Mining

Impala Platinum has gained control of Royal Bafokeng Platinum.

Asale that was first mooted in 2021 was finally resolved in June 2023 when Northam Platinum agreed to sell its stake in Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) to Impala Platinum (Implats).

That sale took Implats’ holding in RBPlat to 91% after it had bought 9.26% of the company from Public Investment Corporation (PIC) earlier in the year to give it a majority holding. The RBPlat platinum group metals (PGM) facility, which lies directly south of Sun City, is adjacent to Implats Rustenburg’s land. The Impala Rustenburg operation comprises a nine-shaft mining complex and concentrating and smelting plants.

The big sale coincided with a decline in the global prices of some of the PGMs such as palladium and rhodium. Whereas platinum attracted a price of $1 070 not long ago, in November 2023 it was trading at $869. Although the prospects for PGMs are good in support of the nascent hydrogen economy, a slowing Chinese economy and the expanded market for electric vehicles are negative factors.

In July 2023, as scheduled, De Beers Group celebrated the beginning of production at its Venetia Mine, pictured, in the northern part of Limpopo Province. The long-term, $2.3-billion conversion project of the diamond mine to an underground mine began in 2012 and will extend the life of the mine to 2045 or beyond. The mechanised underground operation will deliver up to seven-million tons of kimberlite ore per year to produce fourmillion carats of diamonds. Construction of the mine, which employs 4 300 local people, is now 70% complete. In the Northern Cape, the Namakwa Special Economic Zone in Aggeneys is being envisioned as an industrial cluster for mining and agriculture services, beneficiation and manufacturing. The hub of this

SEZ will be what is the biggest new mine project in the country, the Gamsberg project of Vedanta Zinc International, which will deliver 600 000 tons of zinc when phase three is complete. The provincial government is using the mine’s multifaceted activities (and possible future smelter) as the basis for the SEZ which forms part of a larger “multi-nodal” corridor envisaged for the province.

Copper is one of the most important elements needed to power the renewable energy transformation and so it’s no surprise that areas mined historically for that mineral in the Northern Cape are now back in the news. Batteries need copper, as do systems used to transmit energy from solar or wind sources. Electric vehicles contain an average of 85kg and, according to the CEO of newly formed Copper 360, Jan Nelson, the world had a stock of copper equal to only three weeks supply at a certain point in February 2023 (Financial Mail, 23 February 2023).

Copper 360 was formed in November 2022 following a reverse takeover of copper producer Big Tree Copper (a producer of copper) and SHiP Copper (a mining company). The company listed on the AltX of the JSE in April 2023. Copper 360 produces 1 200t/y of A-grade copper cathode and has set a target of achieving 7 700t/y inside two years. Three new copper flotation plants are being built at a cost of R280-million. With 280 new employees over the last two years and plans to recruit a further 1 000 staff members in the next two years, global copper demand is clearly also good news for the town of Nababeep. Founded in 1860 by the Okiep Mining Company, Nababeep is in the Namakwa District Municipality just north of Springbok.

An old zinc mine at Prieska that produced a million tons of zinc and 430 000 tons of copper before it closed in 1991 is being revived by Australian miner Orion Minerals. Orion Minerals has secured a funding package of $87-million from subsidiaries of Triple Flag Precious Metals. The funding is conditional on the rest of the plan for the mine’s development also receiving funding and on the approval of South Africa’s regulatory authorities.

Afrimat continues to expand its commodities portfolio with the purchase for R300-million of Coza Mining, an iron-ore mining company in the Northern Cape.

Prospects and exploration

Mzila Mthenjane, the newly appointed CEO of Minerals Council South Africa, the mining industry employers’ body, co-authored an article for the Sunday Times in October 2023 in which it was stated that:

“We would see a relatively quick shift in our economy if the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy expedited approvals for more than 5 000 prospecting and mining right applications and mining permits.”

Citing Stats SA figures that mining employed 477 574 people in Q2 2023 and that for every person directly employed, a further 10 people are dependent on the industry for their livelihoods, Mthenjane and Otsile Matlou, COO of law firm ENSafrica, argued that “billions of rands of latent investments and future spending [are] locked up in these applications”.

Among the things that the authors called for are the introduction of a “transparent, corruption-free, off-the-shelf digital mineral rights management system known as a cadastre”. In August 2023, an announcement was made that a winning bidder for a new cadastral system had been identified for the tender which had gone out in March 2023. Final arrangements still had to made, and the name of the company was not known as of the last week of November. ■

Council for Geoscience: www.geoscience.org.za

Minerals Council South Africa: www.mineralscouncil.org.za

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