Mining Weekly

With ASX- and TSX-listed Perseus Mining now holding a relevant interest of 94.99% of ASX-listed OreCorp’s shares, the company is moving to a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares it does not own. Perseus’ offer is closing on April 19, affording remaining shareholders the opportunity to sell their shares at Perseus’ offer price of A$0.575 apiece.

A new process being pioneered by energy companies such as Israel-based Helios and Netherlands-based Alkalium proposes the use of sodium metal rather than coal or hydrogen to refine iron-ore into direct reduced iron (DRI). Traditionally, iron is beneficiated by mixing iron-ore fines with coal. The iron oxide (Fe2O3), when heated in a furnace, undergoes a chemical transformation whereby the oxygen molecules from the Fe2O3 bind with the carbon molecules in the coal, creating carbon dioxide (CO2) as a by-product and leaving pure iron behind.

UK-based battery metals miner Marula Mining has announced that it will undertake a secondary listing of its shares on South Africa’s A2X Markets exchange, with shares due to become available for trade from April 25. The company’s primary listing on the Acquis Stock Exchange remains unaffected by the listing on A2X.

Gold surged past $2 400 an ounce as concerns over rising tensions between Israel and Iran stoked haven demand. Bullion rose as much as 1.3% and headed for a fifth weekly gain after unverified media reports of explosions in Iran, Syria and Iraq.

The emerging use of electrofuel (eFuel) as an interchangeable substitute for petrol, diesel and aviation fuel has the potential to create important new demand for Southern Africa’s platinum group metals (PGMs). This is because eFuel is a combination of green hydrogen and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) and demand for PGMs will arise when proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers are used to generate the green hydrogen. PGMs and PEMs go hand-in-glove.

Multinational mining and metals processing company Sibanye-Stillwater says the Siphumelele shaft at its Rustenburg operation is on schedule to resume production during May, as planned. A surface ore conveyor belt system at the shaft suffered damage in February when an ore collector bin attached to the shaft headgear sheared off and fell to the ground.

London-listed mining services company Capital has recorded a 3.1% year-on-year increase in revenue to $80.2-million for the quarter ended March 31, marking a good start to its financial year. Mining revenue for the first quarter of $18.2-million, which was up 41% year-on-year, offset an 8.9% decrease year-on-year in drilling and associated revenue, which amounted to $52-million.

South Africa will use future drawdowns of its Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account to curb its debt burden, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said, adding he was pondering tax hikes and expenditure cuts in the next post-election budget. Africa's most industrialised nation is grappling with an ailing economy and high debt ahead of a general election on May 29 that could see the governing African National Congress party lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago.

Aim- and ASX-listed Jubilee Metals has achieved record production levels at its South African chrome operations, both on monthly output for March and for the quarter ended March 31 – which is the third quarter of the company’s 2024 financial year. Chrome output of 408 710 t in the quarter compares with the 381 114 t of chrome produced in the second quarter of the year.

JSE- and ASX-listed Orion Minerals has requested an immediate trading halt to be placed on its securities, pending the release of an announcement in relation to exploration results at its Okiep copper project in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. Orion said it expected to make an announcement to the market concerning this matter before the start of trade on April 22.

The world's governments must do more to convince local communities and Indigenous groups to support mines that produce critical minerals needed to power the energy transition and fight climate change, the head of a prominent industry group said. Mines across the globe increasingly face opposition for religious, ecological or other reasons, with pressure seeming to intensify in the past year after officials in Panama, responding to protests, shuttered a mine that supplies 1% of the world's copper.

Standard Bank head of Southern Africa’s oil and gas coverage Paul Eardley-Taylor has suggested that South Africa needs 13 GW of gas-to-power (GtP) capacity, rather than the 7.2 GW to 8.6 GW outlined in the draft Integrated Resource Plan 2023. Speaking at mine ventilation solutions developer Howden’s Technology Day, hosted at Mintek, in Johannesburg, on April 17, he explained that this calculation was made by considering the need to overcome Stage 6 or even Stage 7 loadshedding, when Stage 6 was being regularly achieved, as well as ensure a 15% reserve margin for winter peak demand.

Minerals Council South Africa is focused on increasing the domestic demand for green hydrogen, which it sees as contributing to the kickstarting of the hydrogen economy in South Africa. “The applications that we’re looking at are stationary as well as mobility applications of using hydrogen within the mining industry,” Minerals Council modernisation and safety senior executive Sietse van der Woude outlined during last week’s Hydrogen Economy Discussion covered by Mining Weekly.

ASX-listed Lotus Resources has developed a detailed initial programme of work to maximise the potential of its Letlhakane uranium project, in Botswana. The company is working to update the project’s mineral resource model and is undertaking studies to determine the potential of upgrading the ore for a more efficient processing route.

Australia-headquartered Orion Minerals has made progress with acquiring a controlling interest in the Okiep copper project, in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. Orion and other relevant parties, barring the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa, which is still in the process of finalising internal approval, have signed addenda to amend the agreements that will affect Orion’s controlling interest in the project.

Diamond miner De Beers says it generated about $445-million in revenue from its third sales cycle for this year. The figure represents the expected sales value from the company’s latest global sightholder sales and auctions and remains subject to adjustment.

In order to fill a potential supply gap of eight-million tons by 2034, mining companies need prices that are higher than $10 000/t and possibly as high as $12 000/t, says Trafigura Group CEO Jeremy Weir. Weir made his comments Tuesday during a presentation at the CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago, where the copper industry is gathering for one of the industry’s biggest annual events.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has belatedly moved to quell concern that its recent approval of a new loadshedding code of practice, which increases the number of potential stages from eight to 16, represented a signal that the prospect for higher levels of loadshedding was imminent. Following extensive public consultations undertaken by the National Rationalised Specifications (NRS) Association of South Africa, the third edition of the NRS048-9 standard was approved by the regulator for use by Eskom and municipal system operators during times of electricity constraint.

Canada-headquartered Barrick Gold has announced its preliminary figures for the first quarter of 2024, reporting gold output of 940 000 oz and copper output of 40 000 t. Gold production fell by 12% quarter-on-quarter, which Barrick attributed to planned maintenance activities at its Nevada Gold Mines, in the US, and adjustments in mine sequencing across various sites.

The sale by Southern African diamond mining company Petra Diamonds of an exceptional blue diamond in its fifth tender cycle lifted the average prices per carat received 22% higher than those of the prior Tender 4 sale. The London Stock Exchange-listed company, headed by CEO Richard Duffy, reported on Tuesday that the price upliftment was the result of a remarkable14.76 ct exceptional clarity diamond, recovered from Cullinan diamond mine in Gauteng, fetching $8.2-million.