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

Kamwendo: The Minerals Council this week urged South Africa to move forcefully into the hydrogen economy to boost our struggling economy

Creamer: The CEO Roger Baxter claims that this is the way to go. I can see exactly the path he is looking at, because if we want to create jobs, clean air, exports, beneficiation, everyone of those boxes are ticked if we go along the hydrogen economy route. It is the fuel cell hydrogen economy route.

We have all the ingredients to do this. He is speaking to the provincial government David Makhura and also to the Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, of course, he is now Energy Minster as well, so this fits right into the ambit, because the hydrogen economy is about energy. For a long time the world has actually wanted to look at hydrogen, because it is so clean and it can do so much without damaging the economy.

In South Africa we have got the sunshine and the wind and we can produce the electricity cleanly. We have got seawater particularly at Port Elizabeth area that they are looking at, which can generate very clean power that we can use to drive our cars and electricity. The big story is that this is cheaper than going along the coal route.

The coal route dirtying our whole economy and it won’t be a long time when people say we won’t buy your production, because it is not done in an environmentally friendly way. We have had that already with certain aluminium that we produce. We use Eskom whereas Mozambique uses hydropower and they have the advantage, because they are using clean energy. It is becoming a major factor and this is being taken into account by Minerals Council South Africa, which believes that this could be the answer to a maiden’s prayer as far as our economic growth is concerned.

Kamwendo: Yet another South African mining company announced this week that it is taking steps to generate its own electricity.

Creamer: This is gold mining company Pan African, listed in London and Johannesburg. It is saying that a feasibility study is at an advanced stage at this point to construct its own solar power plant at the Elikhulu Tailings Treatment Plant, in Evander, Mpumalanga. What is again the whole story is that this is a business case. They can do it cheaper than what they can by electricity from Eskom. At the same time they are producing clean electricity so they are fulfilling the world desire in the whole environmental prospective.

The problem is the red tape around this is so huge. What they are looking at is a 10 MVA solar power plant. This is a relatively small plant, but you can’t go bigger then 10 MW now without finding yourself really tied up in red tape. That is what has got to change, because some of our larger mining companies like Anglo American Platinum in particular, they want to build something bigger than 100 MW in Limpopo Province and they have got all the case building to show that this is economically very feasible and they can do it cheaper than normal electricity, but it is the red tape that holds everything back.

Kamwendo: Black-controlled Exxaro this week took full control of its solar and wind energy portfolio.

Creamer: Black-controlled Exxaro listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is a very far seeing company, because seven years ago, although they produce coal, they knew that this whole issue around the environmental protection would be coming up for coal miners. We see coal miners now selling their assets, because they don’t want to be involved in their shareholders turning against them.

But, Exxaro, what it is doing is having to walk on both sides of the road, because you have got to be supplying coal. We need it and we are going to need it for some time. But at the same time Exxaro also realises that clean energy is a must, so this week they took a decision to buy the other 50% shareholding it has with the Indian company Tata in Cennergi, which has two wind farms in the Eastern Cape. This whole portfolio now falls under Exxaro as a 100% ownership.

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