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Investing in African Mining Indaba presenters on Monday spoke repeatedly of the need for Africa to add value to its metals and minerals on the continent itself rather than allowing this to take place elsewhere.

Digging African raw ore out of African ground and shipping it to richer countries for processing was displayed as a practice that must end as fast as possible.

All African countries are now being urged to process mined material in Africa for the benefit of the continent amid the reality of the continent hosting significant reserves of industrially important minerals that include manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, titanium, vanadium, lithium, and rare earths, as well as most of the world's chromium and platinum group metals (PGMs).

With the growing demand for these minerals, it was repeatedly posited on day-one of Investing in African Mining Indaba that the continent has a duty to ensure that its people share in the wealth that African countries host.

African leaders were urged to take charge of the growing demand for critical endowments to implement Africa's industrialisation, South Africa's re-industrialisation and put an end to the export of raw ore.

On the South African front, it was pointed out that South Africa's PGM production alone in 2021 reached a decade-high 285 t and notwithstanding the decline in the PGM basket price, in 2023, South Africa was the world's largest producer of PGMs, accounting for 73% of global new mine supply of platinum, 38% of palladium and 81% of rhodium supply to global commodity markets.

Moreover, South Africa has about 37% of the world's manganese ore reserves, and also leads in manganese production with an output of 7.2-million tonnes in 2023.

But despite the country formerly earning significant value-added revenue by processing the ore domestically into ferromanganese, only 2% of the major manganese ore available is now processed in South Africa.

The same applies to the processing of the large volumes of mined chromium into ferrochrome, also a strong former South African-held market that was badly impacted by the high prices that Eskom began charging for electricity

"We're mindful that for local beneficiation to succeed, we need to guarantee consistent, reliable, and affordable electricity supply. Despite the recent setback, I can assure you that, now that we have reached over nine months with no electricity interruptions, government is working on measures to reduce administered prices, and in so doing reduce the cost of doing business in South Africa," South African Minerals and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe promised during his keynote Mining Indaba presentation covered by Mining Weekly.

"We're also considering sustaining commodity-linked tariffs, as well as consolidating and applying incentives and other existing financial instruments to support and encourage beneficiation," Mantashe revealed.

What is being urged by African leaders is for mineral beneficiation to extend as close as possible to point of production so that the continent can put an end to the export of wealth from communities that are in significant need of it.

"We're, however, alive to the fact that there can be no mining or beneficiation without exploration; hence, our steadfastness to reignite exploration investment and, in so doing, turn South Africa into an exploration site," Mantashe disclosed.

"Our efforts in this regard are beginning to take shape, as evidenced by progress made since we launched the country's exploration fund during the last Mining Indaba.

"During the previous Mining Indaba, we committed to putting in place a new mining licensing system to enhance efficiency and transparency in our systems and thereby guarantee regulatory certainty in the South African mining In...

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Day two of the twentieth annual McCloskey Southern African Coal Conference opened here on Friday with carbon emission reduction being highlighted as one of the coal industry's key challenges.

Electricity and Energy Ministry special adviser Silas Zimu, in delivering the keynote address during the opening session chaired by McCloskey senior VP John Howland, gave recognition to the importance of the pragmatism that had characterised South Africa's coal-dominant energy and electricity sector in recent years as it had worked in tandem with the emerging necessity of renewable-energy generation.

'We really appreciate the cooperation you have given to Eskom," Zimu commented as he spelt out the significant learnings of the past two years in which coal has continued to play its crucial ongoing role, accompanied by the contribution of sun and wind energy initiatives.

"It's not about coal versus renewables. It's to ensure that energy is available, accessible and affordable.

"We've learnt a lot in the past two years. Are we out of the bush? Not yet," Zimu commented as he drew attention to the need for a focus to be placed on clean coal as well as carbon emission reduction, which he noted was already a discernible prospect in Mpumalanga, where most of South Africa's coal-fired power stations are located.

The generation of renewables by Eskom was posed as a good pursuit, as was the cessation of plans to close old power stations.

Interestingly, to reduce emissions further, he reported at the coal conference covered by Mining Weekly that a close look was being given to the manner in which Japan was making use of green ammonia, a derivative of green hydrogen, to generate coal-fired power in a lower carbon manner.

This, Zimu revealed, followed the visit to Japan in December by South Africa's Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, about which the publication ESG Africa reported that Japan's pursuit of a sustainable hydrogen future presented an opportunity for South Africa.

During the visit, Ramokgopa showcased South Africa's commitment to advancing flagship hydrogen projects, such as Boegoebaai and the Coega Green Ammonia Project, and engaged with key Japanese stakeholders, including major financial institutions and trading companies.

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Existing economic reforms now in motion have the potential to lift South Africa's economic growth rate to 3.5% a year by 2029, South Africa Presidency Project Management Office director Sikhulekile (Khule) Duma told the McCloskey twentieth annual Southern African Coal Conference on Thursday.

Delivering the keynote address during the opening session chaired by McCloskey OPIS senior VP John Howland, Duma outlined that independent modelling by the Bureau for Economic Research found that implementing the Phase I reforms could boost real GDP growth by 1.5% above the 2% baseline.

The largest driver of this improvement is fixed investment, which is projected to be 4% higher by 2029.

The government and business partnership report back to President Cyril Ramaphosa every six to eight weeks provides the joint strategic oversight committee to assess progress, provide direction, unblock issues and elevate opportunities across energy, logistics and crime.

Given improved energy availability and access to ports and railways, exports are projected to be significantly better, attaining the nigh-5% growth rate in 2029.

In the reform scenario, real GDP is 7.7%-higher at R399.6-billion by 2029, and investment a 22.3%-higher R196.7-billion.

Duma highlighted that headline initiatives underway through the collaborative efforts between Transnet, government, the National Logistics Crisis Committee and industry to improve the network and rolling stock availability, as well as operational efficiency, included 2024's independent technical assessment of the Richards Bay coal line in KwaZulu-Natal leading to the start this year of multi-year public-private coal line improvement initiatives.

"Our government is committed to our energy mix and coal will continue to have a role," Duma told the conference covered by Mining Weekly.

The Operational Breakthrough Project has a strong focus on operational efficiency and volume ramp-up, with partnerships with the private sector through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal procuring locomotive batteries and compressors for the maintenance of coal export locomotives.

"The involvement of the private sector in rail and ports is the biggest reform we've seen in 100 years," Duma stated during questions time.

On the energy front, the launch of National Energy Crisis Committee 2.0 (NECOM 2.0) was bringing greater focus to the strengthening of the national electricity transmission grid along with market reform.

Targeted under NECOM 2.0 are improving the availability of existing electricity supply, accelerating private-sector investment in generation capacity, fast-tracking procurement of new power generation capacity, unleashing investment in rooftop solar, and fundamentally transforming the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks Richards Bay Coal Terminal's confidence that coal exports can go up to 81-million tons; the role platinum is playing in anti-cancer; and Implats's deal with Discovery Green for its Springs operation.

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Platinum group metals (PGMs), which are hosted overwhelmingly in South Africa, are playing a crucial anti-cancer role as well as making a significant overall PGM contribution to the pharmaceuticals sector.

This has been highlighted by Heraeus Precious Metals, following its acquisition of the platinum-based active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business of Umicore outside of South America.

According to the World Health Organisation, cancer is the cause of nearly one in six deaths and, alarmingly, this number is expected to rise further.

The demand for platinum-based highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) is on the rise with the number of new cancer cases worldwide predicted to increase from 21.9-million this year to 30.2-million in 2040.

Besides their presence in HPAPIs, PGMs are also very helpful for the synthesis of sophisticated API molecules. HPAPIs are described as the key compounds in chemotherapy because they can target cancer cells accurately, Heraeus informs Mining Weekly.

PGMs company Heraeus Precious Metals in 2023 played a role in around 2.3-million cycles of chemotherapy, involving more than 450 000 patients.

Platinum-based Cisplatin and Carboplatin anti-cancer drugs work primarily by binding with DNA.

Additionally, these drugs can induce oxidative stress and potentially modulate the immune response, enhancing the recognition of cancer cells.

Since the 1970s, Heraeus has been selling a broad portfolio of oncology APIs from Germany to the world.

Platinum APIs, especially Cisplatin, Carboplatin and Oxaliplatin, form the backbone of cancer treatment through chemotherapy.

PLATINUM IN COATINGS FOR ELECTROLYSIS

Earlier this month, Heraeus also signed a memorandum of understanding with Jolt Solutions, a Barcelona-based company specialising in the coating of metallic catalysts for electrochemical applications, to optimize the use of PGMs for proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis, using Jolt's proprietary SparkfuzeTM technology.

This faster coating method with low energy demands is scalable and produces surfaces with high catalytic activity and durability.

The two companies aim to explore the use of PGM-based metallic catalysts for PEM water electrolysis. Heraeus Precious Metals sees synergies between the two companies. Whilst utilizing Jolt's patented electrode production technique to produce electrochemical products, the precious metals expert can use its specialties in PGM trading, hedging, PGM sourcing, recycling and recovery to create a valuable closed loop product offering.

Heraeus EVP Business Line Hydrogen Systems Dr Philipp Walter said Jolt's technology competence and ability to tackle and quickly scale development projects is "a very good fit to our know-how and service portfolio around PGM applications".

"We're looking forward to exploring new business opportunities together," was the comment of Jolt Solutions CEO Leon Rizzi.

Meanwhile, PEM electrolysers are gaining increasing traction in the transition to a hydrogen economy owing to their dynamic response time.

The production of green hydrogen through PEM electrolysis of water is seen as a very suitable concept to enable storage, transportation and deployment of the produced renewable energy.

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The London Aim-listed Sylvania Platinum is looking forward to the Thaba Joint Venture introducing a chrome revenue stream.

On its way to becoming the first platinum group metals (PGM) beneficiation facility for primary chrome ore and tailings on the northern part of the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, the joint venture will have chrome beneficiation and PGM processing plants treating a combination of run-of-mine (RoM) material and historical chrome tailings.

Sylvania and Limberg Chrome Mine will share equally in the PGM and chromite concentrate revenue once the on-schedule project comes on stream, which is expected to take place in the second half of financial year (FY) 2025.

Meanwhile, the RoM plant commissioned at Lesedi is expected to achieve steady state operation towards the end of the third quarter of FY2025, specialist studies required by the regulators for the Volspruit project are being finalised to allow for the submission of the water use licence application, and the company continues to explore potential disposal options for the Hacra asset as a result of Sylvania focussing its exploration activities on the shallower mineralisation of the Volspruit and Aurora projects.

Sylvania describes itself as being a lower-cost PGMs producer with its South Africa-based dump operations made up of six chrome beneficiation and PGM processing plants focusing on the retreatment of PGM-rich chrome tailings materials from Bushveld mines.

Millsell, Mooinooi, Lesedi, Doornbosch, Lannex and Tweefontein are chrome beneficiation and PGM processing plants, treating a combination of RoM and current and historical chrome tailings at host mine-sites.

The commissioned column flotation cell at Millsell is in an optimisation phase to improve PGM concentrate quality and payability.

In the three months ended December 31, the company's dump operations recorded 17%-higher net revenue of $25.7-million quarter-on-quarter.

"The second quarter of FY2025 was a very positive one," Sylvania CEO Jaco Prinsloo reported in a release to Mining Weekly.

Group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were a 104%-higher $6.7-million and the $77.5-million cash balance was in line with expectations.

Cash unit cost fell by 3% while direct operating costs increased 4% compared with the previous quarter.

The annual production target of 73 000 oz to 76 000 oz has been maintained for the year.

Interim financial results are scheduled to be released on February 18.

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In 2017, Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) exported a record 76.47-million tons of coal on the 907 ships that called in that year and chairperson RBCT Nosipho Damasane believes that exports can be uplifted to the 81-million-ton level, because when Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) does have a cracker of a day, RBCT is able to handle and move the equivalent of that volume - plus.

Rail volume recovery is the biggest go-get essential, with derailments and security issues in the first part of last year holding back cubic measure in a manner that South Africa should not allow to occur ever again.

"The key to our success has always been collaboration with Transnet," was Damasane's comment against the background of collaboration having never been more ardent.

On the export front, the team has been able to meet the equivalent of a 91-million-ton performance in its catch-up after recent bad weather to the build-up of a queue 15 vessel representing 1.3-million tons of coal.

"I'm comfortable that we certainly have the capacity. If we're asked to run at the 81-millions or peak higher than that, even with a reduced number of people that we've got, we're fully equipped to meet whatever's thrown at us," RBCT CEO Alan Waller told the media briefing attended by Mining Weekly,

Efforts to restore operational efficiency are being intensified through the National Logistics Crisis Committee, with joint initiatives that are coming from Business South Africa, Transnet, from the industry stakeholders, customers, and Minerals Council South Africa, and "we are beginning to see stability coming through the process," said Damasane, with breakthrough projects being tackled together.

Rail reform to make things better for Transnet is the next essential, with line scope increase and third-party involvement needed.

The mutual co-operation agreement with Transnet enables RBCT to procure compressors, batteries on a recovery basis.

This agreement is used where industry can do something faster or more efficiently and although it is not an automatic go-to and must be motivated within both structures, it has certainly worked well in several areas.

"There's really good collaboration between the teams in coming up with the technical specifications, bearing in mind that Transnet still has to own the infrastructure, own the spares, and make it work," Waller outlined.

Infrastructure assessment is being done jointly and a key value-creation project coming out of that is the reinstatement of signalling between Ermelo and Richards Bay, where cable theft has decimated the rehabilitation of the signalling systems.

"We're hoping that an award will be made in the next month or so, and that's probably about a 12- to 15-month initiative," Waller stated.

On its own, this project is set to unlock about seven-million tons of coal, which would be a significant gain to the value chain.

RBCT is engaging with Transnet to understand who is best positioned to do this work, along with how it will be done and funded.

Third-party operators are seen as a positive that needs to happen.

"But until we get the base infrastructure restored, it's going to be very difficult to run additional trains. So, industry's focus has been a collaborative focus with TFR and TRIM to get the base infrastructure reinstated.

"At that stage, we then understand what the locomotive capacity is, and you can understand whether there is capacity for third-party operators to take place.

"We also have collaboration on major incidents. If we do have derailments, where we can rally together and get quicker responses, then the industry will assist in that regard.

Meanwhile, the benefits of the work of breakthrough teams have already been apparent in terms of daily operations and the efficiencies, which has help...

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South Africa's Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in KwaZulu-Natal exported 52.08-million tons of coal in 2024, up on the 47.21-million tons of 2023, which was the lowest since 1992.

RBCT's budgeted target for this year is 55-million tons on a contracted rate of 60-million tons.

Once again, most of the coal - 84.5% of it or 43.99-million tons - was exported to Asia, with 25-million tons going to India and 2.37-million tons to Pakistan.

The Europe offtake was 4.8%, through mainly Netherlands and Germany, Morocco and Mauritius the main takers under the Africa heading and the 3.9% to the Middle East take going mainly to the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

"Operations remained reliable and efficient, with a positive trend in volumes," RBCT CEO Alan Waller told a media briefing attended by Mining Weekly. Prestigious for South Africa is that Waller has been elected the chairperson of the International Coal Export Terminal Operators Association, CETOA.

In 2017, when the private-sector terminal exported a record 76.47-million tons of coal on to the 907 ships that called at the terminal in that year, RBCT was the chosen as the Global Ports Forum Bulk Terminal of the Year.

In close collaboration with Transnet, RBCT is edging forward promisingly amid the State-owned rail enterprise managing to rail 51.91-million tons to it in 2024.

RBCT's mutual cooperation agreement Transnet, which was signed in November 2023, is bearing good fruit.

The mutual cooperation agreement involves Transnet and RBCT to jointly explore opportunities for joint investments in rolling stock assets and infrastructure to uplift performance South Africa's coal industry in the north corridor.

Collaborative RBCT, Transnet and Rapid Rail Police effort has been under way to cut the export cycle time on certain aspects of the corridor and to decrease loading and offloading time of the coal received from 69 South Africa collieries.

Copper cables are routinely targeted because of copper's monetary value on the scrap metal market, the changeout plan to aluminium conductor steel reinforced (ACSR) has advanced well.

RBCT began 1976 with an export capacity of 12-million tons a year and now has a design capacity to export 91-million tons a year,

It has grown into a technologically advanced 24-hour primary source of export coal leaving South Africa, using its 276 ha site has a quay that is 2.2 km long. It has six berths, four shiploaders and a stockyard capacity of 8.2-million tons.

With four shiploaders, RBCT can process 900 vessels a year to serve the markets in Asia, Europe, South America and the rest of Africa.

RBCT's coal exporting parties are Glencore, African Rainbow Minerals, Sasol, Seriti, Thungela, Exxaro, Kangra, Liberty Coal, South Dunes, Quattro Junior Miners, Black Royalty Minerals, Tumela Coal Mines, South African Coal Mine Holdings and Umcebo Mining.

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The demand-surpassing production of metallurgical coal, in spite of the availability of environment-friendly alternatives for steelmaking in particular, is highlighted in the launch of a metallurgical coal exit list that goes beyond the thermal coal exit list that was first published in 2017 and focuses on new metallurgical coal mine plans and expansions.

The metallurgical coal exit list is published by Urgewald, Reclaim Finance, BankTrack, SteelWatch, Global Energy Monitor, Coal Action Network, Coal-Free Finland, Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance, Ecodefense, Rainforest Action Network, and The Sunrise Project.

Urgewald director Heffa Schuecking emphasises in a release to Mining Weekly that technologies now available allow for the phasing out by the early 2040s of steel-sector metallurgical coal and urges financial institutions to stop bankrolling expansion of the metallurgical coal industry, amid the iron-and-steel sector being responsible for 11% of global CO2 emissions.

The Critical Raw Material Alliance is quoted as acknowledging a 37% surpassing of demand as a result of many of the largest metallurgical coal mining companies continuing to advance new production, regardless of crucial climate change imperatives to cut back on the use of coal.

The metallurgical coal exit list identifies 160 mining companies that are pursuing 252 metallurgical coal expansion projects in 18 countries, with planned enlargement poised to increase current production by 50% through the provision of 551-million more tonnes a year.

"Our data reveals that most metallurgical coal expansion projects - and the companies behind them - are concentrated in Australia, Russia and China. Australia is the world's metallurgical coal exporter, and India and Japan are among the primary destinations of its exports," Urgewald states.

A joint venture involving a Sydney-, London- and Johannesburg-listed major, Urgewald adds, plans to extend the life of the Peak Downs mine in Australia by 93 years. If approved, the mine would continue operating until 2116, which places a significant question mark over public company commitment to achieving a net-zero carbon emission position by 2050.

Urgewald reports that metallurgical coal can be up to three times more polluting than thermal coal, which the UK government had to acknowledge when the UK High Court in September overturned its decision to approve a new metallurgical coal mine. Burning the extracted coal for steel production would have unleashed carbon emissions equal to more than half of the UK's total 2022 emissions.

While 183 financial institutions have adopted policies on thermal coal, the non-governmental organisation Reclaim Finance is quoted as finding that only 16 financial institutions have policies covering metallurgical coal, out of which 11 are banks, four are asset managers and one is an insurer. Three of these financial institutions are from Australia and the rest are headquartered in Europe.

While the scope of most metallurgical coal policies is limited to direct project finance, Reclaim Finance's research indicates that project-level financing represents only a tiny proportion of total financing received by companies with metallurgical coal expansion plans.

The Swiss insurer Zurich is identified as having adopted one of the best metallurgical coal policies in that it excludes new metallurgical coal mines as well as the companies developing them.

Urgewald metallurgical coal research head Lia Wagner calculates that metallurgical coal represents almost 13% of total coal production and that financial institutions need to address what she describes as a "gigantic blind spot in their coal policies".

Reclaim Finance private finance campaigner Cynthia Rocamora states that there is no reaso...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the launch of the Global Tailings Management Institute in South Africa; the Blyvoor gold mine's boost; and South Africa’s incentives for New Energy Vehicles that could give rise to taxis that are powered by green hydrogen.