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Many energy projects selling to one buyer, who in turn sells to many mines - this procurement model is seen as a key financial tool to accelerate the energy transition of South Africa's mining industry.

"We think the aggregator model can really accelerate the requirements of the mines to get their energy from green electrons," Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) energy finance co-head Amith Singh emphasised to Mining Weekly in a Teams interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The aggregators trade energy off a single platform for the short-term or the long-term, which provides important flexibility.

This pliable enabler of easier and quicker procurement was given a lot of attention at last week full-house 'Energy in Mining' event in Cape Town, where far-reaching insights were communicated to an audience described as being "very responsive".

"It appears that everyone wants to make a positive difference," Singh noted.

While the energy transition has a strong commercial bent, he senses an equally strong across-the-board attitude of "wanting to do the right thing" for the benefit of future generations.

"Everyone really wants to do more. The appetite there, the equity is there, the debt is there, demand from mines is there, and now it's just about making it all happen," said Singh.

A critical component for mines is to attain net zero, and to assist mines to do so optimally, the aggregator energy structure of many independent power producers (IPPs) selling to one aggregator or one platform is being viewed as a potential panacea.

"Energy aggregators are not traders in the strict sense because they don't sell over the counter or by the hour, but collectively aggregators are called traders in South Africa and they're licensed as traders.

"They take the power from multiple sources and sell it to multiple offtakers, so it's many power projects selling to one buyer, who in turn sells to many mines," Singh outlined.

During Nedbank CIB's 'Energy in Mining' event, ten panellists went into detail on, for example, the mechanisms required for the aggregator model, how this model can be accelerated still further, how its returns impact on IPPs, and whether mines prefer to buy from an aggregator or directly from an IPP.

On the financial front, what is clear is that there is sufficient rand liquidity for long-term lending and the hard currency need of the African continent is also being ably met by huge support from international development financial institutions, together with South African financial institutions.

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Adelaide Ruiters has been slogging away for ten years to get the world's first woman-owned phosphate mine up and running. Now, 2024 looks like being the year she will likely do it.

Ribbon-cutting for Adelaide Ruiters Mining and Exploration (ARME) is now expected around June, July - and being considered, possibly before year-end, is an initial public offering (IPO). (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The main activity of ARME for all this time has been phosphate mineral exploration and mine development in Saldanha Bay, with the aim of developing the Zandheuvel project.

From a person whose first job was that of a music teacher, Ruiters is now within a hair's breadth of fully funding what could be a game-changing, food-critical business venture for South Africa - with potential linked value-added local phosphoric acid production already being pursued.

Ruiters set it all off by going to South Africa's Council for Geoscience, paying next to nothing for data, obtaining a prospecting right, carrying out exploration, securing a mining right, deploying pilot plants and completing the technical aspects of bankable feasibility studies.

With all that in the background, the last few regulatory boxes are scheduled to be ticked by the end of March to open the way for site preparation.

"Together with our partners, we are creating a new phosphate competency for our country, the Republic of South Africa, and the Southern African Region, to serve the food security and agriculture development needs for the South African people," is how Ruiters spells out ARME's mission on the company's website.

In an interview with Mining Weekly, Ruiters outlined the "very good support" she is receiving from South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation, along with the Anglo American Sefa Mining Fund, as well as her joy at having attracted local minority investors ahead of the anticipated IPO.

The plan is to pipe the portion of the product that is earmarked for exportation from Zandheuvel will pipe product it four kilometres to the deep sea port of Saldana, which is about 200 km north of Cape Town.

With environmental friendliness being one of Ruiter's personal passions, the use of diesel will be substituted by an organic canola oil derivative in the planned flotation process. Moreover, the operation will make use of treated effluent water provided by the Saldanha Bay municipality rather than potable water.

"We have done a market study through a company in Europe. We will export some of the product, but we have got a responsibility to also offer it to our local farmers," said Ruiters.

IDC funding is also now being sought for the local production of phosphoric acid, preferably in an industrial development zone, "and, of course, we're looking at a future IPO".

Employment is on the cards for 393 people.

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Minerals Council South Africa is looking at the possibility of promoting permanent aerial mesh support throughout the mining industry as part of its fall of ground action plan.

The Minerals Council has a robust fall of ground action plan that targets several dimensions on the biggest contributor to mining incidents.

"Many mines have adopted permanent aerial mesh support and we're looking at further adoption," Minerals Council head: safety and sustainable development Dushendra Naidoo said in response to Mining Weekly during a media briefing at Investing in African Mining.

As part of the fall of ground action plan, the Minerals Council is also looking at the testing of exoskeletons, wearable devices designed to bolster human performance in physically demanding tasks by supporting various body parts, including the hands, lower and upper back, legs, shoulders and arms. This reduces the amount of energy required when lifting and carrying heavy objects and holding heavy tools.

While exoskeletons are already being used to help workers in a range of industrial applications globally, ranging from painting buildings to warehousing and car manufacturing, not much has been said about how they might be used in mining - one of the most dangerous and labour-intensive industries.

"That's quite a key intervention. We're testing quite a range of these systems to assist in the barring process. So essentially that removes a person from the unsafe rock that could potentially fall," said Naidoo.

Barring is the removal of loose rocks from the walls and ceiling of an underground mine using a long steel pole, is notoriously risky work, with many fall-of-ground deaths being attributed to this process over the years.

Barring causes significant strain on the back, shoulders and arms of even the strongest and most physically fit mineworkers. This makes them unable to do the job effectively for more than a few minutes at a time, after which they become too tired to continue. This can negatively affect the barring and, consequently, put other workers in jeopardy.

Having an exoskeleton can possibly alleviate the need for barring rights close to high-risk areas.

"That's one of the key things that we are going to be testing this year," Naidoo said.

Eight exoskeleton systems from around the world are under scrutiny to see what best option for South Africa's mining industry in terms of implementation, practicality, and cost.

The Isidingo rockdrill is viewed as drilling cleanly, neatly, and simply. Its lightness is key for adaptation for female employees to use underground.

"If you can drill cleanly, neatly, and simply, you can make the blast a far more efficient process by having a cleaner blast.

"Another key thing as part of the fall of ground action plan is we have a rock engineering technical committee comprising skilled people who have been in the industry for many years with very heavy rock engineering expertise.

"They are involved in this programme and their input is key to guide the process and to look at the best way forward.

"We're also looking at seismic monitoring, systems patented in the past that involve acoustic monitoring of the rock and telling way ahead of time wat is happening ahead at the face," he added.

Cleaner cutting systems that can mitigate the need for blasting are also being studied. These could facilitate the clean excavation of rock and are also being looked at for low-profile mining.

In 2021, there were 22 fall of ground fatalities, in 2022, these fell to six and then doubled to back up to 12 last year.

"But if you have a look at the trend, which you must never under-estimate, the hard work that the members are putting in. Its's not a quick pause and tomorrow things will be safe.

"It doesn't work like that. We've got a huge number of programmes. How much effort does it take to come to a trend, to really see that we're on the road to zero harm.

"It's n...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks headlines from the Investing in African Mining Indaba, criminal syndicates identified by Transnet and noise-induced hearing loss displacing TB and silicosis as the top priority health threat in the South African mining industry

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Striving for sustainability in every facet of the gold mining industry's value chain is imperative and while considerable progress has been made in several areas, including responsible practices and reporting, as well as decarbonisation, there is still work to be done in other areas, such as gender parity and bolstering the involvement of junior miners.

This was noted by industry organisation World Gold Council (WGC) climate change lead and market relations director John Mulligan.

Speaking to Mining Weekly from the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, Mulligan averred that the gold mining industry represented by the WGC's member, had shown "great awareness" of most of the key aspects of sustainability, because investors and local stakeholders had demanded it, while societal expectations for this increasing over the past few years had also played a key driving force.

He emphasised that gold and the gold mining industry had a crucial, two-fold role to play in the just energy transition.

Firstly, while the resource is not part of the basket of critical minerals that many governments identify as key inputs in renewable energy technologies, it certainly has a role to play in facilitating both local decarbonisation and resilience.

Secondly, and importantly, Mulligan highlighted the significant role that gold mining could and had played in actually delivering renewable energy projects, with many companies undertaking projects on or adjacent to their operations.

He cited the example of a large-scale solar plant at Gold Fields' South Deep gold mine, in South Africa, where the mining sector exerted pressure on the government to change regulation to allow for self-generation of energy.

In the country, investing in renewable energy projects for own generation has allowed mining companies to decarbonise their operations, buffered them somewhat from the impacts of the country's energy crisis and, as Mulligan pointed out, introduced renewable technologies into areas in the country that may otherwise have been economically unviable.

"Mining companies are therefore able to decarbonise their own operations, while at the same time bringing cleaner energy to remote and rural areas that may not otherwise have had capacity and access," Mulligan acclaimed, adding that this wasplaying out across the continent as well.

"Gold miners can lay claim to being leaders in having brought renewable energy at an industrial scale to the process and having demonstrated to other parts of the South African economy that it is viable."

To engender sustainability in other areas of the gold mining value chain, Mulligan pointed out that key for the WGC had been the launch of the Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs) in 2019.

Compulsory for all WGC members, these are 51 principles and ten overarching principles, which seek to encourage good practice and high standards of performance, across the entire spectrum of responsible business practice.

Mulligan highlighted that this provided tangible proof of responsible mining, as companies had to demonstrate what responsibility meant, and the performance they were designed to encourage was also independently verified.

With the WGC members representing about two-thirds of all global corporate gold mining production, Mulligan asserted that, over the next reporting cycle, a considerable percentage of gold would have been demonstrated to have been produced under transparent conditions in terms of high-quality sustainability responsibility practices.

He informed that reporting began gathering pace last year, after a delay from the pandemic, with about half of the members now reporting full adherence to the cycle.

He also attested to the meticulousness of the RGMPs, with the council undertaking a very "consultative process" in its development - liaising with members about their performance on specific issues, as well as engagements w...

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Africa is going to have a huge amount to do to help solve the world's climate change problems, Toronto-listed Ivanhoe Mines executive chairperson Robert Friedland emphasised in his far-reaching 30th address to the 30th Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

In those 30 consecutive Indaba presentations, Friedland has regularly highlighted the global need to combat climate change along with the critical role that young Africans will play in saving the planet, even though Africa has done the least to damage it.

Last year, humanity experienced the highest temperatures ever recorded.

"This is no joke, and it's not going away," Friedland told the full-house audience at the even covered by Mining Weekly.

In current circumstances, the world's greatest commodity is, no, not copper, but water, "the most valuable commodity on our planet", with only 2.5% of it fresh and humanity facing a looming water crisis.

Ivanhoe Mines is advancing mine development at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel-copper discovery on the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex, mine development and exploration at the Kamoa-Kakula copper discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and upgrading at the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-germanium mine, also on the DRC's Copperbelt.

"As we survey the dry areas in South Africa, which is water stressed, we can find a lot more water and the mining industry will be involved in agricultural development.

"It is, in fact, crucial in what we are trying to do to combine agricultural development with mining. Part of mining with a greater purpose is to develop agriculture around our mines," Friedland said.

Each one degree Celsius increase in temperature causes about a 2% reduction in agricultural output.

While the United States, through the Inflation Reduction Act, was earmarking some $3-trillion of expenditure to try to do something about climate change, two automotive companies, Stellantis and Toyota, were blasting the administration's plan for electric cars on the grounds that the very act of mining the raw materials needed to build the electric cars, is going to destroy the environment.

"Renewables technology is absurdly metals intensive. A typical electric car uses about six times the minerals of a conventional car. An offshore wind farm uses nine times more minerals than a gas car. This is a huge dilemma," said Friedland.

"There's a reason why underwater power cables are so expensive," he said, displaying a huge set of copper-based undersea power cables.

"We're talking about just the copper wire for offshore wind being $267-billion in 2030. Now let's talk about the grid. This is a crazy statistic.

"We need $21-trillion of investment in the grid building 80-million kilometres of grid to allow us to replace the global electrical grid.

"If everybody would go and plug in a Tesla this afternoon, the grid could not deliver. The entire grid needs to be replaced. What are the grids made of? They're made out of metal.

"We have mined as a species, 700-million metric tonnes of copper. We are scheduled to require another 700-million metric tonnes in the next 22 years.

"Where the hell is this metal supposed to come from and how are we going to mine it?

"The United States actually has a government agency that doesn't even have copper listed as a critical raw material. We're going to need a telescope to see the amount of copper we require in the rest of my natural lifespan.

"We've lost about a million metric tonnes of copper supply just this year with the problems with the environmental aspects of a mine in Panama and other surprises.

"The current copper price simply isn't high enough to do an environmentally class job of building giant coper mines in Latin America. Where's the water going to come from?

"And we have the stupid system where all the copper is priced the same. How can we have the same price for copper ...

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Diamond mining and marketing company De Beers is to collaborate with Angola on opportunities to increase diamond production, support alluvial mining sector and enhance social development for the benefit of Angola's citizens.

De Beers on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Angola's National Mineral Resource Agency, Angola's State-owned Endiama diamond company, and Angola's State-owned Sodiam diamond trading company, to support these objectives.

"Angola continues to set an example as a country that has reformed its prospects through enhanced transparency, adoption of internationally recognised best practices and a business-friendly investment environment," De Beers CEO Al Cook highlighted following the MOU signing at the Investing in African Mining Indaba under way in Cape Town.

"This is a strategic partnership with the objective of increasing diamond production in Angola to contribute towards the socio-economic development of our country," said Endiama CEO Ganga Junior.

The MOU extends the partnership of De Beers with Angola beyond the two mineral investment contracts of 2022, which were for licence areas in north-eastern Angola where exploration activities are now under way.

"I look forward to continuing to work with our partners in Angola through harnessing our collective expertise and ambition to support a thriving diamond sector," Cook added in a release to Mining Weekly.

Key areas where the parties agree to work together to consider shared initiatives include reviewing several kimberlite deposits to reassess their economic attractiveness through the application of new De Beers technologies, promoting the transparency and traceability of diamond production, and identifying opportunities to build local community capacity by leveraging the Building Forever sustainability framework of the De Beers Group.

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Noise-induced hearing loss has displaced tuberculosis (TB) and silicosis as the top priority health threat of the South African mining industry.

"I'm emphasising noise-induced hearing loss because the other diseases have gone down markedly whereas as noise-induced hearing loss has not gone down as much," Minerals Council South Africa health department head Dr Thuthula Balfour revealed on day-two of the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

The lowest number of occupational diseases reported to date was 1 924 in 2021.

The 15 years from 2008 to 2021 saw a massive upwards-of-75% decrease in occupational diseases, with the biggest fall being in TB and silicosis and a lesser fall in noise-induced hearing loss, Balfour told a Minerals Council media briefing in which CEO Mzila Mthenjane, Japie Fullard, Dushendra Naidoo and Sietse van der Woude participated.

While noise-induced hearing loss has overtaken TB and silicosis, it must be remembered that coal workers are exposed to lung disease from coal dust, Balfour pointed out at the media briefing covered by Mining Weekly.

Of concern are the significant numbers of mine employees who continue to be exposed to noise levels above 85 decibels and key interventions to eliminate noise at the source are under way.

Balfour urged that companies to desist from supplying equipment with excessive noise levels as the earmuffs meant to be worn to shield employees from loud sound tend to not be worn efficiently especially during high humidity and high temperature conditions.

The elimination of excessive noise is being driven very aggressively "and we are finding a lot of progress", Balfour disclosed.

Being targeted in particular are noisy rockdrill held close to the ear and through partnership, drills that emit far less noise are emerging.

Coincidentally, the less noisy rockdrills on offer are also considerably lighter in weight, which has opened the way for women to become rockdrill operators.

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In 2004, the year South Africa's far-reaching Mining Charter was first introduced, black ownership in South Africa's globally recognised mining industry stood at a negligible 2%.

This has now leapt nearly 20 times higher to approximately 39%, South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted in his well-attended, full-house opening address on day-one of the four-day Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town which is being attended by close to 10 000 people.

"It's fitting that the 30th Mining Indaba is taking place in the year that South Africa celebrates the 30th year of its democracy," said Ramaphosa in outlining the significant transformation that South Africa's mining industry has undergone in the last three decades, after being a pillar of South African's economic strength for one and a half centuries.

Mining continues to account for about 60% of South African exports by value.

Working with industry and labour, the President outlined how democratic government had been able to transform the sector, which was notorious for labour exploitation, human rights violations, and poor health and safety standards during the apartheid era.

Today, the rights of 476 000 people employed by the mining industry are protected and a legal regime confers responsibility on mining companies to provide quality services and promote development in communities where they operate.

There are also a number of employee share ownership schemes through which mineworker participation in mining companies is being promoted.

"We are all acutely aware that we face strong headwinds, and a number of persistent challenges are impeding mining performance.

"Globally, commodity price volatility, high energy prices, geopolitical tensions and a global cost of living crisis are playing a significant role in dampening the business operating environment," said Ramaphosa.

"Domestically, the energy crisis and port and rail bottlenecks are putting serious pressure on miners' operational costs.Illicit mining, cable theft and infrastructure vandalism place a further strain on mining output and returns.

"We're committed to work hard and to work together to overcome these serious challenges," the President added at the event, covered by Mining Weekly.

Last year, the South African government outlined four objectives to develop the sector, improve its global competitiveness and harness the global drive towards sustainable development.

The first was to achieve a secure supply of electricity and several measures to improve the performance of the existing generation fleet and to add new electricity capacity have been taken through the Electricity Action Plan.

The second objective of accelerating economic reforms has resulted in the removal of the licensing threshold for embedded generation, with a third of this capacity supplying the mining load.

The third objective of tackling illegal mining and damage to infrastructure by establishing a specialised police unit, working with the defence force, has resulted in a number of arrests, prosecutions and convictions of the perpetrators of this crime.

The State-owned mining technology agency Mintek has sealed 251 derelict mines and shaft and closure of a further 352 shafts is targeted over the next three years.

Criminal activity, and copper cable theft, has resulted in South Africa's freight logistics system undergoing a process of rapid and fundamental change to improve its efficiency and position it for the future.

Working with the private sector under the auspices of the National Logistics Crisis Committee, the public sector is working to overcome the challenges with ports and rail, with the recently approved Freight Logistics Roadmap guiding this process.

"By introducing competition in freight rail operations, while maintaining state ownership of the routes, we will unlock massive new investment in South Africa's rail system. This will support jo...

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The criminal syndicates that regularly bring South Africa's coal export line to a halt have been identified through the intelligence operations that are conducted by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR).

What is lacking is the ability of law-enforcement agencies to then work on information, see to convictions and ensure that the members of the syndicates are sentenced appropriately and are not released so that they are able to repeatedly resume their criminal behavior.

TFR North Corridor acting managing executive Theo Johnson emphasised this during a nineteenth Southern African Coal Conference panel discussion chaired by McCloskey Southern African Coal Report's Randy Fabi which include Grindrod CEO Xolani Mbambo, Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly, Richards Bay Coal Terminal CEO Alan Waller, and Turing Insights MD Mattias Broder.

Johnson called for an end to criminal syndicate members being released so that they can return to recommit the same crimes.

He highlighted the need for all spheres of government to work together to ensure identified syndicates were meaningfully sentenced.

"Syndicates know exactly where to pounce so that the coal line comes to a standstill and it's something that's of great concern to us," Johnson told the 300 people present at the event covered by Mining Weekly.

Fabi: If you know where they're going to pounce, could you not just increase security around that area?

Johnson: They get smart. When you close one gap, they go on to another. You are not dealing with people who do not know what they are doing. They hit you during shift changes. When you close that gap, they will hit you just down the road and then you come to a standstill.

While the pattern of criminality was now known, a collective move to the next layer of prevention was now essential.

"We need the next layer to be effective so that once they are identified, they can be put away so that we can operate the system.

Fabi: I know you're slowly trying to rewire the train tracks to have less copper. Do you think that will lead to a significant decline in cable theft?

Houghton: We are rewiring. It is a massive project which has to be done while you are operating so we usually target our annual maintenance period when we close the line for about ten days and do the switching project. It's going to take quite long but the good thing is it has commenced now and critical parts of the network are being rewired so that the syndicates no longer steal copper cable from those areas. But when the Tiger wire is cut and it just gets left there, that points to sabotage and those are the incidents that we need to bring to an end.