Every Friday, SAfm radio speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript of the interview with anchor Jon Gericke:

Gericke: The Johannesburg Stock Exchange this week helped the economy by cutting red tape and facilitating private capital raising.

Creamer: Yes, the JSE really came to the party and they did so at the Junior Indaba, which means that they are talking to mining. We know that on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada, there are 1 600 small cap explorers. In Sydney, on the ASX, they have 600 junior miners. In Johannesburg there are a minuscule 12, which shows that we are just not having an exploration culture here.

What the JSE is doing is trying to create two things. One is cutting red tape, which makes it easier to get on faster and stay there for longer. The other is that they are allowing private equity to be involved in placings. Now, this is really inventive. It means that you don't have to be publicly listed, but you are still in a very firm structure. This can really help if the government also comes to the party with a flow-through scheme that they have got in Canada. They have been promising it for ages but not delivering. Hopefully government will now.

Gericke: Sedibelo Platinum this week announced its commitment to green hydrogen as part of cleaning up of platinum.

Creamer: This is Sedibelo Platinum. Sedibelo is part of Pallinghurst. Pallinghurst operates in Canada and out here in the North West province. In the North West, Sedibelo is partly owned by the Bakgatla community. It is also partly owned by the State through the Industrial Development Corporation, the IDC.

This is the way Pallinghurst also works in Canada. It has the community, the Cree First Nation, and also Quebec’s IDC-equivalent, IQ. What it wants to do now in South Africa, is be uncompromisingly green, as it is in Canada, because it believes cleaning the air of London and all the big cities around the world with South African platinum, but not cleaning up the North West is hypocritical. What they are doing is that they are also going to bring in the renewable energy. They are cutting the use of power by 80%.

They won't be smelting. They have brought in the Kell Process, and that will be given renewable energy, wind and sun, and the excess will be turned into green hydrogen so the mine haul trucks riding around will be clean and green as well.

Gericke: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.