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

Kamwendo: A woman-led mining company has begun producing and marketing iron-ore from a new mine in Limpopo.

Creamer: This is a one of a kind. This is a woman-led mining company and it is a 100% South African black-owned company and it has got no debt. When have you ever heard of that with a mining company? This company was Lethabo Exploration, but it has transitioned into mining. It has already got an offtake arrangement. That means people buy the iron-ore. Those are all magic words for mining, and there it is in Sekhukhune.

The owners were born and bred in Sekhukhune and they’re intent on staying there, where the mine is near Burgersfort and Steelpoort. They say they know the poverty of the area and they want to try and uplift the area. So, fantastic sentiment from this Lethabo, which is very close to the Minerals Council South Africa. In fact, Mandy Malebe, the CEO, has now got an elevated position on Minerals Council, where she has always been on the junior mining desk. The Minerals Council has been moving her close to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as well.

Hopefully, at some stage we’ll see this company list on the JSE, but at the moment, it is debt free, so it doesn't really have to raise capital. But mines have to keep going and growing and at some stage, the time could well come when Lethabo does list, and when we will hear about Mandy Malebe once again.

Kamwendo: A new South African mining company has announced that it will be listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Creamer: This is Marula Mining. It’s led by an Australian, Jason Brewer. He has come to the Northern Cape, which is highly prospective and where you see companies that used to mine 80 years ago have left surface rock behind. He goes along to that and is told that Blesberg is a former tantalum mine, so is there anything else here? People say they don’t know. He finds lithium in these rocks. Now, the world is just searching for lithium.

He is already exporting that lithium. How quick is that? He’s saying South Africa is very prospective, that there are something like 6 000 old mines here. He said if they were in Australia, people would be reviving them, because that is what happens in most parts of the world. In the meantime, he has got a huge South African partner, that is the Q Global Commodities group. Q is going to put Marula Mining not only on the Aim in London, but also on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. They say they won't be raising capital at the moment, because they have capital, a lot of capital, but as the mines grow, of course, they will likely do that. To have them on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange very good for South Africa.

Kamwendo: South Africa’s newly listed Copper 360 mining company has made a new copper discovery in the Northern Cape.

Creamer: Just look at that. Again, this is about recovering from the remnants of mining that took place 100 years ago. They also walked past a rock dump, found rich copper in it. They then linked up with a mining company that was starting to produce opencast mining there.

They listed on the AltX of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and then started a new drilling campaign, which resulted in the share price of Copper 360 soaring this week, because they have made a new discovery on surface, plus they are going to go into mining soon. This is a pure copper play at a time when the world is crying out for copper. So again, we’re seeing a resurgence of mining in South Africa.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly.