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The first commercial shipments of graphite concentrate from the Molo graphite mine in southern Madagascar to Germany and the US have been completed, Toronto-listed NextSource Materials has announced.

Container loads of coarse flake graphite concentrate were exported from Madagascar's Tulear port under existing offtake agreements.

These initial container shipments of SuperFlake graphite are destined for key demand markets for higher value graphite products, including refractory materials and graphite foils for consumer electronics and fire-retardant applications.

"This is an important step in our development as a supplier of critical materials to global markets and a contributor to economic development in Madagascar," NextSource president and CEO Craig Scherba commented in a release to Mining Weekly.

Canada-based battery materials development company NextSource is intent on becoming a vertically integrated global supplier of battery materials through the mining and value-added processing of graphite and other minerals.

The company's Molo mine has begun production, with Phase 1 mine operations ramping up to reach nameplate production capacity of 17 000 t/y of graphite concentrate.

The company, chaired by Vision Blue's Sir Mick Davis, is also developing a significant downstream graphite value-add business through the staged rollout of battery anode. Vision Blue is a major shareholder in NextSource.

Facilities are capable of large-scale production of coated, spheronised and purified graphite for direct delivery to battery and automotive customers, outside of existing Asian supply chains, in a fully transparent and traceable manner.

NextSource has long-term offtakes with established industrial partners that account for more than 100% of the expected Phase 1 production of SuperFlake graphite concentrate and CSPG from the company's planned battery anode facility in Mauritius.

Phase 1 is powered by a solar-hybrid power plant that is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 11 300 t/y. Molo is accessible by an all-weather airstrip and a network of regional roads, which allows access to the ports of Toliara and Ehoala at Fort Dauphin.

Mining Weekly understands that former Sasol and Royal Bafokeng CFO Hanre Rossouw will take up the role of CEO of NextSource next month.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Pan African Resources’ listing of a sustainability-linked instrument under the sustainability segment of the JSE; Harmony Gold’s gold recovery project with 30% of building work going to locals; and Anglo American creating an investment proposition focused on copper, premium iron-ore and crop nutrients assets.

Stockpiles of mining tyres are beginning to weigh heavily on the environmental social governance (ESG) targets of mining companies.

Large tyre accumulations visible at some mining operations point to the need for the circular economy to be prioritised.

Extending the life of tyres for as long as possible in mining conditions and then providing recycling options at the tyres' end-of-life is ESG in action.

Ideally, the recycling should enable old waste tyre material to become an integral part of new tyre production.

At the forefront of taking tyre circularity to the highest possible level through thermal conversion is mining tyre group Kal Tire, which has been advancing its intellectual property (IP) of thermal conversion intensively in recent years.

Importantly, thermal conversion of off-the-road (OTR) tyres is able to recover large volumes of fuel oil, major steel tonnages and bountiful carbon black for reuse in new tyre production at a time when mining jurisdictions the world over will likely require some form of mine tyre circularity in the near future.

The company's focal point is its facility in northern Chile, where end-of-life ultra-class tyres are converted to their base elements of carbon black, oil and steel so that these recovered materials can be reused in new products instead of raw materials.

Set up in response to end-of-life tyre legislation in Chile, the facility's thermal conversion processes use heat and friction to induce a process that sees virtually 100% of the tyre reused.

To find out more, Mining Weekly put these questions to Kal Tire VP Southern Africa John Martin. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Are mining tyres being recycled now?

On a global scale, to a certain extent, they are. There are various options that are being used right now, for example, shredding of tyres, or something called devulcanisation or creating rubber crumb. But let's say from a Kal Tire perspective, that's probably more repurposing of the tyre than recycling. Our thermal conversion solution is, for us, probably the most self-contained recycling facility available in the world, designed specifically for mining tyres. In South Africa, the Waste Bureau is responsible for the abatement of tyres, but we certainly wish that could be expanded now to include the mining side of it.

Why would a company like Kal Tire want to invest in the R&D to create mining tyre recycling technology?

First of all, I think it's the right thing to do, and secondly, it was identified as a requirement, probably close to ten years ago, that this is something that the industry needs, primarily driven out of Chile, where legislation then forced, if I can use the term forced, the industry to start with the recycling process. Kal Tire saw that as an opportunity to extend the services, the quality of the services, and obviously these innovations that we bring to the industry. It's a long-term project, of course, and it's not just Chile that requires it. Essentially all mining jurisdictions around the world will require some form of tyre recycling in the future.

How does thermal conversion OTR tyre recycling work?

In general, it's a relatively simple process, but it's quite complex in the way that it culminates in the technology that's inside the facility. We simply collect the tyres from the mine. At that point, we take ownership and custody of the tyre. It's documented from its serial number, and we can then provide evidence to the mine owners that their tyres have been recycled in an ethical and sustainable manner. It gets delivered to the facility, we size it, we clean it. It gets put into the chamber, goes through a pyrolysis-type process, and we generate products at the end that can then go back into the circular economy - simply things like oil, steel, carbon black, etcetera.

What can South Africa learn about how this technology and legislation was successfully adopted in Chile?

The legislation was, of course, key. The legislation in Chile is soli...

With the streaming agreement between Franco-Nevada and Mine Waste Solutions (MWS) over, Harmony Gold will from now on benefit fully from the soaring gold price that is coinciding with the delivery on time and on budget of phase 1 of the15-year-life Kareerand tailings retreatment facility, a high-margin gold-from-dumps project.

Consequently, MWS's free cash flow is poised to increase by more than R1-billion a year, assuming gold's current spot rand per kilogram price.

In addition, inclusive environmental social governance (ESG) upliftment is spreading across Klerksdorp/Stilfontein/ Orkney and Vaal River areas.

Phase 1 of the Kareerand tailings storage facility (TSF) expansion project has increased storage capacity to enable ongoing re-mining of old tailings in the region and extend MWS's life of mine by 15 years to 2040.

Importantly, this facility has been constructed in line with the guidelines of the global industry tailings management standards and now covers an area totalling 900 ha at MWS, which is one of several retreatment entities operated by the Johannesburg-listed Harmony.

With this contract completed, MWS's average gold price received will now be in line with market prices instead of 25% of all the gold produced through MWS going to Franco-Nevada at a predetermined price.

Construction of the reclamation and pumping stations at TSFs 4 and 5 has been completed. Having been commissioned in August, they are now operational in retreating 14 historic tailings facilities.

The phase 2 scope of work entails completing all outstanding aspects related to the construction of the entire area covered by the Kareerand TFS, which includes the installation of the necessary infrastructure and services, to reticulate the tailings for cyclone deposition.

While phase 1 (55% of the project) involved preparing the low-lying basin of the facility, phase 2 (45%) - which is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of calendar year 2025 - applies to the northwestern side of the basin.

In addition to the operation recovering gold at a cost of $1 500/oz, MWS also reflects ESG in action.

On the environmental front, it has already distanced host communities from waste material.

"We've been able to take away many of the tailings that were very close to the community. From environmental perspective that will continue to happen and rehabilitation of those areas is already taking place," Harmony CEO Peter Steenkamp said in response to Mining Weekly at question time during Wednesday's media briefing.

Moreover, from the social side, the news is also very good. "Just in building this project, 30% of the contractor cost in terms of the building work, I'm talking about physically putting down the liners and civil work, had to go to local community businesses.

"So, that's quite a big number and for the Klerksdorp region, extending Mine Waste Solutions, which would have reached its end, now has another 15 years of life, which has a massive impact on the buying power of the 2 400 people in that area," an upbeat Steenkamp added amid Harmony's upcoming project horizon, which will also take the company into copper production."

Many local businesses have benefited from the construction part of the project. Moreover, MWS's fourth stream will create long-term jobs in the area.

Currently, MWS processes three tailings streams - the fourth stream reflecting part of broader expansion plans to increase daily processing capacity from 78 000 t to 86 000 t.

This is equivalent to 28-million tonnes annually, for which the expanded mega Kareerand TSF will have capacity to accommodate the additional residue deposition.

Gold production at MWS will be elevated to a likely 110 000 oz a year over the current planned life of mine to 2040.

On the clean energy front, Harmony is close to turning the first sod for its 100 MW renewables plant, which will not only provide Mine Waste Solutions with green energy, but also provide but also afford sustainability to the group's underground ...

Water power is there for the taking across a broad spectrum of many of South Africa's hard-rock underground mines.

At a time of high electricity prices, the availability of cooling reservoirs at mining operations presents a chance to harness gravity pressurised water that can be used to energise underground impact rockbreaking machinery, former Gullick South Africa technical manager Terry Hamilton made clear to Mining Weekly in an interview on Tuesday. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

This is because water that is dropped down a column to cool underground mines usually gives rise to the availability of 20 MPa to 25 MPa worth of power at its base.

When hydropower was at an advanced stage of development for South Africa's gold mining industry in the late 80s and early 90s, the industry was going through a tough time and the research organisation of the day, the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation, or COMRO, ceased to function in the form that it had been for 30-odd years.

Interestingly, a water-powered impact rockbreaking machine, which generated its own footwall by repeatedly cutting that footwall, was developed by COMRO in 1989 for the non-explosive mining of gold-bearing reef in South African gold mines.

Had COMRO continued with its intense hydraulics research through what was such an uncertain time that it merged with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, water power could conceivably have been playing a much bigger role in mining than it is now, and would likely be powering non-explosive mining, which enables round-the-clock operation, a major production enhancer.

"It could have doubled production," Hamilton recalled.

His confidence stems from the fact that the fourth system introduced repeatedly beat the requirements for 300 m2 per single shift month.

"In fact, it peaked at 390 centaires just for one month, okay, but the average was way above the 300 required, so it was a success," Hamilton reported while going through a pile of many pictures of rockbreaking water power being brought into play with considerable aplomb.

But as this crucial research and development was being commercialized, COMRO was being dismantled. The gold producers committee funded all the research that was done and Hamilton's assessment is that "they pulled the plug".

The book, COMRO'S Legacy, edited by Brian Protheroe, and published by the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy as part of a special publications series, highlights how water, which is there, can be an alternative source of power and how hydraulic power can be used for stope machinery.

Leading mine blasting solutions provider BME today announced a new alignment with Protea Mining Chemicals, which provides one point of contact for two solutions through the BME brand.

In this regard, Mining Weekly put these questions to Ralf Hennecke, the managing director of BME, an Omnia group company. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

In what respects will the alignment of BME and Protea Mining Chemicals offer a more comprehensive value proposition to global customers?

Firstly, the global mining trend, as we need to acknowledge, is really going into more outsourcing of services, like explosives, drilling, chemicals and so forth, and the mining industry in general is relying quite heavily on contractors to transfer skills and knowledge to themselves and to the rest of the industry. So, the alignment between explosives and the chemicals business plays directly into the hands of what we are trying to achieve. This solution offering will contribute greatly to the mining value chain, with the one being a rock-breaking solution, and the other being a minerals processing and minerals liberation solution. Ultimately, those two practices are a little bit intertwined. If we think about blast results and leading up to mineral liberation processes, the better you blast, the easier it is to liberate the mineral at the end of the day, or the easier it is to push the product, or the blasted material, through to the plant. This is not only a change in value proposition for the mining industry in general. It is a value proposition for our own people as well, and it is leading to being an employer of choice, because now the explosives engineers are learning about chemical processing, and the metallurgists are learning a little bit about blasting rock, and how those things are intertwined, so it really helps our company to become an employer of choice.

What safety protocols are paramount when BME Blasting Solutions provides customers with explosives and detonator offerings?

As we all know, safety is paramount, and is a ticket to the game today. It falls squarely into the ESG drive in our industry as well. We offer solutions for the entire product base now, the cost of ownership of our products, and living the life cycle of our products from not only blasting, but also liberalisation of the mineral at the end of the day. Safety in itself, talks to the basics. Today, you cannot live as a miner or as a contractor in our ESG environment without doing the basics right. Safety falls squarely into that. Supply chain security, quality of products, processes, trust in people, application protocols, and in all of those stages and in all of those characteristics that you need to offer the mining industry today, you need to be safe, not only in your own practices and what you're good at, but in today's mining game, you need to be the eyes and ears of your customers and give advice to their own operations and live in that ecosystem of mining production in general.

What hallmarks will BME Metallurgy uphold when it goes about providing mining chemicals and metallurgical solutions to the world?

First of all, having the metallurgists and specialists on the mine who understand the products, who understand the processes, and, most importantly, understand the customer needs. We have fit-for-purpose solutions for the mines. Just to give you an example, we offer chemical products to the mining industry at specific chemical concentrations that are optimised for their processing results or for their geology and their rock in order to liberate the minerals. You get different concentrations of products, and only by living on the mine and living in the space of the customer, can you understand and tweak what the customer ultimately would like to achieve. But we take the whole chemical side and explosive side one step further. Specifically on the chemical side, what we offer the customer is safety solutions from a handling, storage and chemical application p...

The integrity of the global gold supply chain has been the subject of intense scrutiny of late, following a damning report by Swiss nongovernmental organisation SwissAid earlier this year, which claims that illicit gold trade amounts to between $23-billion and $35-billion a year.

However, the introduction of technologies such as the geoforensic passport, optical AI and blockchain - along with the updated Responsible Gold Guidelines (RGG), the more stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) Guidelines and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas - means that much of the framework needed to stymie illicit gold trade already exists.

Further, international gold industry association the World Gold Council (WGC) aims to increase the scope and effectiveness of this framework through initiatives such as the Gold Bar Integrity (GBI) platform, which forms part of its broader Gold247 vision.

Gold247 is meant to enhance supply chain management, while simplifying gold trading processes and increasing access for all stakeholders, including central banks, bullion centres, subsistence gold miners, smaller refineries and potential investors, explains WGC CEO David Tait.

He says that the ultimate goal is a "truly global network where anyone who sits outside the database should be very worried, as the very thought of procuring gold from outside of the system would be unthinkable".

The realisation of such a network is nearly in sight, although both Tait and Argor-Heraeus co-CEO Robin Kolvenbach agree that general fragmentation, both from a regulatory and technological perspective, leaves room for improvement.

The GBI, AI and Blockchain

An integral part of the Gold247 vision is the GBI platform, which encourages the adoption of technology to enhance transparency and traceability throughout the entire supply chain.

The GBI pilot - which was jointly launched by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the WGC and ran from March to July 2022 - helped define the scope of the platform's database. It also revealed longer-term goals, such as expanding the platform to include other gold products, secondary market materials and other precious metals, in addition to incorporating KYC requirements and other due diligence processes when on-boarding customers.

More than 30 participants took part in the pilot, including Rand Refinery and Argor Heraeus.

"We see the GBI as a crucial step forward in preventing ingress of illicit material into the LBMA gold ecosystem," says Rand Refinery CEO Praveen Baijnath.

Argor-Heraeus co-CEO Hans Deutsch agrees, expanding on his company's involvement in the GBI by citing its work with Swiss software company aXedras and US-based software company Alitheon - both of which are recognised by the LBMA.

He notes that the company uses aXedras' Bullion Integrity Ledger, which helps to create "immutable provenance information", while Alitheon's software allows it to verify and trace its physical products.

"If you put these puzzle pieces together with geoforensic data analysis, you get strong systems that can ensure that no illegal gold is entering that supply chain," adds Deutsch.

To illustrate the benefits of Alitheon's optical AI solution FeaturePrint, Alitheon CEO Roei Ganzarski compares it to a human fingerprint.

"Fingerprints are unique; they are inherent and they are persistent," he says, explaining that rather than using proxies, "like barcodes, stamps, tags, markers or tokens" - which can be removed, or faked or stolen to pass off counterfeit goods as the genuine article - FeaturePrint essentially creates a "digital fingerprint" based on the attributes and features that are inherently unique on each product owing to the manufacturing tolerances of that specific product.

Even gold bars produced by the same machinery in the same refinery, using the same moulds, have unique, inherent characteris...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses African Rainbow Minerals’ recent board approval for the construction of a chrome recovery plant at Bokoni platinum mine, a recent report by Merafe Resources, which shows ferrochrome production to be edging back up marginally; and local beneficiation being a good idea, but it needs to make good business sense to work.

Energy and Electricity Minister Kgosientso Ramokgopa's special adviser Silas Zimu has implored South African coal producers to temporarily sell coal to State-owned utility Eskom at a reduced price for the next three years to offset the proposed 36.15% electricity price increase for direct Eskom customers.

In return, coal suppliers would receive extended contracts with the utility.

Speaking to coal industry leaders at nonprofit organisation FFF Carbon's 2024 Middelburg Coal Conference in Mpumalanga, on October 17, Zimu revealed that as much as 65% of the proposed Eskom tariff increase is a direct result of coal prices. As such, he believed that coal suppliers to Eskom were in a position to assist.

"When I look at the 36% tariff [increase] and the operational costs of . . . 65% coming from the coal price . . . can't you reduce it, just for three years? Just give us a special price for three years. If you do, we'll extend your contracts so that you can recover your money later. But you can't allow that 36% now. You are part of the 36% increase, and it's hitting us in our pockets," he said.

Eskom's current tariff increase application, which has been submitted to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for implementation in April next year, will be subjected to public hearings in the coming months before a final determination is arrived at.

Ramakgopa has described the proposed tariff hike as "untenable".

Zimu praised the coal industry for the steady supply of quality coal as being instrumental to achieving more than 200 days without loadshedding but warned that charging Eskom with excessively high coal prices would undermine the already shaky reputation of the coal industry in the eyes of the public.

"If people . . . know that more than half of [the tariff increase] comes from you guys, I'm telling you, you'll be answering [for it] every day," he said.

The South African mining industry is diversifying from the gold mining era to an industry with a diverse range of mineral resources that include platinum group metals (PGMs), chrome, manganese, coal, gold, vanadium, nickel, and rare earths considered critical for the cleaner world economy, Mineral Resources and Petroleum Minister Gwede Mantashe pointed out at the twenty-sixth China Mining Conference taking place in Tianjin.

Mantashe drew the attention of China Natural Resources Minister Wang Guanghua to recent studies that highlight South Africa's remaining attractiveness as a mining investment destination.

These studies were, he said, pointing to the significant potential of South Africa.

While South Africa stood to benefit from PGMs for 200-plus years to come, its manganese and chrome sectors were also poised to play a major role in the global automotive and construction industries.

To enable beneficiation at source and curb the exportation of jobs and profits, discussions were under way with local manganese and chrome producers to promote the creation of value-added products.

Under discussion were the introduction of incentives and favourable tax policies to encourage beneficiation - as well as the imposition of a tax to restrict the export of non-beneficiated minerals.

"I can assure you that South Africa is open for investment in the beneficiation of these minerals. As the biggest importer of manganese and chrome from South Africa, and with the largest ferroalloys sector, we urge the Chinese investment community not only to share your insights on the creation of value-added products, but to also invest in local value addition to the South African ferroalloys sector.

"We invite you to join us in unlocking South Africa's mineral potential by creating a thriving, sustainable and mutually beneficial partnership. Come and introduce cutting-edge processing technologies to drive efficiency and local beneficiation," Mantashe urged.

"We further invite you to invest in localising assembly of lithium-ion batteries as well as vanadium redox-flow batteries," he said, while outlining that the South African government and private sector were collaboratively moving with the necessary speed to eradicate the bottlenecks that had hindered the South African mining industry in the recent past, including challenges with electricity supply and logistical constraints.

Progress in modernising the mining licensing system was also being made: "The first phase of the development of a new efficient and transparent mining licensing system has since been completed, and we are well on course to complete the migration process by June next year," the Minister reported.

With over 100 years of experience in mining, South Africa was blessed with a skilled and capable workforce that could turn China's investments into wealth, he added.