THE LEADER VOLUME 12 • NUMBER 3
Another year, a better Indaba in South Africa
Founder and Publisher John Chadwick B. Sc. Min Eng Email: john @ im-mining. com
Editor Paul Moore B. Sc( Hons), M. Sc. Email: paul @ im-mining. com
Editorial Board Professor Malcolm Scoble Robert E. Hallbauer Chair in Mining Engineering., University of BC, Vancouver
Peter Knights Professor and Head of Division of Mining
Stephen Stone West One Management Perth, Western Australia
Dr. Andrew M. Robertson President, Robertson GeoConsultants Vancouver, Canada.
Ed McCord Project Consultant Caterpillar Global Mining, USA
Jason Nitz Fleet Management & Dispatch Superintendent Newmont Mining Corporation, USA
Dr Terry Mudder Managing Director, TIMES Ltd, USA
Simon Tarbutt Consultant, Santiago, Chile
Dr. Mike Daniel Comminution Process Consultant CMD Consulting Pty Ltd
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ISSN 1747-146X
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Dateline: Johannesburg, Rustenburg, Cape Town
South Africa’ s ferroalloy producers are having a tough time. Roskill reports:“ Several producers have reduced output, others have entered business rescue, and some have closed completely.
“ Energy prices, which will probably see double-digit percentage increases in Rand terms, remain an issue – and could eventually put pressure on ferroalloys producers. It is not clear whether higher coal prices( and maybe higher oil prices) will mean even higher electricity prices. Of course, owing to Eskom’ s infrastructure and generation issues, energy availability will also remain a factor.
“ In the vanadium market, the closure of Evraz Highveld in 2015 represented the most important supply-side development in the sector in recent years. In 2014, South Africa accounted for roughly 20 % of global vanadium feedstock production but this figure dropped to below 10 % in 2016. It remains to be seen if South Africa can remain a dominant force in the vanadium market. Glencore’ s Rhovan mine and plant remain in operation, and there are some projects out there – such as those of Ironveld and Bushveld Minerals.”
Last year, the chromite price recovery in the second half,“ driven by Chinese demand for South African ore, saw chrome ore and ferrochrome prices recover to their highest levels since the global financial crisis. A series of takeovers, and price recovery, have started to consolidate and revive the South African sector as bigger producers acquired the assets of smaller, struggling operations.” Traxys has acquired Tata Steel KZN’ s ferrochrome plant, ASA Metals accepted an offer from Tubatse Ferrochrome and Samancor Chrome restarted production at the plant formerly owned by IFM, after acquiring the operation earlier in the year.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 13, leading energy, transport and industry companies launched a global initiative“ to voice a united vision and long-term ambition for hydrogen to foster the energy transition.”
The Hydrogen Council says it“ is determined to position hydrogen among the key solutions of the energy transition.” Its ambition is to accelerate the significant investment of the member companies in the development and commercialisation of the hydrogen and fuel cell sectors. These investments currently amount to an estimated annual total value of € 1.4 billion.“ This acceleration will be possible if the key stakeholders increase their backing of hydrogen as part of the future energy mix with appropriate policies and supporting schemes.”
Platinum will have an important catalyst role in fuel cells, which explains why Anglo American is one of the members of the Hydrogen Council. Johnson Matthey has predicted that the“ platinum market could see surplus in 2017 for the first time since 2011.”
In his keynote address to the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive, Anglo American, noted:“ At our Twickenham platinum mine( Amplats) we have created a system that allows us to develop lowprofile tunnels in hard rock- safely, quickly and costefficiently. This is, as many of you would know, important in preventing the risk of collapse and guaranteeing roof stability in platinum mines.”
There are a number of collaboration projects in the Rustenburg area for hard rock cutting – between Amplats, Impala Platinum and Joy Global for activated disc cutting in stoping – and Amplats and Atlas Copco for a reef borer – as well as Amplats and Sandvik for compression cutting in stoping.
Mining Indaba has striven this year to better meet the changing needs of the African mining community, and the number of mining companies registered was up 32 % compared to 2016 and there were 71 % more investors registered – including 30 investors scheduled to speak, three times the number in 2016.
Commenting on this resurgence, MD Alex Grose noted,“ It’ s particularly pleasing to see a sharp increase in generalist investors signing up from companies like Allan Gray and Old Mutual. To us this illustrates an improved perception of mining equities.”
The launch of the Investment Battlefield, which forms part of the new Junior Miners’ Pavilion in the exhibition hall, was an interesting addition to the agenda for 2017. Junior mining companies battled it out for prizes worth £ 15,000 and invaluable input from a panel of the world’ s leading investors.
Consolidated Nickel Mines( CNM) won the Investment Battlefield competition, with Sula Iron and Gold in second place. The Mining IzIndaba Daily News reported that CNM’ s Simon Purkiss " delivered an outstanding presentation on the company ' s activities." CNM is nickel-focused, aiming to restart the Munali nickel mine in southern Zambia.
This year’ s Mining Indaba agenda was structured around the theme Leveraging the next wave of growth: How can you invest in African mining to make long-term profits? Speakers examined the signs of a rebound in the mining sector, especially in commodities like gold and battery metals.
The expanded agenda covered investment trends and included panel discussions such as Bulls vs Bears: Is the mining sector bouncing back?, while sessions like The voice of civil society: Extending the mining industry’ s contribution beyond the economic and Deleveraging Investment Risk through Sustainable Practice; Water and Tailings took a look at true value-creating business practices. Mining company presentations, commodity performance, country case studies, industry research and panel discussions were also covered.
Power supply for mines was also a dominant feature of the exhibition at Indaba with companies seeking innovative financing and technical solutions for energy generation in African mining.
John Chadwick Founder john @ im-mining. com
MARCH 2017 | International Mining 3