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: Plans are afoot to build a green hydrogen base at East London’s industrial development zone in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

Creamer: Yes, the request for information (RFI) has just gone out for details on people who want to take part in the building of a green hydrogen base at the East London Industrial Development Zone. This is the third initiative that South Africa has had on its coastline for green hydrogen and it indicates that people are realising that there’s going to be a demand for green hydrogen as an export commodity. We know that Europe has said that it will want to buy our green hydrogen, and we have seen green hydrogen activities at Coega, also in the Eastern Cape, and Boegoebaai in the Northern Cape was active in thinking about the potential of exporting green hydrogen. 

Now, East London has come up as well with an RFI that came out today. This comes against the background of a massive green hydrogen surge in China, which is reportedly swinging heavily into green hydrogen, because they have realised that to just have electric vehicles using the electricity coming off the grid is quite disruptive, because there are so many cars, there are so many people taking electricity, so many times of the day, at peak and non-peak periods, and all sorts of different behaviours have given rise to fears that there could be insufficient electricity during peaks. So, China is swinging heavily to green hydrogen. It has just been reported that the move towards green hydrogen is huge, which is fantastic for South Africa's platinum group metals, because when you use this green hydrogen, you need platinum group metals and then when you turn the green hydrogen back into electricity using fuel cells, you again need platinum group metals and South Africa is the main supplier of platinum group metals.

Kamwendo: Hopes are high that South Africa’s trade relations with America will be normalised soon.

Creamer: Wednesday is going to be a big day and people are already phoning through to me, and they are saying there is so much uncertainty. I mean, one anthracite miner – anthracite is a type of coal which is needed for steelmaking – has been on the line to me. He has been accustomed to sending three cargos of anthracite a year, for years now, to the United States. But so far this year, he hasn't even sent one cargo of anthracite to his long-standing client. When he got through to the US company and asked them what’s going on, they said there’s just so much uncertainty that they have held off on orders. But, he said, how can there be uncertainty? Your President has said that you’re going to have steel tariffs. If you have tariffs, you are going to make more steel and if you make more steel, you need more of my anthracite. 

So, therefore you should be taking what I’m offering. They said there’s so much confusion that people are just not investing in extra steelmaking capacity, because the disruption is too huge. What is going to happen? If they can't reach solutions on Wednesday, you’re probably going to have South Africans, like that anthracite producer, looking to Europe, looking to Asia, looking to new markets around the world. As he says, if the US then comes back to him in a few months and he has got other markets, he’s going to say, “I'm sorry, but I no longer have the anthracite that you need.” So, this disruption is not going to affect South Africa alone, but it could affect America as well. I hope that they realise that this is a two-way street. It is not a one-way street. You’ve got to create good supply chains and you mustn't disrupt them because if you do, there’s two-way adversity.

Kamwendo: A diamond mine from which British royalty once got free diamonds is now 100% owned by Tanzanians.

Creamer: We have always been sensitive about in the old days about people coming here, dig around, and then take away some of our diamonds that would end up in the crowns of British royalty. Well, it was the same with Tanzania. They had the Williamson diamond mine, named after a geologist who came from Canada. It was opened in 1940 and by 1947, the geologist had already given diamonds to British royalty free of charge. You always get sensitive about, how dare they have taken those. But anyway, this mine is now going to be 100% Tanzanian-owned. So okay, the diamond market is down, that’s why the Tanzanians has been able to get it back in the way they have. 

But, this is a source of pink diamonds and pink diamonds have got a special hue and a special demand. So, hopefully, we will have this 100% Tanzanian-owned Williamson diamond mine do well as the world economy comes out of this economic downturn and geopolitical disruption. When that happens, hopefully the diamond market will improve, and this will be a good, successful diamond mining company with a special pink diamond offering and from now on, it’ll be 100% Tanzanian-owned.

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