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 Africa is taking steps to meet the huge expected demand for battery-grade manganese.

Creamer: Battery electric vehicles, which are being built all around the world, now want battery-grade manganese – and South Africa can give it to them. High-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate is better and it is cheaper than alternatives. The great thing that South Africa can do is they can supply immediately at a price which seems to be well below anyone else in the Western world.

China, of course, is a big supplier, but we are the only ones outside of China that look viable at the moment. This was made very clear at Mintek’s 90th celebration when they presented how far ahead we are, how good our price is. I just hope that we get capitalised by the Industrial Development Corporation. The Industrial Development Corporation has been a bit slow, in fact, they have pushed Botswana ahead of us, and that I can't understand.

Kamwendo: The high gold price is not lifting gold shares on stock exchanges to the level expected.

Creamer: You don't always realise that there are pockets of excellence in Africa that are better than anything else in the world. One of the key points is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am regularly hearing how well this mine does, but it is very impressive that the Kibali gold mine has digitised to set a model for the rest of a corporate company that is listed in New York, that is listed in Toronto, and this is Barrick. Africa’s Kibali has advanced so far in digitisation that the rest of the group will accept what has happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo and migrate that through the entire global group.

Not only is Kibali big in the digitisation, but it is leading as well when it comes to renewable energy. There are times of the year when the Kibali gold mine is run 100% on water energy, hydropower, and sun energy. For the rest of the months it is 80% renewable and that will soon end. We’re also seeing in Tanzania that the companies are moving ahead, as is Zambia at the moment, with the Lumwana copper project, which is being done by Barrick. I am just looking at the infographic here, it is a massive, big expansion which is going to be great for Zambia, where its Lumwana copper mine is now running profitably.

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