Mining

High courts rule on coal expansion project.

Aproject to extend the life-of-mine of an anthracite coal mine in a rural community north of Richards Bay will go ahead after several visits to high courts.

Mining at Somkhele was halted in 2022 on the basis of a North Gauteng High Court ruling relating to various permissions not having been obtained by Tendele Coal Mining (a Petmin subsidiary) but in July 2023 a judge of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Pietermaritzburg, ruled that mining could continue.

The case was brought by the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation and other NGOs, including the Global Environmental Trust. A trust holds 20% ownership of Somkhele, of which 80% belongs to a community trust and the balance to an employees’ trust.

Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group, resumed operations at its mineral sands plant and refinery in 2021 but has not yet committed to continuing to invest in a major mine-life extension. The main products of the RBM mine are zircon, rutile, titania slag, titanium dioxide feedstock and high-purity iron.

RBM’s dune and environmental projects, pictured, have so far rehabilitated more than 3 311ha. More than 35 scientific studies have been conducted by scientists from around the world who have studied the company’s methods.

Since 2018, titanium dioxide producer Tronox Holdings has contributed R22-million per year to local communities, including through local procurement opportunities. Tronox exports titanium ore, zircon and other materials to its pigment plants around the world where titanium dioxide pigment is produced for use in paints, plastics and paper. About 21% of the company’s workforce is made up of women. The KZN Sands mineral sands operation comprises a central processing complex in Empangeni and the Fairbreeze Mine.

Most of the product from the smelter (high-quality primary aluminium ingot) is exported but some liquid metal form is sent to Isizinda Aluminium which supplies Hulamin, a company that has had a rolling mill in Pietermaritzburg since 1949. Hulamin is the only major

Online Resources

Council for Geoscience: www.geoscience.org.za

Geological Sciences, University of KZN: www.geology.ukzn.ac.za

National Department of Mineral Resources: www.dmr.gov.za

Sector Insight

aluminium rolling operator in the region and it makes rolled products and extrusions.

The Covid pandemic in 2020 added to the ongoing problem of reliable electricity supply, which is a critical issue for a big energy user like a smelter. After extended negotiations, South32 and Eskom have signed a longterm energy supply agreement for the Hillside Aluminium smelter to 2031.

Other processing facilities in the province include the steel plant owned by Arcelor Mittal in Newcastle and Safa Steel’s metal-coating factory in Cato Manor. Some of the coalfields of the province have been revived.

Luxembourg-based Traxys Africa, which has chrome mines in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, runs a high-carbon ferrochrome plant at Richards Bay. ■