3 min
Fantastic advance by Proudly South African manganese battery metal first-mover Mining Weekly Audio Articles
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Proudly South African Manganese Metal Co (MMC) of Mbombela, Mpumalanga, is making a fantastic first-mover advance to enter the manganese battery metal market, which is advancing super-fast.
To be established is a faster stream to market, which is not only ahead of the global game, but also provides time for this remarkable value-adding company to become a manganese-ore-to-sulphate producer from its current position of being the producer of the world's purest 99.9% pure manganese metal from manganese fines.
"From Mbombela, this is a phenomenal exponential expansion - the South African story taking a big step forward," MMC chairperson Bernard Swanepoel explained to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview in which MMC CEO Louis Nel provided detailed insight. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
MMC has taken the decision to enter the electric vehicle (EV) battery market to meet the urgent needs of some of its customers, who are already taking their own steps to do so by melting MMC's fantastically pure manganese metal and turning it into manganese sulphate themselves.
MMC is now not only following some of its customers, but also becoming a supplier to new entrants.
Manganese is a key component. It brings strength and is relatively cheap when compared with some of the other minerals that go into batteries.
But as much as there is an abundant supply of manganese ore as such, there is absolutely limited capacity to make pure manganese metal, which MMC has been doing for half a century.
"Outside of China, it's only us," said Swanepoel.
While continuing to provide its traditional offering to export markets, MMC will now also be using its pure manganese metal to produce manganese sulphate for batteries, ahead of launching a manganese ore-to-sulphate project.
For 50 years, MMC, described by South Africa's Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies organisation as "a South African industrial jewel that could be much bigger than what it is today", has been transporting manganese waste - fines - from the manganese fields of South Africa's Northern Cape.
It also has well-established logistics to get the manganese metal that it produces from those fines to the ports of Maputo and Durban, and to international markets.
"So, for us, this is not an additional new challenge. There's a cost associated with it, but that is the cost that every supplier in the world faces. We mine where the orebodies are, we beneficiate where there's a competitive advantage, and we need to supply the product in the shape and form that the users want it, where they want it.
"We certainly think in time, some of our facilities may be offshore, but right now, from Mbombela, this is a phenomenal exponential expansion - the South African story taking a big step forward," Swanepoel highlighted.
This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.
Proudly South African Manganese Metal Co (MMC) of Mbombela, Mpumalanga, is making a fantastic first-mover advance to enter the manganese battery metal market, which is advancing super-fast.
To be established is a faster stream to market, which is not only ahead of the global game, but also provides time for this remarkable value-adding company to become a manganese-ore-to-sulphate producer from its current position of being the producer of the world's purest 99.9% pure manganese metal from manganese fines.
"From Mbombela, this is a phenomenal exponential expansion - the South African story taking a big step forward," MMC chairperson Bernard Swanepoel explained to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview in which MMC CEO Louis Nel provided detailed insight. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
MMC has taken the decision to enter the electric vehicle (EV) battery market to meet the urgent needs of some of its customers, who are already taking their own steps to do so by melting MMC's fantastically pure manganese metal and turning it into manganese sulphate themselves.
MMC is now not only following some of its customers, but also becoming a supplier to new entrants.
Manganese is a key component. It brings strength and is relatively cheap when compared with some of the other minerals that go into batteries.
But as much as there is an abundant supply of manganese ore as such, there is absolutely limited capacity to make pure manganese metal, which MMC has been doing for half a century.
"Outside of China, it's only us," said Swanepoel.
While continuing to provide its traditional offering to export markets, MMC will now also be using its pure manganese metal to produce manganese sulphate for batteries, ahead of launching a manganese ore-to-sulphate project.
For 50 years, MMC, described by South Africa's Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies organisation as "a South African industrial jewel that could be much bigger than what it is today", has been transporting manganese waste - fines - from the manganese fields of South Africa's Northern Cape.
It also has well-established logistics to get the manganese metal that it produces from those fines to the ports of Maputo and Durban, and to international markets.
"So, for us, this is not an additional new challenge. There's a cost associated with it, but that is the cost that every supplier in the world faces. We mine where the orebodies are, we beneficiate where there's a competitive advantage, and we need to supply the product in the shape and form that the users want it, where they want it.
"We certainly think in time, some of our facilities may be offshore, but right now, from Mbombela, this is a phenomenal exponential expansion - the South African story taking a big step forward," Swanepoel highlighted.
3 min