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.
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.
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 Africa now a compelling world investment story, upbeat Orion highlights
“The sun is finally shining on us,” an upbeat Orion Minerals CEO Errol Smart enthused during an Australia/South Africa webinar on Wednesday, when he outlined how South Africa has become one of the world’s most compelling short-term investment stories. Predicting that this country’s investment narrative would super heat over the next couple of weeks, he pointed out how strongly this was advancing Orion’s Prieska copper project, where trial mining has been under way for some time, as well as Orion’s high-grade Okiep copper project, which is following closely behind.
Diamcor seeks to extend closing of second tranche of revised private placement
Diamond mining company Diamcor Mining is seeking to extend the closing of the second tranche of its non-brokered revised private placement following its announcement on June 4 that it had closed the first tranche. The company previously indicated that the original offering, announced on May 1, would be oversubscribed. Diamcor is therefore seeking additional time to accommodate and finalise the documentation and related required items for several additional interested investors.
Taseko restarts mining at Gibraltar
Midtier copper miner Taseko Mines is resuming operations at its Gibraltar mine, in British Columbia, on Wednesday, as a labour agreement have been ratified.
The company announced earlier this week that it had reached an agreement with the union representing workers at Gibraltar. The new agreement will be in place until May 31, 2027.
Infinity Lithium’s San Jose project declared of regional interest
The regional government of Extremadura, Spain, has awarded Premia status to Infinity Lithium’s San José, streamlining the permitting process for the lithium venture.
The ASX-listed company’s project is now recognised as one of regional and general interest, expediting its progression through governmental channels.
Fast-greening Richards Bay Minerals now eyeing on-site renewables, storage, aggregation
Energy-intensive Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), which consumes an average of 1.8 terawatts of power a year, was able to secure its latest 140 MW wind energy power purchase agreement (PPA) in six months. When operating at full capacity, RBMs, power consumption across its mining and smelting operations can reach up to 400 MW and this month’s quickly concluded wind PPA was, in fact, the second renewable-energy project of this Rio Tinto company.