Interview with Alan Mitchell Clegg. Independent Director of Resource Companies, South Africa

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Interview with Alan Mitchell Clegg

PR.ENG PR.CPM PMP FSAIMM FIOQ F.INST.D NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & BUILT ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONAL ADVISOR BUSINESS STRATEGY; PROFESSIONAL ASSET VALUATOR

mr. clegg, wIth brItIsh cItIzenshIp resident in South Africa, is a Natural Resources & Energy Industry Professional with over 4 decades of experience gained from working natural resource development and construction projects, industries and related supply industries in more than 40 African and in total 160 countries across all the continents.

He is a registered Professional Mining Engineer (Pr.Eng), a registered Professional Construction Project Manager (Pr. CPM), a registered Project Management Professional (PMP), and carries professional Fellowship status with South African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (FSAIMM) and the Institute of Quarrying www.skillings.net | 27

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(FIOQ) as well a professional memberships of many of the related Institutes globally and is a recognized natural resources technical assessment, reporting and project valuation expert with key experience in stock exchange listings and the requirements for successful private equity capital raising.

Mr. Clegg has been intimately involved as Director, executive manager, team leader or member of teams that have completed feasibility studies and/or constructed on ECM, EPC or EPCM basis over 60 Major Projects across all commodities including inter alia Gold and Platinum, Infrastructure Metals, Energy Fuels, Energy Metals, Bulk Commodities, Industrial Minerals, and Dimensional Stones with a combined value in money of today in excess of US$18 Billion over the last 25 years.

He has advised a number of governments on Mining Policy, Legislation & Regulation since 1990, as well as being the architect & executor of practical plans for unlocking the potential value of their natural resources base. Mr. Clegg has been Chairman of numerous high-profile Natural Resources Technical Conferences and Seminars in the industry globally, and is sitting Chairman of the African Union event, The African Mining Summit. He is also an accomplished technical author and speaker of over 40 papers and Journal Articles.

Further, he has been nominated for a number of awards and prizes internationally, including for the prestigious “John Barrie Award” of the PMI (USA) Project Management Institute, for his contribution to Project Management Theory & Practice.

Mr. Clegg is an active Independent Consultant and Competent Natural Resource Project Valuator to the industry globally and has an acute interest in new technologies deployment for improved return on equity and investment in general.

Mr. Clegg held 8 past Board appointments, including 3 at CEO level in International and Multinational natural resource, process engineering, equipment & construction sector companies and has been active as a member and Fellow of the Institute of Directors of RSA & UK and in several other countries keeping fully up to date with highest standards for Corporate Governance in companies and has served and/or chaired numerous Board sub-committees.

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q&a

wIth mr. alan m clegg

How do you suggest can mining companies improve Energy Mix and Energy Return on Investment, both in the short run and in the long run?

“The concept of Energy Return on Investment (“ERI”) is based upon the fact that all motion and action both generates and consumes energy in all its forms, i.e., Human energy, Heat energy, Kinetic energy, Electrical Energy, Mechanical Energy, etc.

Unfortunately, this is poorly understood or even considered in the past and even in many, if not most, current designs for natural resource exploitation projects and mines.

Therefore, Mining Companies today need to get a grip on this concept such that they can ‘integrate and optimise’ energy balancing across the human, engineering, equipment & technology, process, operations monitoring, measurement & management control systems, areas and disciplines that make up a sustainable production unit.

This should be uniquely tailored for each Mineral, Metal or natural resource deposit that is planned to be exploited as it moves along the value chain, short term/early stage to longer term/execution and from, Discovery to Concept and Preliminary Economic assessment (“PEA”), to Prefeasibility, through Bankable Feasibility, to FEED (Front End Engineering Design), and Detailed Engineering with Construction, to Commissioning and ramp-up.

This process will ultimately speak and report to the companies ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) policy, goals and achievement thereof, to attract the right kind and levels of investment required.

What is the best Mining & Energy integration and associated trends that you observe recently?

“This very much depends on the geography and level of economic development prevailing, and is often opposed by a counter-developmental and confused regulatory environment matched and underscored by rhetoric fueled incompetent politics.

This is also impacted by the maturity, degree of development, and levels of investment being made in the Mining and Natural resources sector in any country or jurisdiction within a country, and varies greatly on a global basis.

The two leading jurisdictions are clearly Canada and Australia, followed by Mexico, with some African countries such as Botswana, Namibia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Niger, and Sudan, all moving to de-regulate, encourage and incentivize integrated investment in energy metals and energy fuels.

CLEAR SPECIFIC TRENDS OBSERVED ARE;

‚ Capital deployment focussed to capture

‘GREEN’ related mineral resources and

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metals toward renewable energy generation and storage to offset emissions.

‚ Growing contrarian investment in

Mining, Energy, Construction for

‘GREEN’ manufacturing, i.e., Battery factories, EV’s, Solar Panels, etc.

‚ Increased investment @HOME in

“GREEN ECONOMY” value chain elements and technologies, including conversion and retro-fitting of existing energy industry.

‚ Increased exploration and new technology applied thereto, e.g., Artificial

Intelligence (AI).

‚ Silver demand growth for Solar Panels being constrained in future by the regaining of its recognition as a precious metal and ‘Sound Money’.

‚ Palladium & Platinum repositioning as energy metals for both use in emissions control and Hydrogen Fuel cells.

‚ ESG driven demand for ‘ethical’

Copper, Nickel and Cobalt for EV

Batteries.

‚ Expanded development of mining for

Vanadium (for REDOX type) Gird-Scale batteries and Manganese for new generation EV batteries.

‚ Thermal Coal for ‘base-load’ energy generation and, liquid fuels and aromatics (related with Liquid Organic

Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC)) production (SADC region, India and SE Asia)

‚ Uranium will continue to grow in importance as Nuclear Power is realised more as the most ‘carbon neutral’ energy form and aligned with safer technologies for generation such as

SMR’s (Small Modular Reactors).”

Please say a few words on how “The African Mining Summit” (AMS) has helped nations in the last few years.

AMS, now 7 years in development by organisers GRV-Global and which was described by co-host and Patron, the African Union Commissioner of Trade & Industry (AUCTI), Ambassador Albert Muchanga as an ‘Institution’ growing from strength to strength.

Supported by the AU it has been designed to generate alignment and understanding between member states Ministers and ministries of Mines and Energy and the private sector, to join these key stakeholders in Africa to engage formally in developing and shaping exploitation of Africa’s continental & coastal natural resources and related industrial profile.

This event stands out as the true Pan-African platform for Policy debate and for mobilising the private sector within the African Mining Vision (AMV) as a ‘Blue-

Future technology trends, developing people, mining impact, corporate social responsibility, and sector legal concerns especially around ‘Mining Charters’, localisation of equity ownership, carried interests and empowerment principles are also key areas of debate and discussion between stakeholders.

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print for Structural Transfer of African Economies’; and that the Private Sector Compact (PSC) is under execution as a tool to facilitate dialogue to reduce and share risk created within the African Minerals Governance Framework (AMGF).

Future technology trends, developing people, mining impact, corporate social responsibility, and sector legal concerns especially around ‘Mining Charters’, localisation of equity ownership, carried interests and empowerment principles are also key areas of debate and discussion between stakeholders.

In conclusion, the AMS continues to offer all stakeholders and investors on the continent strong fundamentals in the business and in the progressive project developments.”

DD Team on site (AC Centre).

Throw some light on the investment levels and time required for meeting the political rhetoric around going 'GREEN', from a global perspective.

“The meeting of the prevalent political rhetoric has several dimensions to it.

First, are the irresponsible statements made in abandon by politicians on a global scale, mainly in the western hemisphere, of ‘Goals’ with metrics and time frames related to the roll out of ‘Green’ technologies, including inter-alia Solar PV, Wind Farms, EV’s, energy storage centres, etc., that have no basis in reality and are basically a wish list because they and their advisors simply have not done the math with respect to the raw material inputs, the related value chain with time and capital required.

Second, the same politicians then with no understanding of the value chain immediately create and pass restrictive and prescriptive legislation related thereto, with no awareness or care about the consequences. I am specifically speaking of ESG and permitting requirements and restrictions legislated on the mining and natural resource exploitation value chain from Discovery to production for the increase in raw materials that are required to meet the much-lauded Goals.”

Some agencies like the World Bank, IMF, IFC and EBRD have each recently published their version of what is required in terms of investment by Governments and the numbers varied between US$1.6 Trillion to US$2 Trillion.

So, this clearly indicates that the FED and the ECB with other central banks are going to be printing huge as we move forward to fund all of this and adds further certainty that MMT and the big financial reset is coming. It’s no longer an if, but a when?

What is your opinion on the following: The Red Herring that is 'Anthropogenic Climate Change' Reset of the global financial system and its potential impacts on funding for natural resources exploitation?

SURFACE MINING PROFILES IN MINING

Inspecting Train Load-out Station. Inspecting Old Adits on Zinc Mines, Turkey.

Project Valuation Iron Ore Mine in Turkey (AC 2nd Right).

Climate Change) was formed in 1990 as a think tank. Hypothetical assertions on Global Warming became a PseudoScience as it is based only on factors propagated and published as confirming factors, no opposites or negative evidence is considered.

Western Political powers & Central Bankers saw an immediate opportunity to blame and tax humanity for its purported transgressions against itself and the world. This hypothesis became a new ‘Religion’ driven by/for political gain and legal robbery of the society for something which in truth they have had little or no control over. This Religion continues with the ongoing claims in the IPCC that if we don’t stop producing CO2 the temperature will go up by 1.5 Deg C by 2030 and basically, we will all be inundated by such extremes in Weather that life as we know it will be over. important to state that in absolute numbers measured globally these have not increased! Also, we have recorded dryer areas becoming wetter, deserts greening positively (due to CO2 levels), etc.

THE REALITIES ARE;

‚ Can we expect climate change to continue, Yes!

‚ Is rising CO2 levels an existential threat, No!

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NO, SO2, etc. Locally and regionally in the Industrial focal points, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, Yes!

‚ Can they be cleaned up using new combustion technologies, dilution and capture for economic use, very likely Yes!

‚ Is physical pollution from Plastics and other organic and inorganic wastes a serious threat, Yes!

‚ Can we clean it up using technologies and producing useful Hydrogen, Yes!

‚ Are rising sea levels a threat, No!

Because the land masses are sinking and rising naturally as the continental plates move and in reality, it has very little to do with Ice Caps melting!

Impacts from this will be extremely localised and happen over very long periods of time to allow action to be considered, generally. Of course instantaneous sinking, or rising, or collapse can occur in extreme geological events like earthquakes. But these are ‘Natural’ not ‘Anthropological’ events!

This brings us to Project generation and funding by bankers and institutions. The question that needs to be posed is; If Climate change is such a big issue and we are staring the end of humanity as we know it in the face inside 20 years, then;

A. Why doesn’t a single founding Project Charter or Investment Prospectus mention as a key risk for investors Global warming or Climate change?

B. Why are banks still issuing 30 and 40-year mortgage bonds to private citizens and businesses to build coastal properties (at sea level!)?

C. Why are institutional funds investing billions in 50-year visions for infrastructure and ‘green’ solar energy projects when the ozone layer will be gone and the earth temperature will

drop by 35 deg C!?

D. Why are sovereign governments issuing 50, 75 and even 100-year treasury bonds!? Because it’s all a fraud and a ruse, the greatest perpetrated on humanity of the last century. If it were factual and ‘Truth’, none of the above would occur.

Inspecting Drill Holes in Turkey (AC Kneeling).

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Lithium mining taking place in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. The salar is the world's largest salt flat, at 4,086 square miles (Image: Alamy)