Industry intelligence
Energy company Novo Energy launched its
large-scale natural gas compression facility at
the Highveld Industrial Park in eMalahleni,
Mpumalanga. The R130-million facility
represents the most advanced compressed
natural gas infrastructure in the world and will
provide cleaner, more reliable, and cost-effective
energy compared to coal and other petroleum
products. In South Africa’s energy-throttled
environment, this new facility will play a
significant role in helping unlock the country’s
power constraints, while reducing carbon
intensity, and in so doing support the objectives
of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (dti)
Gas Industrialisation Programme.
Commenting at the launch, Novo CEO
Andri Hugo said that natural gas will play
a key role in South Africa’s energy mix
through power generation, thermo-industrial
applications, and transportation. “The vast
natural gas discoveries on the African
continent will provide the key to unlocking our
gas economie,” said Hugo.
The eMalahleni plant, which took less than
six months to build and will operate 24/7,
365 days a year, is a fully automated site with
substantial compression capacity and access
to very large gas supplies. It is described as
a gas aggregation hub and it has a unique
configuration of compressors and loading
facilities and can handle a lot of logistics
through the site and rapidly load the Novo
logistics fleet. It has the ability to refuel
vehicles on site, too.
Implats to build palladium mine in 2021
Impala Platinum (Implats) plans to start
building a new palladium mine that could
begin producing as soon as 2024 as the
company’s outlook for metals turns bullish.
According to Nico Muller, CEO at
Implats, the company plans to start work
on the Waterberg project in South Africa
in 2021. The producer is also considering
boosting output at its jointly held Mimosa
mine in Zimbabwe by 30%, as it bets on a
long-term shift in platinum-group metals
prices, says Muller.
A surge in palladium prices and a weaker
rand are dispelling the gloom that gripped
South African miners just a year ago. The
metal used in pollution-control devices for
car engines is forecast to remain in deficit for
an eighth straight year in 2019, and Implats
isn’t the only company seeking new sources
of supply. The world’s top platinum supplier,
Anglo American Platinum, is studying plans
to ramp up palladium output through the
expansion of its flagship Mogalakwena mine.
“I believe the change in PGMs is structural
and not cyclical, so we are fully confident that
the buoyant market we see today is going
to prevail for the next 10 years,” Muller told
reporters in Johannesburg after announcing
earnings recently.
Implats will exercise its options to increase
its stake to more than 50% from 15% of the
Waterberg project, which is being developed
jointly with Platinum Group Metals and
Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. The
deposit could produce about 450 000 ounces
of palladium and about 290 000 ounces of
platinum a year, initial studies show. The high
proportion of palladium means raising money
is unlikely to be a major concern, says Muller
said. “I don’t see financing to be a material
barrier to our ability to execute the project,”
says Muller.
Palladium’s surge — an acute shortage has sent prices soaring.
The high proportion of palladium means raising
money is unlikely to be a major concern.
www.miningmirror.co.za
Natural gas compression station launched
Novo Energy’s gas compression area.
Bauba’s chrome plant on
target
JSE-listed Bauba Platinum’s new wash
plant at its Moeijelijk chrome mine in
Limpopo, which was commissioned and
started production in November last year,
is producing a spiral feed of about 35 000
tonnes per month. These throughput levels
are exactly what the company expected
when the plant started operating in
January this year.
According to Bauba’s CEO, Nick van
der Hoven, the plant enables the company
to upgrade Moeijelijk’s run-of-mine
(ROM) chrome ore saleable product into
foundry, chemical, and metallurgical grade
concentrates for the Chinese market.
SA granite company
targets export market
Quarrying company Liciatron Granite,
involved in the beneficiation of dimension
stone, has targeted the export market for its
granite.
The company, set up five years ago by
businessman and founder of the Don Suite
Hotels Group, Thabiso Tlelai, has mining
rights for quarrying and beneficiation
of the dimension stone in the Great Kei
Municipality, near East London.
Granite is the world’s most heavily
quarried dimension stone. The global granite
market was valued at USD14-billion in
2016. The global market achieved an annual
growth rate of 3.3% from USD13-billion
in 2013. The growth is forecast to continue
to 2021, with the global market growing to
USD17.68-billion.
Liciatron will be able to extract the black
granite from the mine for the next 23 years,
says Tlelai.
MAY 2019 MINING MIRROR [5]