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Green hydrogen must be made cheap enough to decarbonise optimally at a time when the delay in emission reduction needs to be reversed if the world is to hit net zero by 2050.

A range of factors need to be aligned relating to policy, technology, the circular economy, social buy-in and primary supply.

"We need a whole bunch of technologies to come together to reduce our demand for metals but also to allow green hydrogen to become cheap enough to decarbonise different technologies," Wood Mackenzie metals and mining research VP Robin Griffin told this week's Junior Indaba in a presentation linked to that of Minerals Council South Africa chief economist Hugo Pienaar, who spoke of Eskom's progress as being real and being based on plant performance. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Most of the $23-billion that Australia has allocated to decarbonisation over ten years is going to go into the generation of green hydrogen in the form of a $2/kg production credit.

With China being considerably more competitive, Australia is about to release its own carbon-border adjustment mechanism, similar to what Europe has. This is being done to support developers to bring green hydrogen online, with on-going support being provided to ensure local processing.

Even with the Inflation Reduction Act incentives, North America is still a long way off, being able to supply its own demand.

Needed, too, is the absolute maximisation of scrap metal recovery: "We have a huge growth in secondaries, but it's going to be slow, and we're never going to get to the point where we don't need primary metal and mineral supply," Griffin told the event chaired by mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel and covered by Mining Weekly.

Regarding social buy-in, he said: "People, on the whole, certainly want the energy transition, but they don't want mining and they haven't quite worked out that the energy transition and mining are inextricably linked.

"One of the things that makes life difficult is that the energy transition is so metals-intensive," said Griffin, who displayed a slide which pointed out that demand for copper in offshore wind is 15 times more intense per gigawatt than the demand for copper in a coal-fired power station.

The leveraging from fossil fuel to metal generates enormous potential demand and battery raw materials have massive growth rates.

The ask is enormous and there are all manner of impediments to the required investment rate, not least the practice of mining companies sending a lot of capital back to their shareholders in the form of dividends.

An acceleration of final investment decisions for major projects is needed to close supply gaps.

The net-zero case doubles the demand for copper and trebling it for aluminium, with even cobalt becoming a major issue.

"You need everything, everywhere, all at once to get us on the net-zero path." was Griffin's comment.

Pienaar zoomed in on South Africa-specific commodities and displayed the trends in rands, with the focus on gold, iron-ore, coal and platinum group metals.

On the South African electricity situation, Pienaar made the point that a sustained improvement in Eskom's operational performance will be to the benefit of the domestic coal sector given how much South African coal is used by Eskom.

On South Africa's 50 plus days without loadshedding, he reiterated that Eskom is not burning more diesel.

"In fact, they are burning much less diesel than this time last year. this improvement is not a diesel story, it is really a story of plant performance starting to improve, given increased maintenance over the last 12 months or so, and long may it last. I must say I don't think this is an election gimmick. We think there is there is real progress being made," Pienaar emphasised.

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The huge opportunity that South Africa has to add value to its rich endowment of manganese through local processing was reiterated during the second day of Wednesday's Junior Indaba.

"Specific to manganese, we're certainly very bullish," Manganese Metal Co (MMC) CEO Louis Nel said in response to questioning by Fluor sales director Kudakwashe Maramba during a panel discussion.

Maramba facilitated the panel discussion, in which ENS natural resources and environment practice head Ntsiki Adonisi, Premier African Minerals CEO George Roach and Sylvania Platinum CEO Jaco Prinsloo also participated.

"South Africa is really blessed to have 80% of the world's manganese resources, so I think as a country, South Africa should really take the manganese processing challenge really seriously," Nel told the audience at the event covered by Mining Weekly.

"Manganese is going to be critical. From a mining point of view, there's enough manganese but processing manganese is presenting a huge opportunity and I think as a country, we should take that forward," Nel reiterated.

The 50-year-old Mpumalanga-based MMC is the world's oldest refiner of electrolytic manganese metal, which has for the last decade, predominantly by its customers in Japan, been converted into a manganese sulphate battery product for use in electric vehicles (EVs).

Manganese sulphate now makes up 20% of the Mbombela company's production at a time when the EV market is demanding manganese sulphate, 97% of which originates out of China.

With the big manganese sulphate opportunity rapidly unfolding, MMC now expects its next 50 years to revolve around EVs and battery metals, amid the implementation of America's Inflation Reduction Act and current global geopolitical considerations.

In its traditional steel and aluminium markets, which continue to constitute 80% of its current production, MMC also competes directly with China

The growth opportunity that it envisages for itself is not to substitute its current markets, but to install additional capacity into the manganese sulphate space and to grow via the battery space.

In response to Integral Asset Management CIO Bruce Williamson on the barriers to entry into the manganese sulphate market and whether South Africa has a competitive advantage over China in this field, Nel said that South Africa is unable to compete with China on a cost basis owing to the expensive local cost of capital and the high cost of local processing.

"But on a quality basis, it's much of a muchness," said Nel.

Regarding the barriers to entry, he added that the processing of manganese sulphate presents a technology challenge.

"Globally, there are 12 plants currently making manganese sulphate and 11 of those are in China. There really is no technical ability so to go to a technical resource to help you set up a manganese sulphate plant is hugely challenging, unless you go to China.

"Going to China certainly is an option to get technical resources made available, but it is technically difficult to make high-purity manganese sulphate. The levels of purity required for the battery industry is really tough," Nel responded.

FINANCE DISCUSSION

MMC is in discussions with South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation regarding the funding of an ore-to-sulphate project, on which R540-million will be spent in Mbombela as soon as the details have been finalised.

In the meantime, it is dissolving its 99.9% pure manganese metal, the world's purest manganese metal that is made from manganese fines, and then recrystalising it for shipping as manganese sulphate to meet demand.

With the crystalliser, MMC will be leapfrogging over its own ore-to-sulphate project.

MMC has broken soil and is busy preparing the site for the crystalliser in the same location where the ore-to sulphate project will be, with some extra land, that is available, taken up.

Manganese sulphate is the form in which precurs...

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The world's top diversified miner BHP has made a third unsolicited conditional takeover proposal for smaller rival Anglo American on Wednesday, only hours before its initial deadline for a firm intention to make an offer expired.

The board of London-listed Anglo American rejected the latest proposal of £29.34 a share, but agreed to a one-week extension to the 'put up, or shut up (PUSU)' deadline under UK Takeover rules.

BHP's plan continues to involve an all-share offer, with a requirement for the company to complete two separate demergers of its shareholdings in South Africa-focused Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Kumba Iron Ore to shareholders. The all-share offer and required demergers are inter-conditional.

Anglo estimates that BHP's proposed process will likely take a year-and-a-half or more to complete, whereas the key elements of its standalone restructuring plan, announced last week, will be substantively complete by that time.

"[The latest proposal] does not address the board's concerns about the structure, which results in significant complexity, execution risks, an extended timeline to completion and consequently has the potential for material value leakage to be disproportionately suffered by Anglo American's shareholders," said Anglo chairperson Stuart Chambers.

He said "multiple engagements" with the BHP team were not able to resolve the impasse.

However, Anglo's board left the door open and said it was willing to continue to engage with BHP and its adviser. The PUSU deadline would now be May 29 at 17:00.

Earlier on Wednesday, Anglo major shareholder South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC) said the offer from BHP should reflect both the embedded value of existing Anglo assets and the future optionality and benefits that BHP could derive, specifically from Anglo's unlisted assets.

"This would require a meaningful revision of the current BHP proposal that should take into consideration the material risks that current shareholders of both Anglo and its subsidiaries would have to assume," said the PIC in a statement, before Anglo revealed BHP's third proposal.

Under the terms of the latest proposal, for each share owned, Anglo's shareholders would receive 0.8860 BHP shares and ordinary shares in each of Amplats and of Kumba.

The terms of the latest proposal represent a total value, based on undisturbed share prices as at market close on April 23, of about £29.34 a share. On the basis of the 30-day and 90-day volume-weighted average share prices up to and including April 23, the terms of the latest proposal would value Anglo at £29.91 and £29.67 a share, respectively.

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South Africa's R105-billion green hydrogen, green ammonia project in the Eastern Cape took another major leap forward on Tuesday with the announcement of its underpinning by a cluster of nine solar projects in the very high solar yielding area of De Aar.

The gigascale 1 230 MW solar project is the co-development of a consortium made up of Hive Hydrogen, Akuo Energy Afrique, Africoast Investments and Golden Sunshine Trading, which has been working towards this milestone for the past two years, and follows Hive Hydrogen signing an agreement earlier this year with Genesis Eco-Energy to implement 372 MW of wind power in the Western Cape, also in support of the green hydrogen, green ammonia project at Coega.

Very fortunate for South Africa is that Hive Hydrogen South Africa, co-founded by Hive Energy and BuiltAfrica. is already at an exceedingly advanced stage of conceptualisation and planning at Coega, presenting a far-reaching opportunity to create a key initial hydrogen valley kickstart in a country well-endowed with renewable energy, land, port infrastructure and the minerals and metals needed to be globally competitive green fuel producer.

The one-million tons of green ammonia a year that will be produced by the Coega project will provide clean energy to assist with the decarbonisation of heavy industries and transportation industries.

The big Crossroads Green Energy solar project has been developed on time and well within budget.

"The professionalism and dedication everyone has shown is truly exceptional," Hive Hydrogen South Africa chairperson Thulani Gcabashe stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Hive Hydrogen South Africa is co-founded by BuiltAfrica, which Gcabashe launched in 2009 as an investment and development business focused on sectors that support sustainable development, and Hive Energy, which Giles Redpath launched in 2010 to participate in the solar photovoltaic expansion across England.

Gcabashe is the former CEO of Eskom and the former chairperson of Standard Bank.

Every effort is being made to work with all spheres of government, development funding institutions, and local businesses to ensure that the full potential of the project's impact on the development of the Gqeberha area is realised, at a time when Hive Hydrogen is also collaborating with Itochu Corporation of Japan to develop a least-cost green ammonia solution.

Itochu is a potential strategic equity investor and offtaker from the gigascale green hydrogen project.

Africcoat, Golden Sunshine Trading and Akuo Energy are co-developing a 6 000 MW pipeline of solar energy and wind energy projects for the Coega green ammonia projects.

The Crossroads Green Energy cluster is being developed for phase 1 of the Coega green ammonia project while the remaining projects will are moving through a phased development to meet the future demand in Coega and potential other offtakes.

"We are proud to be working with Hive Energy to realise these strategic projects," Don McGillivray of Africoast Investments stated in the joint release

The green ammonia project, with its one million ton a year capacity, was tabled at the Presidential Investment Summit in Sandton and awarded strategic integrated project status by the Ministry of Public Works in November 2022.

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Private investment company Menar is advancing steadily on the manganese front.

The company's diversification into manganese began in 2021 with the East Manganese project in the Northern Cape, where a second manganese project is now at an advanced stage of assessment, and a manganese acquisition is under consideration.

In addition, Menar is also looking to develop manganese projects in Gabon.

The second manganese project is destined to be an underground operation, amid the maiden opencast East Manganese mine currently producing at a rate of 30 000 t a month of 36.5% manganese ore, which is crushed and dispatched to different customers.

"We decided to do our first bulk shipment out of Port Elizabeth and we did 55 000 t cargo recently, thanks to Transnet's allocation," Menar MD Vuslat Bayoğlu informed Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Great for the manganese mining industry is the rise of manganese prices to the level of $5.36 per dry metric tonne unit. "But obviously there are still challenges on the railway side. We all want to move product to the ports but there are limitations," said Bayoğlu.

Drilling at the second manganese project, on which a feasibility study was conducted, has been under way for the past two years to assess how the ore of this 50-million-ton deposit can be accessed.

Planned is the mining of the lower orebody seam, which has 36% or 37% manganese content. "Currently it looks feasible but obviously we must look at the future prices and developments in the manganese industry going forward. As we all know, the South African manganese industry will go underground at most of the mines, maybe in the next seven to ten years, so it's important for us to keep this project in our portfolio and to develop it at the right time," Bayoğlu explained.

Menar sees manganese as being important for its diversification strategy, with the company also looking beyond South Africa for iron-ore projects.

Menar's plan to soon develop manganese projects in Gabon follows the company's signing of a memorandum of understanding with the government of Gabon earlier this year.

MANGANESE AND NICKEL FOR BATTERIES

Battery manganese and nickel are the two commodities that Menar is looking to contribute to the energy landscape as part of its diversification strategy.

Being increasingly highlighted globally is the upcoming use of manganese in electric vehicles (EVs). Manganese is an alternative system for the batteries and Menar is hoping that its involvement in the manganese industry will contribute to the EV production space. The company's nickel asset in Türkiye is also critical for battery products for EVs and the development of that project is now also on the cards.

The project will create more nickel production capacity for the European market, given Türkiye's proximity to it. To truck to Germany or a critical battery production area in Europe takes about three days.

What is the latest on your anthracite projects, particularly the new Mngeni shaft at Zululand Anthracite Colliery?

Anthracite is key for making steel, for making ferrochrome, ferrosilicon, and ferromanganese amongst other things. We have a very strong local and international customer base. We move products to Brazil, US, Vietnam, Ukraine. Most of these countries need the product for making metals and some of them need it for producing bulk power like in the case of Ukraine and Vietnam. Zululand Anthracite Colliery, or ZAC, is important for South Africa as it is the only producer of prime anthracite. We're producing 8% ash product which is very important for Richards Bay Minerals, Glencore, Samancor, all companies keen on using our products. Hence a new investment for ZAC is crucial because we need to keep the mine operational and keep it viable cost-wise. Starting the Mngeni adit was vital for the life-of-mine at ZAC. We started it about 18 months ago...

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It's no longer good enough to just produce electric vehicles (EVs). You have to produce green EVs, and to do that, you need green steel. To get green steel, you need the green molecules that green hydrogen provides.

To get green hydrogen, you need green electrons from sun and wind renewable energy to power water electrolysis, and the most efficient way of obtaining green hydrogen from the water is to deploy proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers that are catalysed by platinum group metals (PGMs), which South Africa hosts in overwhelming abundance.

Furthermore, hydrogen fuel cells, which are again catalysed by PGMs, beckon as an inviting value-add to South Africa's essential re-industrialisation to meet its net-zero contribution under the Paris Accord.

To contribute at the level that meets our national obligation, South Africa must build somewhere in the region of 30 GW of renewable energy between now and 2030.

While South Africa is experiencing an exceedingly buoyant market in procuring that renewable energy, the scale at which it is now required to ramp up is fairly massive, and the ramping up to the level opens the door for the development of inviting new green hydrogen and green ammonia industrialisation channels.

Very fortunate for South Africa is that a world-class green hydrogen and green ammonia project is already at an exceedingly advanced stage of conceptualisation and planning at Coega, in the Eastern Cape - the well-led Hive project - and this presents the opportunity to create a key initial hydrogen valley kickstart, in the same way that the $10-billion Hyphen protect is initiating a green hydrogen and green ammonia advance in Namibia.

"The opportunities are almost limitless," was the comment of Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) head of infrastructure, energy and telecommunications Mike Peo when he spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview ahead of Nedbank's far-reaching Green Hydrogen Roundtable, which outlined the 17 skills required for the green hydrogen economy and the steps already being taken by South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training and sector education and training authorities (Setas) to provide those skills. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

South Africa stands to gain so much if it takes up the hugely rewarding collective green electron and green molecule opportunity - and to lose so much if it fails to do so.

For instance, if it fails to take up the opportunity, even continuing to export local product to particularly Europe will be threatened by cross-border tariffs.

Supply chains will thus have to go green not only to keep the country moving forward, but to stop it from sliding dangerously backwards.

Encouragingly, at the green electron end, the private sector is procuring renewable energy on a very substantial scale. But there needs to be far more realisation by all stakeholders of the potential re-industrialising boost at the green molecule end - and how this can assist in enabling the creation of more jobs than decarbonisation displaces.

The issue must be centred on how to decarbonise on a just and fair basis, with the just energy transition embedded into the net-zero targets across the broadest of fronts.

HUGE FINANCE CHALLENGE

A huge challenge of the green energy transition is finance. None on the continent of Africa has the ability to match the billions of dollars that, for example, the US is providing to incentivise the generation of green electrons and green molecules.

As a result, Southern Africa's cost of capital is relatively expensive and for this reason, Nedbank CIB in particular is working with global development finance institutions as well as countries intent on importing their climate obligations and in doing so, pay on the buy side by buying green fuels from South Africa.

"We're hoping that creates the same sort of offsets as the big subsidies being seen ...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks Nedbank's belief that Green Energy is a reindustrialisation opportunity for South Africa; Manganese Metal Co's first-mover advance to enter the manganese battery metal market; and Anglo American’s proposed demerging of Anglo Platinum and De Beers, which could mean value elevation for the miner.

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A collective effort was apparent on Friday when Minerals Council South Africa, the Council for Geoscience and the Industrial Development (IDC) spoke on the same platform to promote a return to growth in the shrinking South African mining industry.

Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane, Council for Geoscience CEO Mosa Mabuza, Junior Exploration & Mining Leadership Form chairperson Errol Smart, who is also the CEO of Orion Minerals, Industrial Development Corporation junior mining fund's Siyabonga Mahlangu and many others showed common thought and vision on what must be done.

This was expressed in a webinar that was facilitated by Minerals Council Junior Mining Desk Manager Grant Mitchell and attended online by 120 people.

Junior miners numbering 38 make up more than half of the membership of the Minerals Council, an employer policy promoting organization representing 90% of South African mining by value.

There was overwhelming concurrence that South Africa currently attracting below 1% of global exploration investment must end with the help of working systems that return growth in a sector that has multiple economic and employment benefits.

"As a country, we are certainly going to be one of the key players in the move to transition to a low carbon future and the need to extract critical minerals that are going to be necessary for us for to be able to move forward and achieve a low-carbon future," Mthenjane highlighted.

"To be able to do that it's important that we have a very good understanding of the landscape of our minerals across the breadth and depth of the country.

"We begin to prepare our industry in terms of juniors to be able to play a role in that and to ensure the enabling factors are in place.

"It's important that we look to the future in terms of the growth of the industry and this is where exploration becomes absolutely critical.

"We need to ensure that all the elements are aligned from administration of the law in terms of the various government departments and how they function together to enable mining and exploration to happen.

"The cadastral system must enable very efficient processing of exploration applications.

"Financing is going to be critical. Let's not forget that exploration is also an entrepreneurial venture, and it's faced with pretty much the same challenges as any other entrepreneur.

"But we've seen some positive moves towards that with the IDC fund. But we need much more if you look at the scope of exploration that's going to be required.

With that, I think we will begin to see the mining industry grow again in South Africa.

What I'm really expecting is that we come away with a much better understanding of where we are as a country in an industry that's why as exploration potential it South Africa is located and what its prospects are not too far from now.

"But I think in the in the next six to 12 months that we can really begin to see investment coming through and so with that, and perhaps I should also mention that this webinar is coming at quite an important," Mthenjane told the event at which S&P Global minerals research director Mark Ferguson provided valuable exploration investment statistics.

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The production of green hydrogen, which is most effectively generated when catalysed by platinum group metals (PGMs), has profound economic and social implications, including job creation, skills development, and the fostering of new industries along a multifaceted mining, manufacturing and agricultural value chain.

Encouragingly, the South African government representatives at this week's Green Hydrogen Roundtable at the Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) head office in Sandton, were able to report that Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has identified the skills needed for the hydrogen economy and is taking all-embracing steps to accelerate green hydrogen know-how.

Speaking on behalf of the Minister was Higher Education and Training Department deputy director-general Zukile Mvalo, who informed attendees at the event covered by Mining Weekly that "as a government, we're resolutely committed to green hydrogen, particularly in our efforts to catalyse robust economic growth and generate meaningful employment opportunities, all in pursuing a cleaner, more sustainable energy future". (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Mvalo highlighted that the government is acutely aware of the vast opportunities that green hydrogen presents.

As an energy source that can meet South Africa's net-zero obligations, South Africa is poised to deploy a minimum of 15 GW of electrolysis to produce 500 kilotonnes of green hydrogen a year for use across far more than the often-emphasised transportation, built environment, industrial, and power sectors, and carrying the emission-free energy that PGM-catalysed hydrogen fuel cells can take into several more ecosystems.

"This challenge should be viewed as an opportunity to reimagine our skills development trajectory aimed at sustainable employment creation, a fit for the future, with demand-led skills intervention at the centre," Mvalo said.

"At the centre, I emphasise it is going to be partnership, partnership and more partnership with the private sector," he added.

As emphasised by Nedbank CIB head of infrastructure, energy and telecommunications Mike Peo, green electrons generated by sun and wind energy, and the green molecules that green electrons enable, can be the platform on which the South African economy is reindustrialised.

Peo calculated the opportunities that green energy and green hydrogen provide as being almost limitless.

Meanwhile, the international studies that took Mvalo and his team to Australia, Canada, the UK, France, and the European Union are helping South Africa's Higher Education and Training Department to fill South Africa's emerging green energy skills gap in a world-competing manner.

"Understanding that this is a nascent industry with no current shortage provides us with an opportunity to look at the skills source of supply," said Mvalo, who added that chemical companies can lead interventions with on-the-job training and upskilling.

However, overall, hydrogen qualifications are missing in South African institutions and curriculum revision is needed along with training programmes for lecturers and trainers.

"We must promote green hydrogen as an industry of choice for students and workers in declining sectors, and initiatives like this roundtable are critical to helping the country understand the importance of hydrogen," Mvalo reiterated.

South Africa's Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) is leading the way with the establishing of the first centre of specialisation for green hydrogen skills and CHIETA is working on this with South Africa's mining and transport sector education and training authorities, or Setas, its CEO Yershen Pillay announced at the Nedbank event.

South Africa has 26 universities, 50 technical and vocational education and training, or TVET, colleges and 21 Setas.

On the resources side, South Africa has s...

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"We're very excited to announce that we'll be establishing the first centre of specialisation of green hydrogen skills," South Africa's Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) CEO, Yershen Pillay, made public this week.

CHIETA is working on this with the support of South Africa's mining and transport State Information Technology Agency units, Pillay highlighted at this week's Green Hydrogen Roundtable, hosted by Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB).

The need for artisans and electrolyser technicians for what is expected to be a very fruitful new era of significant near-term growth for the South African economy was emphasised by Pillay at the far-reaching event covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The very efficient proton exchange membrane, or PEM, electrolysers used to produce the green hydrogen are catalysed by platinum group metals (PGMs), which are hosted in the greatest abundance by South Africa, a country also extremely well endowed to provide the abundance of green electrons essential for the generation of green hydrogen molecules.

In addition, green hydrogen is convertible back into green electricity by fuel cells, which, once again, are catalysed by PGMs. Moreover, on the local manufacturing front, industrial-scale fuel cell and electrolyser components are earmarked for production at a facility within the OR Tambo Special Economic Zone, at Johannesburg's main international airport.

Pillay emphasised that the centre of specialisation would be able to produce the required technical skills, while many of South Africa's chemical engineers could conceivably be upskilled to hydrogen systems engineers.

"We need to start planning now for 2030," said Pillay, who emphasised the absolute necessity of the kind of collaboration that the event exemplified in bringing together banking, industry and government, represented on the day by Higher Education and Training deputy director-general Zukile Myalo, who said: "Initiatives like this roundtable are critical to helping the country understand the importance of hydrogen. As a government, we're resolutely committed to green hydrogen, particularly in our efforts to catalyse robust economic growth and generate meaningful employment opportunities, all in pursuing a cleaner, more sustainable energy future."

Structured agreements on mining, transport, manufacturing, chemicals and agriculture are emerging and CHIETA has established a R5-million fund with the University of the Witwatersrand to foster more investment into research and development on green hydrogen.

There are 354 green hydrogen fuelling stations in China for 13 000 PGM-based hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) and Pillay spoke of personally observing one of Japan's 70 green hydrogen fuelling stations that had been repurposed to fuel FCEVs, such as Toyota's Mirai cars.

"We're likely to catch up to the rest of the world and when that time comes, I'm sure that we'll also create jobs for our own people, and that we'll also have some startups and SMMEs," Pillay remarked.

Green electrons and green molecules are presenting South Africa with a massive opportunity to reindustrialise, Nedbank CIB head of infrastructure, energy and telecommunications Mike Peo highlighted during the roundtable.

Peo drew attention to the massive opportunity that South Africa has to begin rebuilding the industrial base that the country has lost over the last 10 to 15 years, amid green hydrogen's significant ecosystem of specific types of opportunity including those involving PGM-based fuel cells to power large mining equipment, trains and FCEVs.

At the other end of the scale, failure to go green could also result in major business hardship. For example, failure to green cold storage transport systems would seriously inhibit the export of fruit and vegetable products to countries with carbon border adjustm...