Mining Weekly

Gold miner Caledonia Mining says its production and profit was supported by a favourable gold price in the first quarter of the year, which has continued through April and into May. The company’s Blanket and Bilboes mines, in Zimbabwe, recorded a 6% increase in production to 17 476 oz, compared with 16 141 oz produced in the same quarter of last year.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has entered the politically charged discussion on the reasons behind the recent dramatic reduction in loadshedding ahead of what is expected to be a highly competition election and amid allegations that the reprieve is being staged managed to improve the governing party’s prospects and will, thus, not be sustained. Writing in his weekly newsletter at a time which Eskom had refrained from implementing the unpopular rotational power cuts for a period of more than a month and a half, Ramaphosa denied that it was a “political ploy ahead of the elections”, while indicating that it was “too early to say that loadshedding has been brought to an end”.

The outlook for platinum is one that's pretty robust, the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) has highlighted in its latest Platinum Quarterly, which shows the projection of the metal's demand as being very encouraging amid a near-record-low supply prediction. Automotive demand is at a seven-year high, while first-quarter jewellery demand increased contrasted with a worsening supply deficit of 476 000 oz.

Anglo American’s shareholders are pushing the company to speed up the release of its turnaround plan as the 107-year-old miner seeks to present an alternative to BHP Group’s takeover bid. Anglo has been reviewing its business since mid-2023, looking at every mine in its portfolio to help reshape a company that’s fallen behind competitors in recent years. Yet that process was broadsided by a takeover approach last month from the world’s biggest miner.

Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti has started the year off well, with a 2% increase in production to 581 000 oz for the quarter ended March 31, despite the impact of heavy rain and flooding on output in Western Australia. CEO Alberto Calderon says the company is seeing greater consistency from most of its operations, including better performance from its Brazilian mines, while the Obuasi mine, in Ghana, continues to ramp up.

Proudly South African Manganese Metal Co (MMC) of Mbombela, Mpumalanga, is making a fantastic first-mover advance to enter the manganese battery metal market, which is progressing super-fast. To be established is a faster stream to market, which is not only ahead of the global game, but also provides time for this remarkable value-adding company to become a manganese-ore-to-sulphate producer from its current position of being the producer of the world’s purest 99.9% pure manganese metal from manganese fines.

Multinational mining and metals processing group Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman remains confident that the platinum group metals (PGM) price outlook is fundamentally positive and that the price gouging of late was merely a temporary phenomenon. “Our view that the fundamental outlook for PGMs is positive is unchanged, with little evidence of a systemic change in the market fundamentals to justify the price collapse observed during 2023.

JSE-listed gold recovery company DRDGOLD has generated higher adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter ended March 31, compared with the same quarter of last year, despite having produced slightly fewer ounces. Adjusted Ebitda in the reporting quarter of R494-million, or $26.2-million, compares with adjusted Ebitda of R441-million, or $23.5-million, in the prior comparable quarter.

London-listed Kenmare Resources paid the Mozambique government $30 561 – made up of  $19 798 in taxes, $10 259 in royalties and $504 in fees – in 2023, the company reports in its ‘Payments to Governments 2023’ report. Kenmare operates the Moma titanium minerals mine in northern Mozambique.

Canadian gold miner Iamgold has announced a promising start to the year, reporting robust results across its operations and projects in the first quarter, positioning the company well to meet its guidance targets. CEO Renaud Adams attributed the first-quarter success to the combination of stable operations and favourable grade reconciliation at the Essakane mine, in Burkina Faso, coupled with Westwood, in Canada, achieving its highest quarter of production since mining restarted in 2021.

JSE- and NYSE-listed Sibanye-Stillwater has reported its lowest group serious injury frequency rate (SIFR) in its history for the first quarter, ended March 31. The SIFR of 2.19 was 15% lower than the first quarter of last year and marked the third consecutive yearly improvement for the group’s SIFR since the first quarter of 2021, when it stood at 4. “The continued improvement in the group safety performance year-on-year is pleasing, confirming that our safety strategy continues to gain traction and that we remain on track for a further reduction of risk for all safety incidents,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in the group’s first-quarter operating update on May 10.

Diamond miner Lucara Diamond Corp’s Karowe diamond mine, in Botswana, delivered another solid operational quarter ended March 31, and the company’s high-value diamond production forecast remains robust, underpinned by its focus on operating practices, CEO and president William Lamb says. Work on the underground expansion project at Karowe also progressed well during the quarter, the company points out.  

Anglo American's key South African shareholders are open to a takeover offer from BHP, with some advocating for an additional cash component to the bid, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The investors who collectively hold more than 15% of Anglo American, told FT that BHP, the world's biggest listed mining group, would need to sweeten its offer and they were not opposed in principle to an acquisition by the Australian group.

The retreatment, or remining, of mine tailings can provide usable land, provide profits for companies and clean the environment by moving the reprocessed tailings to more advanced and well-managed facilities. Owing to changes in legislation, tailings need to be stored in facilities that are better managed and controlled than historical facilities. This means that the tailings from remined sites are sent to new tailing storage facilities (TSFs), said specialist consulting engineering firm Jones & Wagener environmental engineering closure and rehabilitation associate civil engineer Alice Harvey.

ASX-listed Lotus Resources has published a revised mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 155.3-million tonnes, grading 345 parts per million (ppm) triuranium octoxide (U3O8), for the Letlhakane uranium project, in Botswana. This means the project can deliver 80-million pounds of recovered uranium over its life, based on a 70% recovery rate, the company says.

Aim-listed Tertiary Minerals’ environmental project brief (EPB) for the Mupala copper project, in Zambia, has been approved by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency, which allows the company to start mineral exploration on site. The Mupala project is located 12 km west of the company’s Mukai project, both of which are located in the prospective Kabombo Domes region of Zambia, which is reported to host multiple producing copper and nickel mines, including First Quantum Minerals’ Sentinel mining complex.

India is considering offering incentives to encourage private companies to set up lithium processing facilities, as New Delhi tries to develop its nascent lithium mining and boost supplies of the EV battery metal, three government sources said. It would offer incentives to companies to set up lithium processing plants under a new critical minerals policy that was being worked out by the mines ministry, the sources said.

Japanese steelmakers have raised concerns with Australian authorities that BHP Group could become too dominant in the global supply of coking coal if it goes ahead with a takeover of Anglo American. Australia is the world's biggest exporter of coking coal and top supplier to Japan, making up around 60% of its imports, with most of the steel-making ingredient coming from the state of Queensland, where BHP and Anglo American are the two largest producers.

As part of efforts to provide increased provenance across the diamond industry, De Beers plans to bring the first non-De Beers Group goods onto its Tracr platform this year. The Tracr platform uses blockchain, AI, the Internet of Things and advanced security and privacy technology to track a diamond’s journey from where it is mined and throughout the value chain, providing consumers tamper-proof assurance of where the diamond comes from.

Perth-based Caprice Resources on Thursday announced plans to acquire a project in the West Arunta region of Western Australia. Spanning over 1 479 km2, the Bantam project comprises four contiguous tenements, strategically positioned adjacent WA1 Resources’ site that hosts the Luni niobium/rare earth element discovery.