Africa-focused battery metals investment and exploration company Marula Mining’s executive management team is finalising the outstanding logistics and export arrangements for the initial 500 t of spodumene to be sold from the Blesberg project, in South Africa. This initial sale and the receipt of proceeds is expected to be concluded over the next two to four weeks.
Key EV battery material can come from a surprising source: methane
Graphite is key to manufacturing the lithium-ion batteries that power everything from electric cars to smartphones. While China is the world’s top producer and exporter of the crystalline carbon, there’s been a push to grow a US supply chain. Oakland-based startup Molten Industries is working to build it by relying on something that’s cheap and abundant in the US: natural gas. The company has developed a specialized technique to break methane into graphite and hydrogen, the latter of which can be used as a source of clean energy. The effort is funded in part by a $25 million Series A financing round led by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV).
Europe’s EV battery plans fade on China price war, US subsidies
In 2019, France and Germany agreed to pump billions of euros into a plan to boost Europe’s battery industry and catch up with China and the US. Five years later, that effort is running out of steam.
As electric-vehicle sales slow, companies including Volkswagen, Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz are scaling back or refocusing battery projects. Chinese manufacturers are slashing costs and the US is drawing away investment with lucrative subsidies.
Green copper, vapour refining envisaged at Orion’s Northern Cape base metals mines
Green copper and clean smelting and refining are envisaged at Orion Minerals’ quickly advancing base metals mines in South Africa’s well-endowed Northern Cape province, which has historically produced 2.5-millon tons of copper until base metal mining ceased there several decades ago. The fully permitted and already reviving Prieska mine will begin producing its first saleable copper and zinc 12 to 18 months after finalising its total funding requirement, which is estimated at from R3-billion to R4-billion.
Malawi rail upgrades under way, reports Sovereign Metals
Upgrades to the 399 km Nkaya–Mchinji railway section connecting the Malawi–Zambia border to the Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC), are under way, reports ASX- and Aim-listed Sovereign Metals. The railway section runs across the company’s Kasiya rutile/graphite project tenements and it notes that the refurbishment of that part of the railway mainline that connects the Kanengo junction in the Lilongwe district, where Kasiya is located, to the NLC junction at Nkaya, is near completion.
Eskom wins South African appeal to keep five polluting power plants open
South Africa’s State power utility and biggest source of air pollution won an appeal to keep five of its oldest plants open even though they are set to flout incoming emission caps. The plants – which account for almost a quarter of Eskom Holdings’ almost 45 GW of coal-fired generation capacity – will be allowed to operate under current emission limits until the end of March 2030, Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s environment minister, ruled. That will exempt them from more stringent restrictions on pollutants, ranging from particulate emissions to sulfur dioxide, that come into effect in 2025.
Harmony confident of meeting full-year targets, reporting ‘exceptional’ free cash flow
JSE-listed Harmony Gold Mining Company has informed shareholders that it will meet its production, grade and cost guidance for the financial year to end on June 30, and that it continued to generate “exceptional” operating free cash flow on the back of the recovered grades, a higher rand gold price received and sustained operational excellence. In a pre-close statement published on June 20, CEO Peter Steenkamp notes that group production is expected to exceed the 1.55-million ounces guided, while all-in sustaining costs will come in comfortably below R920 000/kg, as guided.
De Beers opens entries for this year’s Shining Light Awards
Diamond Miner De Beers has announced that entries for the 2024 Shining Light Awards (SLA) jewellery design competition are officially open. The competition falls under the De Beers Group Designers Initiative (DBGDI), a youth beneficiation skills development initiative aimed at inspiring, igniting and enabling young jewellers with “world-class” jewellery design and manufacturing skills in each of the De Beers Group diamond-producing countries – Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa.
NGX makes appointments to drive graphite downstream strategy
African graphite explorer NGX has appointed Peter Fox and Surinder Ghag to lead and manage the company’s downstream qualification processes and development strategy for producing battery anode material from its natural flake projects in Malawi.
With these appointments, NGX’s plans to establish a downstream processing pathway to supply anode materials for lithium-ion battery production, taking advantage of the exceptional natural qualities of its low-impurity and low cost graphite projects, due to their soft friable saprolite geology.
South African manufacturer to provide 275 new container wagons to Lobito railway project
Joint venture (JV) company Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR), which is the concession holder for the operation, management and maintenance of the Lobito Corridor spanning Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has placed an order for 275 new container wagons from South African company Galison Manufacturing for an undisclosed sum. The container wagons will be delivered in three tranches, with the first wagons due to arrive in Lobito from the fourth quarter. They will be able to carry 10 ft, 20 ft and 40 ft long containers, providing flexibility in terms of the kinds of loads to be transported.