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As a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, South Africa's coal company Thungela is prioritising the safety and well-being of its 16 employees in Dubai, where the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed coal mining and marketing company has its international marketing base.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is "a matter of profound concern", Thungela CEO Moses Madondo emphasised during a media conference following the company's release of its 2025 financial results, which saw 17%-lower group revenue of R29.6-billion, in a year of strong operational performance but within the context of a challenging thermal coal market environment.

"The ongoing conflict in the Middle East following the US-Israeli actions involving Iran has raised new levels of uncertainty and has caused concern, not only for the global economy but for peace, safety and security in the region. We continue to provide support to our colleagues in Dubai, prioritising their safety and well-being," Madondo reiterated on Monday, March 23.

In response to Mining Weekly, Madondo explained that Thungela's 16 Dubai-based international marketing employees have been permitted to leave Dubai and operate remotely.

"The 16 people that work out of our Dubai business originate from a variety of countries, including Singapore and even Finland.

"While all of them are still essentially working through the Dubai office, they're working from home, whether that may be in Finland," Thungela CFO Deon Smith explained.

Only three Dubai nationals remain with opportunities being sought to ensure their safety.

Meanwhile, product flow remains unaffected, and the business remains in a healthy shape from a cash generation perspective amid producing currencies strengthening owing to the US dollar weakening.

Operating free cash flow for 2025 was R396-million and net cash as at December 31 was R5.1-billion.

A final cash dividend of R2 a share has been declared, taking the full-year dividend to R4 a share. In the form of both dividends and share buyback, some 700-million is the total returned to shareholders in 2025, reflecting continued board confidence in the ongoing generation of returns.

Current coal prices point to greater cash generation than in the second half of last year, with cash now being generated on its way towards being highlighted in the 2026 interim results.

Thungela, which means to ignite, has operations in South Africa and Australia. In South Africa, a strong performance at Mafube and the ramp-up at Annea Colliery supported export saleable production of 13.9-million tonnes and in Australia, the overcoming of challenging geological conditions resulted in export saleable production of four-million tonnes.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of R1.2-billion were generated and operational cash flow hit the R2.4-billion mark.

Regarding the availability of fuel for the company and Transnet during the supply chain disruption, Smith pointed out that it was not only fuel that was of concern to mining and transport companies but also a number of other energy inputs into its business, all of which were being closely monitored.

"Our estimates at the moment are that there should be sufficient fuel storage for the bulk users, and we have engaged our suppliers to give us confidence and comfort they are able to withstand the current supply crunch.

"It might come at a slightly incremental cost, but that cost for our business, given that we spend about 6% of all of our operational expenditure on fuel energy-related costs, isn't going to be as pronounced as what the tailwind is on our revenue," said Smith.

Thungela has considerable storage across its mines and its key suppliers. The potential price impact of holding higher st...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the Mooi Plaats solar photovoltaic project that has begun commercial operation in the Northern Cape; the first gold pour from Qala Shallows; optimism about “great" opportunities for gold mine development in South Africa.

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.

Toronto-listed Canadian company Giyani Metals has received an additional R29.9-million from South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) for its high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) demonstration plant in Johannesburg.

HPMSM is a refined precursor material used in the production of cathode powders for lithium-ion batteries deployed in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESSs).

"We would like to thank the IDC for being such a supportive partner," Giyani interim executive chairperson Nigel Robinson stated in a media release to Mining Weekly on Friday, March 20.

The extra R29.2-million has increased the total loan facility to R264.3-million and the maximum combined loan facility under the IDC facilities to R329.9-million, Giyani outlined.

Although Giyani does not intend to recommence demonstration plant operation, the completion deadline date of the demonstration plant has been extended to June 30.

The continued operation of the demonstration plant has confirmed demonstration plant scale reagent consumption and contributed to operating knowledge of the crystallisers and purge management at a large scale.

This data will be incorporated into a definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the project. As a result, the DFS is now expected to be completed during the second quarter of this year.

The HPMSM enabled by the IDC's additional funding is being prepared for analysis by interested offtakers.

"We look forward to announcing these results to the market as soon as they become available, which will enable Giyani to ramp up towards securing offtake agreements and advance project financing discussions," Robinson added.

As the developer of the K.Hill battery-grade manganese project in neighbouring Botswana, where a commercial-scale HPMSM site is planned, Giyani is focused on becoming the preferred producer of sustainable, low-carbon high-purity battery-grade EV and ESS manganese through its bespoke hydrometallurgical process.

Under the terms of the addendum to its existing convertible loan facility agreements with the IDC, additional security over certain project assets and information has been granted in favour of the IDC.

Giyani has undertaken and satisfied the provision of funding not less than R40-million to its subsidiaries to support completion of its DFS and the IDC will have the right to nominate one director to the board of Giyani if it holds more than 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the company.

As reported by Mining Weekly last year, high-purity manganese oxide produced from the Johannesburg demonstration plant met Phase 1 qualification standards set by US battery technology company Charge CCCV, which enabled the advance to Phase 2 of Charge CCCV's digital DNA Supply Chain Qualification Programme.

A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) published in July 2023 evaluates a base case K.Hill scenario that considers a single production line with a feed capacity of 200 000 t/y to process high-purity manganese oxide material to produce HPMSM over a 57-year life-of-project, which includes a 49-year life-of-mine plus eight years of stockpile rehandling.

The PEA also evaluates an upside case, which assumes the construction of an additional production line from year 5 of operations to increase total feed capacity to 400 000 t/y, reducing the life-of-project to 31 years.

Included in the project is a crushing facility with a run-of-mine pad and stockpiles, a three-stage crushing plant and a crushed material bin. It also includes a processing area, including grinding, extraction, purification, fluoride polishing, crystallisation, product storage and handling; water treatment, reagent storage and tails handling; a sulphur dioxide plant; plant...

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.

Bullish hydrogen sentiment re-surfaced at the PGMs Industry Day on Thursday, March 19.

"I'm actually pretty bullish on hydrogen," said Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Dr Richard Stewart at the event covered by Mining Weekly.

"I think hydrogen's got the inside track," said Implats CEO Nico Muller.

This followed PGMs Industry Day chairperson Bernard Swanepoel putting this question to Minerals Council South Africa president Paul Dunne, who is also the CEO of Northam Platinum, which recently visited China where the company experienced fast-growing use of hydrogen to power trucks.

Swanepoel: Your road to Damascus, you went to China, you came back believing in hydrogen.

Dunne: Our belief in hydrogen comes about from a number of revelations that we've seen on our travels in China. I do think it's important to travel to see what's happening in important nodes of activity in China. Northern China, in particular, is very relevant here. You can't mine coal in China just for thermal purposes these days. It must be beneficiated or improved, and, a la Sasol, splitting the hydrocarbon is taking place.

When you do that, you release grey hydrogen as a by-product for free, effectively, and certainly that's happening. We visited one very large coking coal company, I think possibly the largest coking coal company in the world, or of that order. They have 20 000 trucks already powered by grey hydrogen, with an ambition in the one single company to move to over 200 000 trucks. In this case, they're using a Toyota fuel cell, which has 100 g of platinum per cell, and it's completely commercialised and industrialised. In some ways, it's happened below the radar. It's not been entirely visible to us.

One of our colleagues, Hurbey Geldenhuys, had the temerity on a subsequent visit to Shanghai to meet the head of the SOE, a PhD, Chinese lady, and Hurbey remarked that we'd been hearing about green hydrogen now for many decades and, frankly, we don't believe you. It was very bad of him to say that in a Chinese setting, but he meant it well. The lady professor then stood up and lectured him in Chinese for half an hour through the translator, who was a young student and the message was very, very clear. It's in [China's] Five-Year Plan. It's supported by local government, it's supported by provincial government, it's supported by national government, it will happen. So, we have the view that electrolysers and green hydrogen will proceed from here, and on the other side of the hydrogen equation, it's already happening through grey hydrogen.

FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Stewart remarked that what had reinforced his belief in hydrogen was the Chinese Five-Year Plan.

"Green energy's in there, and green hydrogen is specifically mentioned and there's a strategy that can give real legs to it. We've seen China do it with solar panels. They've done it in EVs. They're going to do it in hydrogen. That, to me, is a real indication that this is now seriously going to get legs," said Stewart.

Much mention was also made of the new multi-year research and development partnership that Valterra Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater have concluded with Johnson Matthey and to accelerate the next generation of PGM-enabled technologies.

"To secure the future of PGM demand, we must actively create it – through partnership, shared investment, and a wide portfolio approach that continually brings new applications into the pipeline," Valterra Platinum, headed by CEO Craig Miller – who also addressed the PGMs Industry Day event – outlined in a recent LinkedIn post.

"By combining Johnson Matthey's industrial technology leadership with a growing base of aligned partner capital, we can fast-track impactful new PGM applications and help shape the demand of tomorrow," the Valterra not...

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.

Minerals Council South Africa is seeing positive signals from government as it awaits the second draft of South Africa's proposed Mineral Resources Development Bill.

"It's our expectation that our concerns will be addressed and – for now – we're satisfied that we're being heard," Minerals Council South Africa president Paul Dunne said in his opening address to the PGMs Industry Day, which is chaired by mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel.

Dunne emphasised the criticality of mining companies and investors having a pragmatic, stable regulatory environment that attracted investment rather than discouraged it by onerous, globally uncompetitive policy.

"It's our considered view that the proposed Mineral Resources Development Bill in its original form does not encourage or sustain the growth and investment that the mining industry needs to realise its full potential to create employment, to stimulate the economy and to fulfil its social mandate," Dunne said at the March 19 event covered by Mining Weekly.

South Africa's platinum group metals (PGM) industry, he said, had made significant contributions towards addressing historical injustices, even in the throes of difficult operating and regulatory environments, and some incredibly demanding market conditions.

"Minister Gwede Mantashe has often said on public platforms that the mining industry is the most transformed sector in our economy, and we agree," said Dunne.

South Africa's mining sector spends R3-billion-plus a year on statutory social and labour plan projects and commitments, building houses, schools, roads, bridges, clinics, and water and sanitation infrastructure.

Pointing out that Minerals Council member companies accounted for 80% of the world's mined PGMs, Dunne expressed the belief that PGM mining industry growth and national economic growth were inextricably interlinked.

"We can't have one without the other and we need a stable, predictable regulatory environment that promotes both.

"A PGM industry that attracts local and international capital for exploration, the development of new mines and the expansion of existing operations will create more employment, attract new entrants, and multiply all the benefits that the mining industry delivers for the country."

South Africa's PGM industry employs 170 000 of the mining sector's 470 000-strong workforce in "relatively well-paid jobs", which come with "a very high economic multiplier effect".

"If we consider extended family dependency together with our direct supplier base, collectively the mining sector supports around 3.5-million people. Clearly this is a very important sector of society and needs to be understood in the context of a developing nation.

"In many cases, mining operations take place in remote parts of the country and are the only source of jobs and income. Often, mining companies step in to provide services and infrastructure that failing or dysfunctional municipal governments are not delivering.

"Mining matters to our economy. It accounts for 6.2% of GDP and R816-billion worth of exported mineral products, representing 45% of total exports.

"Corporate tax payments amounted to R31-billion, contributing 10% of total corporate tax collection. Mining companies make up 35% of the JSE Top 40 by market capitalisation.

"It costs at least R20-billion and ten years to build a decent-sized mine. Very few mining companies have that type of money lying around on the balance sheet. Mining companies need to operate in an environment that allows them to attract capital in the form of debt or equity to fund projects.

"However, providers of capital will not put their money into risky jurisdictions where returns are threatened by regulatory uncertainty, crime and corruption and failing infrastr...