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

Gwala: Good news is that a major gold mining company is investing nearly R8-billion in new projects.

Creamer:  Yes, that company is DRDGOlD. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and it is 130 years old this year. Of course, Johannesburg has a legacy of gold mines. We see the mine dumps left, we see the right, and we see them centre, but they have still got gold in them. So, now with the high gold price, DRDGOLD is able to self-fund much more extraction of gold. They have got five big projects. They are going to fund those to the tune of nearly R8-billion. Two on the East Rand, three on the West Rand and this will give another 20 years of mine life to the extraction of gold by DRDGOLD, which is also generating their own electricity through the sun, which means that their costs are lower and everything is going very well for DRDGOLD because of the high gold price.

Gwala: More good news is that R10-billion is being invested to expand a coal mine and to build a new wind farm.

Creamer: Can you believe this? You know, coal mines are not only in coal anymore they also in renewable energy. So, here you have Exxaro, also listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, renewing the old Matla coal mine, making it virtually a new mine and that is going to cost just over R5-billion. Then you have got them also putting in nearly R5-billion into a wind farm that produces clean energy and with that clean energy they are going to power another mine called Northern Platinum. In doing that and also supplying coal to Northern Platinum, they get what is called Scope 3 emission credits, which are often difficult to get, but people want to get these because it helps them in the fight against climate change and they get credited for this. So, they have got these two big projects on the go that are going to be really good for South Africa not only from the environmental point of view, which is important, but also good from an investment point of view. Money needs to be spent for the South African economy to grow. This big capital investment creates a lot of jobs. We see private sector investing heavily. Government is starting to invest heavily. This should be very good for overall economic growth in South Africa and job creation.

Gwala: The global defence industry is expected to stimulate considerable demand for nickel.

Creamer: The metal nickel goes into armaments. It is horrible to say that demand is going to increase for this because of the global instability. Now, this was made clear by Lifezone in its interview with Mining Weekly this week. Lifezone is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but it is opening a nickel mine in Tanzania. People say, why go for nickel, the price is down. But Lifezone is saying it will only be for a short period that the nickel price is going to be down because of the nickel that goes into stainless steel and special steels that are used in armaments. So one hopes that these will just be used for defence and not for this human slaughter that we are seeing so much of these days. Big weapons are being used to actually just slaughter defenceless people. We hope that doesn't happen, because we also hear from the World Platinum Investment Council that the defence sector and the aerospace sector is now pushing demand for platinum group metals. We know that when you say platinum group metals, you say South Africa, because we are the biggest supplier of platinum group metals, and World Platinum has just put out a document outlining how it’s not only going to be platinum that it is going to be in demand for weapons and aerospace. It’s not only going to be palladium, but it’s going to be ruthenium, rhodium – all the platinum group metals, which we host in the biggest abundance in the world and hopefully those weapons will only be used only for defence only and not for human slaughter.

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