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: Harmony Gold has declared a record dividend on sky-high free cash generation.

Creamer: Harmony Gold is proving itself to be a great South African asset. This is South Africa's biggest gold mining company and it is booming at the moment, not only because the gold price is so high, but also because this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company has structured itself so well, even to mine at a depth greater than any other gold-mining company on planet earth. We saw a phenomenal performance from the gold mine with the deepest shaft in the world, yielding 11 grammes per tonne.

That is a very high grade and this is because of the structured work that has been done over a period by Harmony Gold, which is now also going into copper in Australia, backed by its success in mainly South Africa and also to some extent in Papua New Guinea. We can foresee a time when perhaps the gold price cones down from its current lofty height and the copper price is up, which will then be very good for Harmony Gold and South Africa and also the South Africans in Papua New Guinea and Australia, who are helping with Harmony Gold’s entry into copper, which will be a threefold entry if a decision is taken today by an Australian copper company to sell to Harmony is given the thumbs up, which will mean that Harmony Gold will be able to apply its extensive under underground gold mining expertise to mine copper underground in Australia.

Kamwendo: Yet another public-private rail transport agreement has been signed, this time to streamline coal exportation.

Creamer:  Yes, a third mining company has signed a promising rail transport performance agreement with South Africa’s State-owned rail enterprise. Transnet Freight Rail. The first two public-private rail service agreements involved the railing of manganese to the port for export and gave high visibility to the promising new collaboration between the private sector and the public sector in the rail service business, outlining the sort of service performances that are wanted.

The agreements outline what both parties will strive for and how both parties will do things. That has been very important for the manganese industry, so that we can get this important product to port very well, to compete internationally. Now, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Exxaro Resources is again linked up with Transnet Freight Rail with an agreement, which could be even more important, because it is linked specifically to one of the coal mines, the Leeuwpan Mine, within the Exxaro group, which needs to be turned around so that jobs are not lost. This collaboration, this close collaboration, this agreement that has been signed, will help to ensure that targeted turnaround and help to ensure that people do not lose their jobs.

Kamwendo: New mining technology is putting strong emphasis on automation and round-the-clock continuous mining.

Creamer: The word ‘continuous’ came up continuously at the latest presentation of Master Drilling, which is on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It is a phenomenal company. It is based in Fochville, but it operates in nearly 30 countries around the world. So, it’s got deep insight into the trends that are developing, trends that seen set to make modern mining really progressive. We saw the reference to continuous, which means mining round the clock. Now, we don’t generally have that in underground mining in South Africa, where there is a blasting tradition. You go underground, prepare for blasting, but before you blast, you’ve got to vacate the mine and later come back in to collect what you’ve blasted, once things have settled down.

That creates a big time gap. Now, with the way they are going to extract reef mechanically, there’s no need to vacate the mine and you can go on mining continuously. You might not need to do that, depending on the market, but if the market builds, you can just keep going, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, which, in the main, we don’t have in underground mines. Also, popping up all the time are the words artificial intelligence, automation, remote control, robotics. So, it’s a major new technology thrust that we’re seeing on the South African mining horizon, which could well turn uneconomical operations back into flourishing economically viable businesses.

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