tabled an offer of R400 in the first year, R520 in the second and R540 in the third year for category 4 to 8 surface and underground mineworkers; while artisans, miners and officials would receive increases of 3.4%, 4.3% and 4.3%.

At a joint briefing on October 1, the unions said Sibanye-Stillwater’s offer was substantially lower than what was agreed to with Gold Fields and Harmony Gold – both of which are competing in the same market and economic climate as Sibanye.

The four unions want Sibanye to benchmark its offer based on the recent wage agreements that were concluded with Gold Fields and Harmony on the basis that Sibanye made a profit of R25-billion in the first half of this year.

In this regard, AMCU treasurer general Jimmy Gama said Sibanye could “not plead poverty” and that mineworkers deserved recognition for their contribution to Sibanye’s strong financial performance.

“It is important to give the workers recognition for the critical role we played in the record performance of Sibanye,” the unions said in a statement.

However, Sibanye investor relations senior VP James Wellsted tells Mining Weekly that the company’s South African gold operations contributed R516-million, translating into 2% of the profits for the first-half period.

“As such, the South African gold operations are extremely marginal and cannot absorb the level of wage increase being demanded by the unions without suffering losses, which would lead to the early closure of the mines and would have significant negative impact on other stakeholders who depend on these operations.”

In a joint statement, the unions point out that Sibanye had expanded its business model to include the growing battery metals sector, as well as increased its South African gold production by 29% in the last six months. This, the unions says, shows Sibanye is in a position to offer better wage increases.

In this regard, Wellsted says Sibanye’s growth was undertaken to ensure the sustainability of the entire organisation. “The South African gold operations are unable to absorb these demands without an impact on the sustainability of the operations. We cannot cross subsidise loss-making operations from profitable operations, as this threatens sustainability and may impact other group stakeholders.”

The unions, meanwhile, say they are not calling for “record remuneration”, but merely a “fair and market-related increase” to its members’ monthly earnings.

As part of a wage agreement, the unions also want a R1 500 transport allowance, or transport for Sibanye’s Burnstone employees and the harmonisation of Burnstone mineworker wages to those of other Sibanye operations; a R150 a day meal allowance in place of meal packs; an additional 10% for underground employees; and an increase of R500 for housing allowance each year for three years.

The unions also want the group-wide retirement age to be lowered to 63 from 65 and for it to be imposed without alleged favouritism.

Going forward, Wellsted says, Sibanye is still engaging with the unions under the auspices of the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

“The details of the wage agreements will be provided once agreement has been reached.”

The board of platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company Northam Platinum has given its approval for the building of three renewable energy projects at three of the company’s mines plus a hydrogen project at one of them.

Northam Platinum CFO Alet Coetzee said this week that board approval had been given for a 10 MW solar power plant at the Zondereinde PGMs mine in Limpopo and for two smaller renewables plants at the Booysendal and Eland mines.

“We’ll also do a very small hydrogen project at Eland,” said Coetzee in response to Mining Weekly during a media roundtable following the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company’s presentation of record financial results for the 12 months to June 30.

“As a producer of green metals, we do believe that we should be looking at our carbon footprint. So, a couple of months ago, as part of our business plan initiatives, the board approved these three small renewable energy projects.

“I’ve got to put a caveat on that. We actually did the work and all the preparation before the change in legislation where previously there was a 10 MW limit and buffer,” she said, alluding to the new 100 MW limit.

“We’re also looking at various other potential opportunities, including wind farm possibilities. It’s still early days for us, but it’s definitely on our radar.

“You’ll see that Eskom is on our risk register, both in terms of costing as well as availability. So, it’s something that we’ll be addressing in the next couple of years across the group,” said Coetzee.

“We can’t replace Eskom. We can supplement Eskom with the green technologies, in particular photovoltaic (PV) solar power,” said Northam CEO Paul Dunne.

“Wind has some potential but it’s difficult because of the difference in geographies. Eskom remains a worry for us and I think mid-decade in particular, we’re extremely concerned about the availability of power from Eskom and, of course, the cost of that power.

“There’s quite a strong business case on PV in particular. If we self-build, and we’ve got ground for the 10 MW plant at Zondereinde, we could probably get a four-and-a-half-year payback on that project, which is good. It’s not a long-dated payback. It’s reasonably short and that means for us that we can expand that 10 MW to something bigger over time,” said Dunne.

“We’ve got the real estate at all our operations to do that,” added Coetzee.

On decarbonisation plans, Dunne said: “We see a lot of potential for electrification of slow-moving vehicles, very specifically bolters and drill rigs.”

The Zondereinde mine is an established, conventional, long-life operation which mines upper group two (UG2) and Merensky ore and produces approximately 300 000 oz of refined four element (4E) PGMs from own operations yearly. The mine is located on the northern end of the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, near the town of Thabazimbi.

In December 2017, Northam acquired the ground adjacent to Zondereinde’s western boundary from Anglo American Platinum. The Western extension acquisition provides access to additional Merensky and UG2 reef and extends the life of mine (LoM) to beyond 30 years.

The shallow, mechanised, room and pillar Booysendal UG2 North mine is located near the town of Mashishing (formerly Lydenburg) on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex.

Booysendal North mine has an LoM of some 25 years. The 105-million-ounce orebody at Booysendal lends itself to brownfield expansion opportunities, which are currently being established on the property. These include a deepening project at the existing UG2 North mine, the Booysendal Merensky North mine and the new Booysendal South mine.

The Eland PGMs and chrome mine is located on the south-eastern limit of the western limb of the Bushveld Complex. It comprises two mining rights and contains a resource estimated at 21.3-million ounces of PGMs with an average in situ 4E grade of 4.4 g/t.

Northam’s normalised headline earnings soared by more than 215% to R10.9-billion in the 12 months to June 30...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks Sedibelo Platinum Mines expected electricity triumphs at the Kell processing plant; Northam’s record operations and financial performance in the 12 months to June 30; and South32's acquisition of an additional 25% of Mozal Aluminum.

With the increased use of electronic and digital systems in modern mines comes the issue of lightning protection, which Wits Mining Institute's Professor Ian Jandrell suggests can be addressed in unique and simple ways, stemming from careful consideration and clear understanding.

He gave a keynote address during the yearly Wits Mining Institute seminar on September 29, and noted that increased workplace risk was placed on miners as they operated in an environment characterised by outdoor operations and volatile conditions.

He explained that, from a personnel perspective, a lightning safety plan was as important as a lightning protection system.

“[We] often think of lightning in terms of a protection system. We do not [often] think of having in place a plan to guide human beings on a site. It is not good just saying I have [lightning] protection on the building, so everyone should be fine; it is not like that at all.”

In addition, Jandrell said lightning could also find ways of getting underground, potentially harming personnel and damaging underground electronic and digital systems, as lightning’s electrical energy could travel through surface cables and even through different seams in the earth by means of a wave guide.

In terms of the challenges distributed electronic systems pose, he said that, in the modern operating environment, electronics were “going to be all over the show” and that, although a mining company may have lightning protection systems in place, they may not be adequate, or may have a fatal flaw at one point, which may compromise the entire, or large portions of, digital and electric systems.

In this regard, Jandrell suggested that, because different systems in different locations and buildings on a site were linked through a digital and/or electronic infrastructure, they may be at risk from a lightning strike anywhere on that specific site if careful consideration was not paid towards going beyond earthing.

In considering weak spots in terms of catching and handling a direct lightning strike at a mining site, he explained that electrical electromagnetic energy could be conducted in many different ways, such as through a copper cable, with light and even in a wave guide (similar to wave guides used in a microwave oven).

This meant that energy could even be conducted through hollow tubes – the key here being the use of different layers of material with different conductivities, different permitivitty’s and sometimes different permeabilities. “What this means is that if rock seams change from one type to the next, they can serve as wave guides and transmit energy quite far underground,” said Jandrell.

In terms of cabling, he noted that a commonly-held idea was that cabling was simply a means of getting “stuff” such as data or energy from one point to another, but that cabling also acted as a conductor and transmitter of energy from lightning between its different points as well.

In this regard, Jandrell emphasised the understanding that the whole concept of cabling and its protection had to include shielding, earth armouring of cables, discrete earthing conductors and the limitation of currents (lightning and fault currents).

Also, the bonding of metalwork and equipment associated with cabling needed to be considered. “You cannot think about metal infrastructure as being mechanical stuff – that [for instance] holds a conveyor belt, or carries a cable – you have got to start thinking of it in terms of being an electromagnetic screen,” he highlighted.

This brought Jandrell onto the topic of equipotentialisation. He explained that, when communication took place in a digital or electronic environment, there were different electrical potentials at points in systems which meant damage could be caused throughout such a system as a result of a weak spot.

In this respect, he said equipotentialisation and screening were critical aspects of an internal lightning protection system and natural components (sometimes even...

A range of immersive and educational technology experts have said that immersive training, enabled by virtual and augmented reality and digital education technologies, can deepen learning retention, improve engagement with learning materials, improve safety awareness and responses, and improve the performance of employees in the mining industry.

Speaking during industry organisation Minerals Council South Africa's Reimagining Training in Mining conference, on September 30, digital content and training company Sea Monster Entertainment client services head Lebo Lekoma said learning by engaging as many senses as possible improves learning and retention.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are effective ways of placing trainees into learning experiences, such as simulated processes to teach them standard operating procedures or in a simulated dangerous situation, he said.

"Placing people in simulated dangerous environments enables them to be made aware of the dangers presented by these situations, as well as allowing them to become familiar with these situations and practice their responses during these situations."

Digital innovation consultancy and services provider The Boiler Room CEO Mark Hocker said a training solution the company had developed for a multinational mining original-equipment manufacturer has led to a 50% reduction in the time to train its artisans by showing trainees how to perform tasks correctly.

"This training can include safety aspects and enables learning through doing. Another significant advantage of VR is that a company can simulate the consequences of incorrect actions and reinforce the importance of following standard operating procedures."

A fall-of-ground is one of the biggest dangers in underground mining, and The Boiler Room developed tactile gloves and vests that allow it to immerse trainees in a simulated situation and demonstrate the consequences of doing something wrong and, thereby, inculcate a healthy fear so that they do not make these mistakes underground, he pointed out.

The key to quick response times and effective responses in emergencies lies in experiential training, said Council for Scientific and Industrial Research mining cluster impact area manager Riaan Bergh.

"Conducting work in a simulated environment, similar to playing a game, enables a person to learn something quickly and efficiently. Immersive technologies are an effective and safe means to provide experiential training and near-real training experience, learning and, importantly, practice," he noted.

Immersive training supports trainees to fully engage and focus on the scenario, which helps them to more effectively assimilate training materials. This improves recollection of training and presents the opportunity to practice responses to situations.

"Then, when they are faced with a real emergency, they can recognise it, recall the required responses, decide on the correct response and then activate the necessary actions. Because they have been in that - albeit simulated - situation where their fear and stress responses have been awoken and have practiced how to react even when they feel their adrenaline pumping, they can make better decisions and actions."

Mining technology firm NRR Mining and Consulting geologist Phopi Marara said the main impact of immersive technologies on the mining industry is to bridge the gap between traditional and proven training and new ways of training that can translate into practical competencies in the workplace.

"The mining industry is moving towards immersive training and application-based training and is getting more involved in its development and use. Further, after trainees have internalised the learning materials, they can also be tested on how to apply their knowledge within this immersive space," she said.

Immersive training engages more than just the auditory senses and is increasingly including tactile elements to train equipment operators or engineering training i...

The record operational and financial performance of Northam Platinum in the 12 months to June 30 was accompanied by the creation of 2 335 new sustainable jobs, which takes the total generated by the platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company's well-timed growth strategy from 2015 to 8 232.

In addition, all of the company’s employees benefit from comprehensive health care, retirement benefits and home ownership assistance, with another 1 279 affordable homes being made available this year.

The spectacularly performing Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company headed by CEO Paul Dunne paid a record R5-billion in salaries in the period and put R5.2-billion in taxes into the coffers of hard-pressed National Treasury. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Northam is now well on its way towards attaining its medium-term production target of one-million ounces a year and is placing its employees and host communities on centre stage to benefit from its empowerment extension, Dunne said during Northam’s hybrid actual/virtual presentation of results, at which the soaring of normalised headline earnings by more than 215% to R10.9-billion was highlighted.

The only short-term fly-in-the-ointment is the global shortage of electronic chips, which has slowed down world vehicle production and thus PGMs demand.

Otherwise, Northam’s record operational and financial performance has allowed the company to be reshaped for the future while returning value to its shareholders through the winding up of the Zambezi preference shares structure and the buyback of 29% of the company’s shares.

Northam Holdings now has 362-million shares in issue compared with the 510-million in issue ahead of the Zambezi empowerment transaction.

The recent High Court ruling on ‘once empowered, always empowered’ places Northam in a very strong empowerment credentials position, giving management the time and flexibility to empower employees and communities.

The company’s composite transaction has thus far unlocked 10.5-billion pre-tax value for employees, communities and strategic empowerment groupings.

Northam’s countercyclical approach has made a tremendous contribution towards vital job creation and extending new empowerment focus to employees brings the prospect of added reward for the workforce, for which greater certainty has been created through five-year wage agreements.

Northam recently signed five-year wage settlements at both the Zonderiende and the Eland PGMs mine, which follows the five-year agreement signed at the Booysendal mine last year, providing the company with significant stability during what is expected to be a buoyant PGMs pricing environment.

“Transformation within the South African economy remains a national imperative and the broad-based stakeholders hold the key to a truly sustainable economic environment, in particular in the areas in which we operate,” added Dunne at the presentation covered by Mining Weekly.

GROWING PRODUCTION DOWN THE COST CURVE

Northam has grown production down the cost curve to benefit from a strong market and to be sustainable during downturns.

The decrease in cash costs is a key benefit of its growth strategy and the company was able to report an overall 2% reduction in unit costs in the period.

Zondereinde, in spite of being hard hit by Covid-19 with all stoping crews only returning in March, increased reef tonnage, with significant contributions from the western extension. The last time milled Merensky tonnes at Zondereinde were at the 1 001 678 t level was in 2006.

“Volume growth enabled us to reduce units costs by 5.7% and this number includes the cost of our accelerated development into the western extension, which we expense,” said Dunne.

The increased basket price lifted Zondereinde’s operating profit by more than 184% to nearly R9-billion.

As a result of its increased profitability, Northam’s tax contribution has grown significantly and in this financial year covering the 12 months to June 30, it made the...

Gold, platinum and green metals company Sibanye-Stillwater is moving towards the embrace of radical transparency when it comes to public disclosure on matters relating to tailings facilities against the backdrop of 230 significant tailings failures having taken place globally.

Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman described public disclosure on tailings facilities as a very sensitive issue owing to communities invariably establishing human settlements around these facilities.

Sibanye-Stillwater has 38 tailings facilities in its gold and platinum group metal (PGM) mines in South Africa and the US, 29% of them dormant and requiring maintenance and management.

“The risks have to be managed and disclosed in a very open and transparent way and we are moving to what we call radical transparency because we are so confident in what we are doing we are happy to provide full disclosure,” said Froneman.

Speaking virtually at this week’s University of the Witwatersrand DigiMine event covered by Mining Weekly, Froneman said digital systems were being used to facilitate environmental management performance and governance of its tailings systems.

He said a geographic information system-based tailings management platform with consolidated environmental and performance data had been proven up.

This had been further supported by a digital auditing platform and the inclusion of live phreatic surface monitoring to keep the company acutely aware of the moisture within the tailings facilities.

He described the benefit of the solution as being enormous.

“We now have visualisation and management of key data. We have automated alerts if there are movements or increased moisture levels and we have live internal reporting,” he said.

The future ambitions are to expand the platform capability to cover the company’s global tailings footprint.

“We are a growing organisation so as we grow, we will incorporate this in our new acquisitions and assets.

“We want to roll out advanced phreatic surface monitoring on all our South African tailings facilities and identify and trial new data generating technology,” Froneman added.

The destructive collapse of the large iron-ore slimes dam at the Samarco mine, in Brazil, put pressure on mining companies the world over to apply international best practice standards in upgrading their tailings facilities.

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has launched two new resources to support continual improvement in the safe and transparent management of tailings facilities.

These include conformance protocols for the existing global industry standard on tailings management and the tailings management good practice guide, which represents the culmination of work by ICMM member companies and external experts.

The catastrophic tailings dam collapse at Vale’s Córrego de Feijão mine, in Brumadinho, Brazil, motivated the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), ICMM and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) to convene the Global Tailings Review to develop an international standard for the safer management of tailings storage facilities. The ICMM launched the standard in partnership with the UNEP and PRI on August 5, 2020.

Digitisation has slashed by nearly 70% underground locomotive incidents at Sibanye-Stillwater’s South African gold and platinum group metal (PGM) mines.

The digital locomotive systems improve safety and productivity by managing interactions and logistics.

Already, R330-million has been invested and on the cards is the probable investment of an additional R800-million to improve data volume, velocity and veracity still further.

“When you look at the big picture, we have 1 152 locomotives moving 36-million tons of ore and interfacing with 58 500 of the company’s employees in a confined area,” Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman told this year’s DigiMine event organised by the University of the Witwatersrand and covered by Mining Weekly.

“We have identified 3 600 behaviours and actions for each locomotive per day. These are monitored and used to help guide training and improved behaviours,” said Froneman, who described the size of the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company’s underground South African locomotive fleet as probably being ten times that of Transnet.

“Having data as granular as this is incredibly important to be able to address the bad behaviours that cause accidents,” he added.

Trained and licensed to drive the locomotives with operational excellence and safety consciousness are 4 200 employees.

Multi-source data dual management systems ensure the fitness for operation and data visualisation is used to improve shortcomings.

The solution ensures that employees are fit-for-operation ahead of allowing a locomotive to start, with identification of behavioural trends being provided by visualisation and analysis allowing for targeted interventions.

“We take the information, we show it to the drivers and if they continue to ignore the requirements for proper behaviour underground, we take appropriate action.

“We’ve seen significant safety improvements and this also allows us to utilise all these locomotives far more effectively than we were before.

Future ambitions are to expand the current capability to cover the company’s broader global footprint and the incorporation of artificial intelligence is expected to enhance predictive and pre-emptive analytical capabilities.