Aim-listed Goldplat reports that diesel generators have arrived at its operations in South Africa, and that their commissioning will be finalised by the end of April. The company points out that, during the third quarter of the current financial year, its operations have lost 6% of total operating hours available owing to electricity supply cuts and infrastructure related issues, lower than the time lost in the previous calendar year of more than 20 ..read more

Independent commodity research group CPM Group managing partner Jeffrey Christian has dispelled some of the common myths in the platinum market, which can lead to bad investment decisions on the part of producers, investors, governments and other financing sources. “There are high costs to making financial decisions based on a desired future rather than a realistically probable future based on an erroneous understanding of present market conditions and probable outcomes,” he explains in a market alert issued on April 19 ..read more

With the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) currently scheduled to be operationalised in July and efforts under way to ensure that the Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) Amendment Bill is passed by the current Parliament, work is now advancing on the market code for the future multimarket architecture that will progressively replace the vertically integrated structure that has prevailed for over a century. Eskom transmission MD  Segomoco Scheppers will lead the NTCSA once it begins trade after addressing the remaining Companies Act requirements, having already met the key co ..read more

The mining industry makes a significant difference in the lives and livelihoods of employees and society in South Africa through economic and socioeconomic contributions, but more can be done on the governmental administrative front to enable increased benefits, says Minerals Council South Africa chief economist Hugo Pienaar. He told Mining Weekly that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy had expressed commitment to reducing red tape and processing applications, such as mineral right exploration applications quicker ..read more

Khomotso Mosehla, a long-standing nonexecutive director of MC Mining, has resigned as a director of the company, effective April 19. He has been a member of MC Mining's board of directors since late 2010 and contributed to the company being positioned to become South Africa's pre-eminent steelmaking hard coking coal producer, the company says ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

The emerging use of elecrofuel (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 where proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers are used to generate the green hydrogen, demand for PGMs will arise ..read more

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 ..read more