Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

South Africa has told rich countries backing its $8.5-billion energy transition deal that it wants to delay the closure of some units at its coal-fired power plants, people familiar with the situation said.

Years of mismanagement and corruption have decimated South Africa’s coal-dependent power sector but connecting the renewable energy units envisaged under its Just Energy Transition Partnership will take longer than expected.

With blackouts often exceeding 10 hours a day, the government is under pressure to hold on to whatever generation capacity it has.

The government has yet to make a decision and no formal request has been submitted to its JETP partners, but they are likely to take a pragmatic attitude given the power crisis and political constraints, the people said. They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Unveiled at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, the JETP is meant to help South Africa end its dependence on coal and meet its target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Under the agreement, which was formally signed last year, a mix of loans, grants and debt guarantees from Germany, France, the US, UK and the European Union will help South Africa build out renewable alternatives.

Troubled state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. closed the dilapidated Komati plant last year and is due to close another 5 of its 14 remaining coal-fired plants by 2030.

Vikesh Rajpaul, who runs the Just Energy Transition office at Eskom, said life extensions are not being considered for the aging plants but some units may have to be kept open longer than planned to address the electricity crisis.

“There is an understanding and appreciation for the energy shortage that we have,” he said of talks with JETP partners.

Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for the South African presidency, didn’t immediately respond to a text message or answer his phone. The funding partners all said they remain committed to the JETP, without commenting on the possibility of delays.

Mining Weekly

Zimbabwe’s apex bank RBZ has stockpiled more than 350 kilogrammes of gold collected under a new law compelling companies mining gold, diamonds, lithium and platinum group of metals (PGMs) to pay 50 per cent of their royalties in refined minerals.

The balance is paid in cash to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA). The Sunday Mail has established that companies extracting bulky minerals such as lithium are surrendering the cash equivalent of 50 per cent of their royalty obligations, which is then used by the central bank to purchase gold for the national reserves.

“Yes, we have started implementing the policy directive and so far, we have accumulated 350kg of gold,” said RBZ governor Dr John Mangudya. “Other companies are ceding their obligations in monetary terms and then we convert that monetary value into minerals.

“It is within our guidelines that if a mineral such as lithium that has bulk ore concentrate, they pay the monetary equivalent and we convert it.

“We do not have any real projections on the amount of minerals that we will get by end of the year, but we are expecting a significant amount.”

A kilogramme of gold was selling for US$63 300 on the London Bullion Market yesterday. Last year, the authorities amended the Finance Act and the RBZ Act to provide the legal framework for miners of designated minerals to pay half their royalties in the form of refined minerals. The Government levies a 5 percent royalty on platinum and gold miners.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development Mr Pfungwa Kunaka said: “We are closely working with the RBZ and implementing policies that support the initiative.”

Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe senior economist Dr Prosper Chitambara applauded the development, saying it will preserve the country’s wealth.

“It’s a positive development to diversify our reserves. Already, we are seeing a number of countries across the world diversifying away from the US dollar,” he said.

“Most countries across the world prefer to hold their wealth in gold. It helps to preserve value, especially with gold, which tends to appreciate with time. It also helps with risk mitigation. It is generally a positive development.”

President Mnangagwa last year said the Government could use the mineral reserves to securitise borrowings.

“The precious and high-value strategic minerals we accumulate can also be used to securitise any borrowings we may prudently envisage,” he said.

“This raises our country’s creditworthiness and, thus, our ability to circumvent and fend off funding limitations designed against our economy by those who have imposed illegal and unjust sanctions against us. Like I indicated, our response to these spiteful sanctions should always show greater resolve and creativity on our part so that what was meant to hit us as an adversity turns to defiant advantage, through the alchemy of inventive policies.”

Sunday Mail

Premier African Minerals said on Wednesday it had finished building a lithium processing plant at its Zulu mine in Zimbabwe and expected to start production of spodumene concentrate later this week.

Spodumene is a lithium ore with a high concentration of lithium, a key component in the production of batteries for electric vehicles.

Premier built the plant, which has the capacity to produce nearly 50,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate annually, as part of a $35 million offtake deal signed last year with China’s CanMax Technologies (formerly Suzhou TA&A) (300390.SZ).

“We expect to produce spodumene, a lepidolite mica-rich concentrate and a tantalum-rich concentrate, late this week provided that final formal outstanding approvals from certain Zimbabwean authorities are received,” Premier CEO George Roach said in a statement.

Zimbabwe holds some of the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium deposits and has recently attracted about $700 million in investment from several Chinese firms, including CanMax, which also bought a 13.38% stake in Premier last year, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (603799.SS), Sinomine Resource Group (002738.SZ) and Chengxin Lithium Group (002240.SZ).

On March 22, Huayou said it had started trial production from its Arcadia lithium project 40 kilometres (24.85 miles) outside Zimbabwe’s capital Harare. Huayou said the $300 million Arcadia plant has capacity to process 4.5 million tonnes of lithium ore at Arcadia, producing 50,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent lithium concentrate.

Reuters