Mining Weekly

JSE-, ASX- and Aim-listed coal miner MC Mining says a report prepared by an independent expert from BDO Corporate Finance that the takeover offer it received from Goldway Capital Investment in December is neither fair nor reasonable to shareholders. “We consider the offer to be not fair because the value of the offer consideration is less than our assessed low, preferred and high value of an MC Mining share.

Ferrochrome and chrome company Merafe achieved a record profit of R1 753-million despite what it describes as a challenging economic environment in the 12 months to December 31. The board of directors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Merafe declared a final cash dividend of R550-million, bringing the total dividends for the 2023 financial year to R1 050-million, well up on the R625-million of 2022.

Exploration and development company  Critical Mineral Resources has conditionally raised about £250 000 through the placing of 12.2-million new ordinary shares in the company and 8.02-million ordinary shares held in the company’s name. Novum Securities is acting as the sole broker in connection with the placing.

A major new fuel cell thrust in North America is enlivening the outlook for platinum and helping the world advance further along the road to net zero. Emphasising that the advancement of the hydrogen economy can significantly move the needle against climate change, North American green mobility company Ballard is setting out to invest $160-million – net of government grants – to build a new manufacturing facility that will have the production capacity equivalent of three gigawatts of fuel cells a year.

Coal miner MC Mining’s strong revenue growth through the six months ended December 31, 2023 were “very pleasing” considering the challenging coal market, MD and CEO Godfrey Gomwe avers. During the period, the company experienced revenue growth from the prior corresponding period, primarily owing to strong sales volumes at the Uitkomst colliery and the restart of operations at Vale.

Michael Carvill will step down as MD of mineral sands miner Kenmare Resources later this year. Subject to reappointment at the company’s annual general meeting on May 10, it is expected that he will remain on the board and in his executive role until the company’s interim results are published in August. Following this, and to support an orderly transition process, he will continue to be available to the company in a consultancy capacity until at least the end of this year.

Democratic Republic of Congo and Chinese investors on Thursday signed an agreement reached in January that revises some terms of their Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture, Congo's Infrastructure Minister Alexis Gisaro Muvunyi said on Thursday. President Felix Tshisekedi had sought to re-negotiate the terms of the joint venture to bring more benefits for Congo, the world's biggest cobalt producer.

Tanzanian graphite developer Black Rock Mining has successfully secured the necessary debt facilities required to advance its Mahenge, with a new senior term loan from South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) completing the financing package crucial to get the mine into production. The IDC has approved a senior term loan of $53.9-million for the project. Together the previously announced $59.6-million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Black Rock now has all the key approvals for the targeted term loan for the project.

The United States is looking to Africa to help loosen a Chinese stranglehold on battery metals and reduce Russia's influence over the market for other minerals, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Thursday. Coronavirus pandemic fallout and Moscow's war in Ukraine have sent Western governments scrambling to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply chains and disentangle their economies from Russia.

Amid economic uncertainties and rising inflation, total gold demand, including over-the-counter (OTC) demand, reached a new record of 4 899 t in 2023, thereby supporting the highest yearly average gold price of $1 940.54 /oz, according to the World Gold Council’s (WGC’s) ‘Gold Demand Trends Report’, published in January. The gold price, which hit an all-time high in almost every currency globally except the Swiss franc and was driven by increasing demand, particularly from central banks and OTC investors, has benefited gold mining companies globally, explains WGC chief market strategist John Reade.

Group wind power generation last year increased by 8% and the Lephalale solar power project is on its way to being operational in the first quarter of next year, Exxaro CE Dr Nombasa Tsengwa highlighted during the company’s presentation of double-dividend 2023 results. The increased wind performance resulted in 727 GWh of high-margin green electricity being generated into the market at a high earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) margin – and, were it not for a fault that occurred on the distribution network of State-owned power utility Eskom, there would have been 15 GWh more.

ASX-listed Theta Gold says it has received all approvals to start mining at Mining Right (MR) 83, which includes the Beta, CDM and Frankfort mines, in South Africa's Mpumalanga province.  

Uranium exploration and development company Madison Metals will pursue more traditional means of raising capital to fund its future efforts, as the company's unique uranium tokenisation strategy has not yielded the expected returns. “It's been slow, I have to admit, and it definitely hasn't brought the capital that we were anticipating. Madison will have to make a decision on what the tokenisation means. We'll probably focus on more traditional ways of managing the company and raising capital going forward,” Madison CEO Duane Parnham tells Mining Weekly.

Canada-headquartered Lucara Diamond Corp has published the results of an updated feasibility study on the Karowe Underground Expansion Project (UGP), detailing an estimated preproduction capital cost for the UGP of $683-million. The Karowe UGP is also projected to generate $1.1-billion in cash flow, extend the overall Karowe mine life by 15 years and result in 6.8-million carats being recovered over the mine life.

Shanghai-listed solar photovoltaic company Trina SOLAr, renewable energy project developer SOLA and civil engineering and construction company WBHO Construction will build the 135 MW Merak 1 SOLAr project to power a South African mining operation owned by African Rainbow Minerals (ARM). SOLA and WBHO formed a joint venture to execute the Merak 1 project and Trina Solar will supply 205 161 panels of its advanced Vertex modules for the project.

Diversified mining company Exxaro, with interests in the coal, energy and ferrous markets, has declared final and special dividends. The share dividend of R10.10 a share is roughly R3.4-billion and on top of that, the special dividend of R5.72 a share totals some R2-billion.

Graphite miner Syrah Resources has announced a A$98-million equity raising to preserve optionality its Balama mine in Mozambique, and support the ramp up of downstream activities in the US. Syrah will raise the funding through a fully underwritten institutional placement and 1 for 10.2 prorata accelerated nonrenounceable entitlement offer.

Glencore should keep its coal business even after it completes a deal to buy Teck Resources Ltd.’s coal-mining unit, according to shareholder Tribeca Investment Partners. Coal mine ownership has long been a controversial subject in the industry. Most of Glencore’s peers have exited the dirtiest fuel amid investor pressure, while the company long argued it would be the best custodian of its assets.

Since the new leadership at State rail enterprise Transnet has began engaging with South Africa's mining industry, the level of transparency has been “much, much improved”, according to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) Ferrous CE André Joubert. Joubert, who was speaking during a question session covered by Mining Weekly, described the industry as being “very active” in engaging with Transnet on rail transportation of iron-ore and manganese ores.

ASX-listed Jupiter's newly released scoping study evaluating the opportunity to supply high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) to the electric vehicle (EV) battery market has yielded promising results, confirming that laboratory-scale production might be successful, with the potential for optimisation and scaling up.  For the HPMSM project, Jupiter is considering a plant in North America with a proposed capacity of between 80 000 t/y and 120 000 t/y, balancing operational as well as demand and supply risk and production efficiency.