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  1. 12 HRS AGO

    Unleash Africa's energy, critical minerals to uplift continent, Boston Consultancy exhorts

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. With the world's energy transition accelerating and nations scrambling to secure resilient supply chains, Africa has what the world needs. In fact, the continent is seen to be in pole position to contribute to twenty-first-century industrial transition as its minerals are not only essential for clean electrification and digitisation but are also becoming increasingly valuable because of supply bottlenecks and rising geopolitical pressure. With affordable energy, Africa's growth potential can be realised and its transformation potential can be made to extend far beyond traditional mining economics owing its disproportionate ownership of the world's critical minerals. "We're talking about a fundamental shift from resource extraction to industrial transformation - one that can create high-quality jobs, build technological capabilities, and position African nations as essential partners in global clean energy and digital infrastructure development," BCG project leader Lindokuhle Shongwe explained in an online communication session covered by Mining Weekly. Interestingly, given its mineral diversity and existing industrial infrastructure, South Africa emerges particularly well on a continent that is increasingly finding itself at the centre of things. For the first time in generations, the continent has the leverage to shape - not just serve - the next global industrial era, BCG Johannesburg MD and partner Tycho Moencks points out. Key to these comments are two comprehensive BCG studies - the first unpacks Africa's energy status and the second spells out Africa's compelling critical mineral opportunity. Emphasised is the need for Africa to act together, to act credibly and to act now amid BCG calculating that for every $1-billion invested in mining and processing activities, 3 000 to 6 000 direct, indirect and induced jobs can be created, while $210-million to $280-million a year is contributed to GDP in steady state - but affordable energy is key. Additionally, such investments generate $70-million to $100-million in yearly incremental government revenue and drive $100-million in regional infrastructure development. On the financing side, BCG reports a level of innovation, particularly when it comes to blended finance instruments and the coordination of multiple funders behind those blended finance instruments, with development finance institutions (DFIs) assisting. "It's by no means perfect, but we do see some early signals where you get different capital stacks for different parts of the project life cycle, basically a project that is a bit more grant funded at the early stages to allow for technical assistance and feasibility studies to be done, and then more commercially loaded as you get closer towards bankable feasibility, and some of the DFIs playing in the background, helping with the tariff subsidisation to help with initial catalytic capital to get the project off the ground," BCG Johannesburg MD and partner Kesh Mudaly outlined to the online audience. The rubber really hits the road on the details and being seen are the early signs of innovative approaches being taken in Africa to make finance flow. Noted by BCG is South Africa's world-leading position in platinum group metals, combined with substantial reserves of manganese, chromium, and vanadium, and its potential as an anchor of regional value chains and a natural hub for attracting downstream manufacturing investments in battery technologies, renewable-energy components, and advanced materials processing. Reiterated is that "there are no income-rich, energy-poor countries in the world" and pointed out by the consultancy is that Africa faces a major energy access gap and needs to achieve universal energy access amid more than 50% of new connectio...

    5 min

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    More long-term rail certainty through yet another public-private agreement

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. State-owned rail company Transnet on Wednesday reported yet another ten-year third-phase Manganese Export Capacity Allocation (MECA3) agreement, this time with the Tshipi é Ntle manganese mining company, and once again in South Africa's well-endowed Northern Cape. Tshipi é Ntle has Tshipi Borwa, a shallow opencast mine with an integrated ore processing plant, which is located in the 400 km2 Kalahari manganese field, northwest of Kathu. MECA3 is the programme through which Transnet allocates rail and port export volume capacity to manganese producers to secure South Africa's position in the supply chain, while opening up opportunities for economic development and industrial growth. In July, Transnet signed a MECA3 of the same duration with United Manganese of Kalahari and then last month repeated another with Hotazel Manganese Mines, a joint venture operated by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed South32, which has the Wessels and Mamatwan manganese mines, also in the Northern Cape's Kalahari basin. Through the latest agreement, Tshipi é Ntle is provided with rail and port allocation certainty that enables Tshipi Borwa to continue meeting rising global demand for manganese as part of a contract that incorporates joint commitment to supporting South Africa's competitiveness. Transnet Group CE Michelle Phillips described the agreement with Tshipi é Ntle as one that demonstrates the value of aligning logistics and mining strategies to secure sustainable export flows. "This long-term agreement will not only facilitate consistent delivery to international customers but also strengthen confidence in South Africa's ability to serve global markets," Phillips added in a media release to Mining Weekly. Tshipi é Ntle, which means "beautiful steel" in the local Tswana language, emphasises the key role that manganese plays in strengthening, hardening and providing wear resistance to steel. While steelmaking represents the overwhelming primary demand, manganese also has applications in batteries as well as in glassmaking and ceramics. In the human body, manganese activates enzymes involved in metabolism and is consumed for bone health. The partnership aspect of the agreement was emphasised by Tshipi é Ntle CE Ezekiel Lotlhare, who noted that it was a partnership that had underpinned the decade-plus journey of Tshipi é Ntle. Lotlhare views it as something that ensures that Tshipi é Ntle remains on a stable logistics platform in support of the company's growth ambitions while continuing to create value for employees, shareholders and host communities. COAL RAIL AGREEMENT Last week, Transnet signed a coal rail agreement with Exxaro that includes the making of a specific contribution towards the turnaround plan for Exxaro's Leeuwpan coal mine in Mpumalanga. Interestingly, Exxaro is in the process of also entering the manganese mining and marketing field through the purchase of the shareholdings in Tshipi é Ntle of Ntsimbintle Holdings and OM Holdings. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year. For a purchase consideration of R11.67-billion, rising to R14.68-billion with tag-along rights and escalations, the Johannesburg-listed Exxaro will acquire 60.1% effective ownership of Tshipi é Ntle's Tshipi Borwa mine, 50.1% of the marketing rights, 19.99% of Jupiter Mines, 100% of Ntsimbintle Marketing and Trading, 51% of Mokala Manganese, and 9% of Hotazel. Over-and-above all of the agreements being signed by Transnet, South Africa's Transport Minister Barbara Creecy is entering into contract negotiations with 11 private train operating companies to enable them to gain access to the State-owned rail network.

    4 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    IDC, KfW funding green hydrogen, green ammonia project in Northern Cape

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Project development funding for the Prieska Power Reserve Project is being partly sourced from the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which has also approved development funding to the project, has outlined in an advertisement. The green-hydrogen-linked Prieska project, which is located outside Prieska in the Northern Cape, aims to produce 80 000 t of green ammonia a year. It is owned by Mahlako, a women-owned empowerment consortium, and Cenec, a Bloemfontein-based emission energy company that designs and manages solar and wind energy plants. Initiated by Mahlako and Cenec, the project is on privately owned farms of about 1 900 ha, which are sites earmarked for renewable energy generation. While these generation sites are located outside Prieska, a town on the south bank of the Orange River, the green ammonia chemical processing will be located within the industrial area in Prieska, on land owned by the Siyathemba local municipality. The 14 500 t/y green hydrogen content will be produced by a 120 MW electrolyser, and renewable energy sources, made up of 180 MWp of solar photovoltaic and 136 MWp of wind power, will power the electrolyser. The project includes a 45 MW battery storage system to ensure continuous 24-hour operation. Mining Weekly can report that although green hydrogen generation and platinum group metals (PGMs) generally go hand-in-hand and although South Africa hosts most of the world's PGMs, no explicit reference to is made by the IDC to the use of PGM-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers and fuel cells. Interestingly, PEM's global recognition has just been emphasised in a World Platinum Investment Council LinkedIn note, which points out that the US-based clean energy technology firm Ohmium International has opted for PEM, with this observation from Ohmium CEO Markus Tacke: "Our latest Lotus Mark 3 PEM electrolyser system is transforming the economics of green hydrogen production." In addition. Plug Power president and CEO Andy Marsh has pointed out to Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview that PEM technology is at the heart of everything that Plug Power, a US Nasdaq-listed company, does. Plug Power has been a prime mover in the US's platinum catalysed green hydrogen and fuel cell economy and Marsh points out that the adoption by US business of this planet-friendly way of doing things is because it pays to do so. Plug Power built and operates the US's largest liquid green hydrogen plant, a 15-t-a-day liquid hydrogen plant that uses 40 MW of Plug's platinum- and iridium-catalysed electrolysers. Plug Power is involved with more than 80 000 forklift trucks being powered by the 250 hydrogen fuelling stations it has built. Between Walmart and Amazon, there are about 150 sites that use Plug Power's PEM technology to operate around the clock and with the help of Plug Power's technology, these companies talk about moving 8% to 10% more pallets an hour, while also being users of clean energy that mitigates against climate change. PEM electrolysers generate the green hydrogen by splitting water, including sea water, into hydrogen and oxygen. Then fuel cells, which are also catalysed by PGMs, convert the green hydrogen into green electricity for mobility or stationary uses. Moreover, the flexibility provided by liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology, which is being developed by the South Africa-linked German company Hydrogeneous, provides the oily skin for green hydrogen to be transported, stored and traded in the same way as oil and gas is currently. Very fortuitously, LOHC ensures that green hydrogen can be transported and stored using existing liquid fuel infrastructure, including sh...

    9 min

  4. 3 DAYS AGO

    South Africa streaks ahead with exceptionally pure rare earth optimised in Joburg lab

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. South Africa has delivered what is described as "an exceptionally pure rare earth product", which has been optimised in a Johannesburg laboratory. The breakthrough is part of the rare earths recovery project work under way in South Africa, led by Rainbow Rare Earths CEO George Bennett, who on Monday September 1 reported successful results from ongoing testwork for the Phalaborwa project under way in Limpopo province. This very distinctive project, which has attracted favourable global attention, encompasses the recovery and separation of rare earth elements (REE) from phosphogypsum stacks, a waste product from phosphoric acid production, meaning that many of the costs, risks and long timescales associated with traditional mining projects are eliminated. Key components of Rainbow's Johannesburg in-house laboratory testwork have been to maximise and maintain overall REE recovery at 65% while achieving impurity rejection through continuous ion exchange (CIX). The key delivery of a high-grade, low-impurity feed stream to the final separation process to separate rare earth oxides of the desired purity level has been successfully achieved by Rainbow's in-house team. The purification process combining CIX and precipitation steps is a novel combination in REE recovery and demonstrates the special intellectual property in REE extraction that the company has developed. The incorporation of CIX and simplified final separation of only two products is expected to result in modest capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex) for this part of the circuit. At 65%, the recovery of REE from the phosphogypsum feed to the mixed REE product has been in line with recoveries used in the recent interim economic study. These results have been confirmed further through extensive large-scale repetitive batch testing with solution recycle. Savings in power, reagent, labour and capital costs are expected to be brought about by trade-off studies to optimise the primary leach circuit. Moreover, the results of trade-off studies will provide the market with an update as to the potential impact on capex and opex ahead of the publication of the project's definitive feasibility study. As reported by Mining Weekly last year, Rainbow's advance is regarded as being one of the world's most resilient rare earths projects at a time when these elements are in growing demand for use in permanent magnets to help the world go green. Moreover, the commercial recovery of REEs from phosphogypsum makes Rainbow something of a pioneer. The potential to become a very low-cost producer of light and heavy REE, and one of the highest margin projects in development globally, is being increasingly recognised. The West is finally recognising the importance of REE, used in permanent magnets vital to the functionality of many of the products that underpin twenty-first-century society, as well as to emerging and advanced technologies. A number of recent initiatives by the US, Australian and European governments are aimed at improving the economics of, and supporting the financing for, REE projects to rapidly build out end-to-end rare earth permanent magnet supply chains. The recent offtake agreement for neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) between the US Department of Defense and MP Materials utilising a floor price of $110/kg NdPr demonstrated industry acceptance of a floor price significantly above current market pricing required to ensure new sources of supply. Rainbow calculates that it has a high economic grade of rare earths in the gypsum stacks at Phalaborwa, where the 35-million-tonne resource provides a 16-year life-of-project that will recover four of the world's most sought after REEs. Some 150 000 t of these rare earths will be produced at a...

    5 min

  5. 6 DAYS AGO

    Harmony's starting to show the world that gold mining in South Africa is good business

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Harmony Gold Mining Company, South Africa's biggest gold mining company, is proving itself to be a great South African asset and it's booming at the moment, not only because the gold price is so high, but also because this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company has structured itself so well to mine at a depth greater than any other gold mining company on planet earth. Specifically, South Africa saw a phenomenal performance from the gold mine with the world's deepest shaft - Mponeng - which delivered a wonderfully high grade of 11.27 g/t. Mponeng's shaft is 3 891 m below datum and more than 2 000 m below sea level and the sequential grid mining method used helps to ensure that mining does not trigger unnecessary seismicity. Mponeng, which began extracting gold from the Ventersdorp Contact Reef orebody in 1986, is now dishing up a flood of free cash flow, not thanks to Mother Nature alone, but also the result of the human ingenuity that is being applied by Harmony Gold, which is now also moving swiftly into copper in Australia, backed by its success in South Africa. But for now, it is predominantly South Africa's two big, high-grade, deep-level Mponeng and Moab Khotsong gold mines - which are receiving new double-decade life horizons from strong capital investment under way - that are uplifting this company, amid good support from the very promising Mine Waste Solutions and the other surface projects, optimised assets that have been generating consistent and predictable production, as well as Hidden Valley in Papua New Guinea, where Harmony Gold also has high hopes for Wafi-Golpu, a 50:50 copper/gold joint venture between subsidiaries of Harmony and Newmont. "But it's the gold business in South Africa, where it all began, that's starting to show the world that gold mining in South Africa is a good business," Harmony Gold CEO Beyers Nel, 48, pointed out in an interview with Mining Weekly this week following the reporting of record high free cash flow of R11-billion-plus and a record final dividend of R2.4-billion. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The first job of mining engineer and Polokwane-born Nel was as a general underground worker at the Vaal Reefs gold mine as part of a mining graduate programme. This was followed by a linear progression of roles within the gold mining industry, which culminated in his appointment as Harmony's group CEO from January 1 this year. Nel sees the leading of Harmony's 46 000 "valuable people" as his biggest opportunity. Green electrons are expected to flow soon at Harmony Gold's Moab as part of a 100 MW project and there is optimism that the Target 1 gold mine will be a contributing mine in 2026 financial year. In financial year 2025, capital expenditure (capex) rose 32% to R10 998-million driven mainly by the extension projects at Mponeng, the 100 MW renewable-energy project at Moab Khotsong and Mine Waste Solutions' Kareerand tailings storage facility extension, and capex is expected to increase in financial year 2026 to advance growth and sustain mature assets. Mining Weekly: How widespread is the use of sequential grid mining by Harmony? Nel: The sequential grid mining method is a method we use at some of our mines, and predominantly in the West Wits area, where Mponeng and our Kusasalethu mines use this mining method, which structures the mining fronts in a V-formation. What it does is it keeps the stresses that trigger seismicity above the normal levels of seismicity ahead of you. It's a structured, rigid and safe way of extracting ore from these deep mines, and we've seen the preventative controls of seismic management and safety management helping us to mine Mponeng and Kusasalethu, not only successfully but also safely, which is priority number one for ...

    7 min

  6. 6 DAYS AGO

    Martin Creamer talks about: Logistics deal, continuous excavation tech, Harmony's results in focus

    Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Exxaro and Transnet Freight Rail's service agreement to improve the performance of logistics channels; Master Drilling’s new technology that promises “continuous” rock excavation, even for narrow reef extraction; and Harmony's record

    5 min

  7. 28 AUG

    It's records all round for Harmony Gold, Mponeng performance 'phenomenal'

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. It's records all round for South Africa's largest gold mining company Harmony, which on Thursday reported record-high free cash flow of R11-billion-plus at a 16% margin and a record final dividend of R2.4-billion. "We've delivered an unmatched performance with a 54% growth in adjusted free cash flow," an upbeat Harmony CEO Beyers Nel said during the presentation of 2025 financial year results event covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) "We've expanded group adjusted free cashflow margins eightfold over the past four years, whilst sustaining and growing high quality ounces," Beyers added. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed core gold and now also emerging copper producer reported a "phenomenal performance" at its deep Mponeng gold mine plus a solid performance from Moab Khotsong. Mponeng delivered a remarkably high underground recovered grade of 11.27 g/t and progressing at Moab Khotsong is a "very exciting" 100 MW solar energy project. While keeping all-in sustaining costs as guided at $1 806/oz, Harmony excelled at the upper end of production guidance with an output of 1.48-million gold ounces. Harmony's surface operations remain "a quiet powerhouse of low risk and high-margin cash" and R1.4-billion has been invested on the surface mining projects at Mine Waste Solutions and at Hidden Valley, while free cash flow margins remained an exceptional 48%, with R3.8-billion generated in adjusted free cash flow. The Mine Waste Solutions extension project is largely complete and is delivering 100 000 oz of gold annually. Moreover, Harmony has a further 5.7-million ounces and resources in old tailings dams in the Free State alone. The priority in financial year 2026 is the turnaround of the Target 1 gold operation, which is described as 'now showing green shoots" in terms of higher volumes. In copper, the MAC copper transaction is expected to be closed in October, pending Friday's August 29 shareholder vote. Later this calendar year, a final investment decision is expected on Eva copper. "While copper is a near-term catalyst and a structural hedge that enhances portfolio durability, gold remains our core. Our growth plans remain balanced and affordable and designed not to strain the balance sheet or execution capacity. It is focused on value and transforming Harmony into a higher quality global gold and copper producer. UNDERGROUND GRADE UPWARD STREAK Underground recovered grade's upward streak exceeded the upwardly revised grade guidance top end with 6.27 g/t on structurally improved portfolio quality and operational resilience. The main driver of performance has been a combination of high-grade-asset addition and mine extension investment elevated by the sky-high gold price. All this alongside funding approved for major capital projects as well, with cash not only providing certainty but also strategic optionality. "It derisks our capital programme, supports a consistent dividend and positions us to fund our various projects," Nel added. IN EXCELLENT POSITION TO FUND GROWTH PIPELINE Harmony CFO Boipelo Lekubo described the 2025 financial year as "another standout year", in which net cash on the balance sheet surged by 285% to R11.1-billion. As a result, headline earnings a share rose by 26% to R23.37. The main items which impacted earnings included a R3.5-billion increase in taxation and a swing of R500-million on foreign exchange and silver derivatives. Revenue grew by 20% to R74-billion, included in which is a R4.5-billion hedge loss. "We continue to hedge up to 30% of our gold production over a rolling 36-month period to protect and lock in margins. This prudent strategy provides financial stability and flexibility during a phase of elevated capital investment," Lekubo explaine...

    5 min

  8. 27 AUG

    New mining technology is pointing to continuous round-the-clock operation on many fronts

    This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. The new mining technology being advanced by Master Drilling promises "continuous", round-the-clock mining uplift - even when it comes to narrow reef extraction. On the new technology being developed, Master Drilling director Koos Jordaan displayed a slide that repeated the three words "continuous rock excavation" three times over, whether for shaft sinking, tunnelling or reef boring - and precise reef boring with minimum dilution, to boot. Popping up repeatedly as well during this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company's presentation of 399%-higher half-year after-tax profit of $18.1-million was the repeated use of the words "automation, remote operation, robotics, digitisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality." Encouragingly, project after project came with the word "complete", to indicate that the main work needed is already done and dusted. To prove this were pictures of real rigs, real tunnel borers, real reef borers - and even real screen grabs, one of which showed Master Drillings' mine safety technology providing subsidiary A&R tracking of about 75 000 people underground daily, which gives an idea of the amount of data collected, reported, stored, analysed and AI-augmented, to provide clients with ongoing resource management. "I think it's safe to say that the world is changing faster and we're looking at how and where we should position ourselves to be relevant and sustainable," added Jordaan during the presentation covered by Mining Weekly. "In the short term, we're setting up and developing our capability in terms of shaft sinking, tunnelling, reef boring, where we want to offer a solution for quicker underground access. We're also working on solutions to do selective mining, providing higher grade for clients. Then also rig automisation and remote operation," Jordaan reported. A significant amount of operation would, he explained, be done in an autonomous, remote manner to enable safe and efficient performance. Regarding exploration, investment has been made into the development of robotics for materials handling for underground and surface core drilling projects. This is also applicable to projects where remote operation is required in opencast mines for delineation, grade control, reverse circulation, and percussion pre-drilling. Outlined was also the role that geophysics could play in gathering data quicker, easier. The use of AI to make information available quickly was emphasised, with digitisation creating an operational technology platform on which all big data was collectable, processable and integrated to uplift dispatch and everything else. Technology development and trends around the globe are continuing to be monitored by this Proudly South African drilling and mechanised rock excavation technology company that operates in 28 countries across five continents. Regarding raiseboring, which represents 80% of the business, factory acceptance testing has been done for the Bluebot rig, and two of the three large capacity RD6 DC low-profile raise-bore rigs manufactured have been deployed to operations. In addition, a second-generation design for the mobile, smaller capacity slot boring LP 100 rig is scheduled for completion by the beginning of 2026. In slim drilling, the surface concept validation, testing and commissioning of a surface robotic core drilling rig has been completed, making it available for further field trials. The experimental sinking of a shaft was completed at the beginning of this year to get down deeper much faster. Funding is being reviewed and design work done on the next phase, for testing during the first half of next year. In parallel, market engagement is taking place for the pursuit of commercial projects for this service. In tunnelling, a co...

    7 min
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MiningWeekly.com provides real time news reportage through originated written & video material. Now you can listen to the top three articles on Mining Weekly at the end of each day.

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