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

Gericke: Ferroalloy producers are partnering to fine-tune a new technology that reduces the need for lots of electricity.

Creamer: This is fantastic news that can re-industrialise South Africa. South Africa always dominated ferrochrome. We were the biggest in the world. We did very well in ferromanganese, but we lost out because Eskom pushed the electricity price sky high. Now, what has happened is that African Rainbow Minerals, headed by Dr Patrice Motsepe, and Glencore South Africa Operations,  are working together to lower the power factor, so you use much less electricity and you get that market back, which will be incredible for South Africa, because it would mean that we again add value to our dominant metals here. We beneficiate so that rather than simply being price takers, we return to being price makers. We heard from the EU yesterday this is what we should be doing and this is what the EU will help us to do – beneficiate. This is what we can do in ferroalloys and get back some of the global market share that we lost. The technology is there. They will know by May whether they will go ahead and commercialise this very convincing technology that is Proudly South African.

Gericke: A new method of mining slender stretches of platinum will be a game-changer when it is introduced in January.

Creamer: South Africa is very blessed with valuable platinum reef. But some of the reef is big and some of it is small. Now, at Bokoni Platinum Mines in Limpopo, the reef is only about 60-cm high. So if you start cutting it out, you have got a lot of waste and that lowers your percentage of profit. What has happened now is that it is again African Rainbow Minerals, headed by Dr Patrice Motsepe, which has been doing this research for decades and now, they are trying to get in there with narrow-reef machines and they’re succeeding. They are going to do boring of the narrow reef and that they hope to start by January, which is pretty quick. It will mean that Bokoni mine on Limpopo will be turned around and become very profitable.

Gericke: Mining company Exxaro is successfully boosting small business, education, mined-out areas and farming.

Creamer:   This is unbelievable. You know, here you have got a Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company. They put R2-billion into socio-economic activities and the payoff is substantial. We see 500-plus small businesses spawned and the way they do it is these small businesses supply the mine. So, they have got a guaranteed income. Then, as you know, mines get mined out. Mines have a finite horizon, but they have all got a lot of land. What they have been doing is opened up for agriculture. Exxaro has got 2 000-plus farmers active in that area. Amazing things that mines can do. We know that there is a difficult time in South Africa and the world at the moment, but if there is private-public collaboration, you can get a lot of employment and wealth creation.

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