MiningWeekly.com Audio Articles

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

Climate considerations are increasingly shaping how business is done, Minerals Council South Africa senior climate specialist Shalendra Subramoney said on Friday, October 30, in launching the council's inaugural Climate Change Day of Learning, attended by public and private sector climate mitigation representatives.

"Mining is central to both South Africa's development and the global climate transition. We need to reduce emissions and strengthen resilience while attracting the investment needed to grow a competitive mining sector, sustain and create jobs, support communities, and bolster South Africa's economic development. Climate ambition and economic growth must reinforce each other," Minerals Council senior executive: environment, health, legacies and employment relations Shamini Harrington stated in the keynote address.

Mining is an energy-intensive industry with a responsibility to manage and reduce our own emissions and build resilience to the physical impacts of climate change. "At the same time, mining produces the minerals and metals on which electrification, renewable energy, infrastructure and technological development depend. Mining therefore has a dual role - we are part of the transition ourselves, but we are also fundamental to enabling it.

That dual role matters significantly for South Africa. "Our country has significant development needs, an urgent requirement for stronger economic growth and investment, and a need for reliable and affordable energy, water and logistics. Mining remains deeply embedded in that economy. In 2025, the sector employed more than 470 000 people, contributed more than R439-billion to GDP and paid R31-billion in taxes," Harrington added.

Attendees ranging from established mining companies to junior miners as well as exploration companies, which he described as being very important owing to climate change affecting every part of the mining ecosystem.

Even though the challenges and opportunities would differ across companies and commodities, Subramoney pointed out how everyone in their day-to-day work environment was experiencing the way in which climate considerations were increasingly shaping how business was done, as well as influencing investment, competitiveness and market access,.

"But we must also recognise that it is also opening opportunities in new technologies, minerals, and green value chains. For South African mining in particular, this discussion on climate change comes at a time when we urgently need investment and growth in the sector to arrest some of the performance declines we've been seeing over the past few years, to strengthen our existing operations and to unlock new opportunities.

"It's because of this," – and Mining Weekly as an attendee heard this theme echoed quite strongly throughout event – "that we believe that climate action and growth need to reinforce each other, because a growing investable mining industry is much more better able to decarbonise, to build resilience, and to innovate," Subramoney explained.

"While credible climate action increasingly matters to competitiveness and market access, it's also important to note that mining sits on both sides of the transition.

"We, as a sector, need to continue reducing our emissions and strengthening the resilience of our operations as well as our host communities – and we need to do this while supplying the minerals and metals that the world needs to enable the transition and we also need to acknowledge the continued role of coal in energy security and in driving industrial activity in South Africa."

The Minerals Council's formal launch of 2026 Climate Change Position forcefully reaffirmed its commitment to move into implementation amid the Department of Forestry Fisheries...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

Spanish miner Abenojar Tungsten made its official market debut on the LSE's main market on Friday, marking the largest mining flotation by funds raised in London since 2018.

Unconditional dealings in the shares, trading under the ticker "ABT," began on Friday, following conditional trading that started when the IPO was priced at 110p a share on Tuesday.

The shares opened marginally higher on Friday and were last up 5.9% at 108 pence as of 0827 GMT.

The company raised €170-million ($190.4-million) in the biggest mining IPO since Kazakh uranium producer Kazatomprom's £311-million ($417.11-million) listing of Global Depository Receipts in London in 2018.

With a market capitalisation of £522 million, Abenojar is on the verge of entering the FTSE 250 index, where the number of miners has risen to five.

Abenojar is developing the El Moto project in Abenójar, Spain, one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped tungsten projects in the world.

BMO Capital Markets and Peel Hunt acted as joint sponsors and joint global coordinators, alongside Deutsche Bank, with Canaccord Genuity as a joint bookrunner.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the impact of September inflation on South African mining; platinum and palladium being among four precious metals included in new futures contracts launched in London; and Southern Palladium’s feasibility study on its PGMS project.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

Annual contractual negotiations with core customers has reaffirmed increased 2027 demand for the sustainable and responsible supply of all the precious and base metal products of Implats, CEO Nico Muller made clear on Thursday, October 29, when the company published its first-quarter production report.

While pricing volatility increased during the period, Muller pointed to Implats' robust platinum group metals (PGM) basket price remaining fully supportive of the continued delivery of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company's strategic aspirations.

In the three months to September 30, PGM pricing continued to be heavily influenced by global macroeconomic news flow, with minor metals outperforming both platinum and palladium.

First-quarter production volumes decreased by 3% to 854 000 oz. Managed ventures recorded a 4%-lower 665 000 oz, joint ventures (JVs) a 4%-lower 133 000 oz, and third parties an 8%-higher 56 000 oz.

Gross refined and saleable production volumes declined 8% to 763 000 oz, while sales volumes were 6% lower at 796 000 oz.

The company was deeply saddened to report the loss of five colleagues during the period, with four of the fatal incidents occurring at Impala Rustenburg and one at Marula. Rail-bound equipment, sulphur dioxide exposure, winches and rigging and fall-of-ground-related risks were fatality-linked.

Technology-enabled controls form an important component of the response while additional work is underway to strengthen automated risk monitoring, exception reporting and critical control verification through electronic risk management and safety systems.

"Safe production is a non-negotiable and underpins both sustainable operations and value delivery," Muller stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

The company is expected to benefit from improved operational resilience and remains on track to deliver previously communicated operational, cost and capital expenditure guidance in financial year 2027.

During the quarter, six element (6E) tonnes milled at managed operations retracted by 5% to 6.77-million tonnes and 6E production volumes declined by 3% to 854 000 oz.

Production at Zimplats in Zimbabwe benefitted from improved equipment availability, while volumes at Impala Canada were broadly stable.

At Impala Rustenburg, milled grade rose marginally to 3.75 g/t on higher grade and declined by 4% overall at managed operations to 665 000 oz.

Concentrate production from the Mimosa and Two Rivers JVs declined by 4% to 133 000 oz, while third-party 6E concentrate deliveries to Impala Refining Services increased by 8% to 56 000 oz.

Refined 6E production, which includes saleable ounces from Impala Canada and Impala Rustenburg's North Shafts, retraced by 8% to 763 000 oz while 6E refined production from South African processing assets declined by 8% to 605 000 oz.

Annual processing maintenance and stock counts were completed on schedule in July, however smelting rates in August were negatively impacted by the fatality at Mineral Processing.

In total 135 000 6E oz of smelter throughput was deferred in the period, with the impact on refined production expected between September and November.

Owing to both scheduled maintenance and reduced smelter output, excess 6E inventory increased by 95 000 oz from the end of financial year 2026 to 395 000 oz at the end of the period.

Sales volumes decreased by 6% to 796 000 oz.

At Impala Refining Services, mine-to-market 6E receipts from Zimplats and Marula improved by 1% to 196 000 oz on improved deliveries from Zimplats.

Impala Refining Services' receipts from JV operations decreased by 7% to 143 000 oz, while third-party 6E receipts improved by 8% to 56 000 oz.

Refined 6E production improved by 6% to 392 000 oz on the allocation of proce...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

Governments should not choose which critical minerals projects get funding, and instead should invest in shared infrastructure to allow the best projects to move forward, financiers said at a mining conference in Sydney this week.

Financiers consider the quality of mine projects, management teams, the cost to develop, extract and deliver ore when prices are high, but also when they are low, which is a highly specialised skill set, they said.

If mines don't meet strict criteria, when commodity cycles change, they will struggle to stay solvent, adding more expense to the-billions in government funding that is flowing into critical minerals, they said at the IMARC mining conference in Sydney.

Western governments are spending-billions on support for mining projects in a rush to diversify supplies of critical minerals which are now dominated by China. Such minerals are niche metals like rare earths essential to products ranging from cars and aircraft to electronics and weapons systems.

"No one wants government picking winners," said Edward Rigg, executive chairperson of project financier Argonaut.

"It is fair to say that the skill set of picking winners is not a skill which is held in government," he added.

Instead, what markets need is a mechanism that offers price support, or a tax break, or multi-user infrastructure as the fairest form of support, he said.

"I know there are people from various governments here, which won't like that, but that's a reality. That's a realism of the capital markets," he said.

Rigg was speaking at the IMARC mining conference which was attended by large trade delegations from the EU, US and other nations.

Australia has earmarked at least A$13-billion ($9.2-billion) to support critical minerals development across at least five programmes including its own reserve. The European Union has proposed spending €10-billion ($11.2-billion) in coming years, a portion of which will flow into Australia, the bloc's ambassador to Australia, Lawrence Meredith, said on Tuesday.

Mark Kristoff, CEO of commodity trade house Traxys which also finances critical minerals projects, said governments' role was shoring up water and power infrastructure, roads and transport, as well as offering debt as a long-term project finance option.

"I think it does get tricky when you start to pick national champions and put underlying price support for products," he said.

"At the end of the day, a project has to make economic sense through the cycle, and it needs the right characteristics in terms of grade, metallurgy, and production."

One European trade official said on condition of anonymity that his government was not picking winners but instead was guided on which projects to invest in by the country's industrial companies. The companies would be the ones to assess if a mine could deliver the ore quality that would meet their technical requirements.

It's a little unfair to judge public servants for choosing projects to support when governments must make difficult decisions against the backdrop of election cycles that fall under a much shorter time frame than the 15 years it typically takes to develop a mine, said Paulo Castellari, CEO for critical minerals at London-based private equity firm Appian Capital Advisory.

That is why co-investment of public money with specialist mining private equity firms makes sense, he added.