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: South Africans were this week urged to ‘recycle like there’s no tomorrow’ at a top scientist event in Midrand.

Creamer: This was organised by Oppenheimer Research. There were 450 scientists there from all over the world. There was huge concern about climate change and nature loss. What they were saying there, is that the information scientists decide to share should have no barriers in the world, that no political divide should stop these scientists from being able to communicate, because they are warning that we are at the 11th hour when it comes to climate change. We see terrible climate happenings around the world, more frequent hurricanes, more frequent floods.

What they saying is that to tackle climate change, you have got to stop nature loss. This was the big thing. Don't let nature shrink anymore. When they looked at Africa, they were very concerned about the Congo Basin. They say this is a world lung, but the tropical forests are being removed there at a rate which is quite alarming, and the tree shade is no longer around this basin as a world lung should be shaded. They were saying that each individual now can do something and that is to “recycle like there’s no tomorrow”. That can be what every individual does. But at higher level, these scientists are determined that they don't want any political barriers around the world to stop them from communicating so that they can get into stopping nature from being lost and hit climate change.

Kamwendo: A project that adds huge local value to a mineral exported from South Africa this week took a major step forward.

Creamer: We have been waiting for this beneficiation project to advance for some time. We talk about mineral beneficiation in South Africa, but we do very little to see that it is implemented. Now Nyanza Light Metals is setting out to change that. They have been showing a lot of character in refusing to give up for 18 years, and now, at the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), bulk site works have begun to show that this value addition to minerals sands project is going ahead.

Africa has got fantastic mineral sands on its coastline and inland and for decades we have been taking ilmenite out of this mineral sand and exporting it. That is great, but as Nyanza points out, if you beneficiate this into titanium dioxide pigment, you can earn prices that are ten times higher than the price obtained for ilmenite. This is what South Africa should be looking to across a broader front when producing metals and minerals. The titanium dioxide pigment that Nyanza is taking steps to produce goes into so many things. It goes into paint, it goes into paper, goes into plastic, virtually everything you touch, clothing. What Nyanza has done is they have worked an agreement with East China Engineering, an engineering procurement and construction company.

They have signed an agreement and once they have got these bulk earthworks done, in will come East China Engineering to then build the other structures, and it is going to cost a lot of money. Then hopefully, by 2027 they will be able to earn ten times more for something we just export now without any value addition and have been doing so for a long time. Hopefully, Nyanza will keep on expanding because there is such a big market and such a small percentage will be snatched by South African through the initial 80 000 t/y production. Even with this plant that they put in, that there is huge scope for ongoing expansion, and once they have got proper infrastructure in there, expansion is going to cost much less than the high initial capital of $860-million.

Kamwendo: A new gold-from-dumps operation west of Johannesburg managed to cut its capital costs by R300-million.

Creamer: This is the Mogale Tailings Retreatment Project It is a gold-from-dumps project. It is out on the West Rand, near Krugersdorp and Kagiso, in Mogale City. It has been an incredible project, because it should have cost R2.8 billion because of just changing the type of contract style they had, they were able to clip R300 million off the capital expenditure amount, taking it down to R2.5-billion.

It’s a project that might never have gone ahead, because illegal miners were taking over this area and the previous owner actually sold to Pan African. Pan African were able to buy the dumps and dams containing 1.1-million ounces of gold reserves for $1 per ounce of gold. With the gold price now at $2 600 an ounce, the chances of really turning that dump dust into wealth are huge. At the same time, because of the security they have set up there, the illegal mining is a pale shadow of its former self. There is no resemblance to what it was like before, when they used to complain about the huge weapons that illegal miners were carrying there at night, which was so dangerous.

So, just through focusing, South Africans can really turn gold dumps into wealth for the benefit of all stakeholders, including the local community. There are already 1 600 jobs there. Pan African has joined hands with the local community and this is something the Gauteng province, the province of gold, can pursue across a far wider horizon of the many dumps that can still be turned into cash.

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