MiningWeekly.com Audio Articles

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discuses Orion Minerals looking to longer-term exploration potential in the Northern Cape; platinum’s innovative new scent detection role; and mining’s standout 2025 performance being in “other metallic minerals”.

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.

Glencore's positive experience with the South African government, Nagle remarked, extended well beyond the ferrochrome discussions, which are themselves showing all the signs of enabling competitiveness.

"My experience with the South African government has been positive across the board. We have challenges, not only in ferrochrome. We have challenges with Astron. We have challenges in the coal business," Nagle said response to journalist questions.

"They're receptive, they're open, they understand, they're smart, they're supportive. If they can't solve the problem, it gets moved to someone who can solve the problem. I really enjoy the interactions and they're certainly far more constructive and better than some other countries that we operate in," said Nagle, who spoke of Glencore continuing to be "very pro" South Africa.

"We believe South Africa's a great country to invest in" and if the right opportunity arise, Glencore will invest more.

Lion Smelter in Steelpoort, Limpopo, achieved its first ferrochrome production tap on February 16, following the successful recommissioning of 50% of its operating capacity. That follows the approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa of a 12-month interim electricity tariff of 87.74c per kWh.

The Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture anticipates that Lion will return to full operational capacity by March 31.

While the interim 87.74c per kWh tariff enables Lion to return to full operational capacity in the short term, it remains insufficient to support sustainable operations over the long term.

The same position applies to Boshoek or Wonderkop smelters. All three smelter operations would require a tariff of 62c per kWh to operate on a commercially sustainable and viable basis over the long term.

Engagement with all relevant stakeholders is under way while initiatives designed to compete with a very challenging global market environment are implemented to protect jobs, support local economies and secure the future of South Africa's ferroalloys industry.

In response to a question on whether that would level the playing field with competitors, Fullard said: "It will definitely put us back into the ring, so that means that we'll definitely then have a fighting chance.

"But is that going to be enough? We will definitely have to do additional work we are not going. To think outside the box, do investments in technology. We're also looking at our own business, making sure that we're not only competitive from an electrical perspective, but also sharpening our pencil," said Fullard while pointing out that it is

not only the government that must provide help on the electricity side, but that "we, as a company, must also look at ourselves.

"So, definitely yes, that will bring us into a fighting ring, but that's only the start," Fullard reiterated.

GOOD 2025 PERFORMANCE

Meanwhile, In Wednesday's preliminary results report, Nagle hailed 2025 as a year of significant progress, marked by a strong operational performance, continued portfolio optimisation and clear momentum for the London- and Johannesburg-listed company's copper-led growth strategy.

Glencore is targeting 1.6-million tonnes of copper annual production by 2035, supported by capital-efficient copper growth options.

Wednesday also saw the announcement of the finalisation of a land access package in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is destined to add 300 000 t of copper production a year.

Also, for the second consecutive year, Glencore met full-year production guidance for key commodities.

"Glencore's standalone investment case is strong. Our regularly updated, illustrative annualised free cash flow generation at spot commodity prices, is currently a very healthy $7-billion.

"We have a well-diversifi...

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.

Following Orion's selection from the very high number of 780 Xplor programme applicants, Lennox spoke of "launching off into 2026 with a renewed vigour around exploration".

"It's a very pleasing outcome," added Lennox about Orion making it through to the final 11 BHP Xplor parties.

Moreover, in the week before last, the Johannesburg – and Sydney-listed Orion also reached a binding agreement with Glencore.

"We've had a very good start to the year, particularly with these two prime announcements. As the market knows, we've been working hard to get the Glencore prepayment agreement in place, and we've done that. There are a few conditions precedent that we're working through, but we're confident we'll have those largely concluded by the end of March," said Lennox, a former leading light of Palabora Mining Company, which operates a copper smelter and copper refinery complex in South Africa's Limpopo province.

Lennox: Correct, I did, and the market announcement Monday last week details the facts and figures of the Glencore agreement, but we had a delay during the course of last year in reaching that agreement, and I'm sure the market understands that there was a lot of discussion in the market about Glencore late last year, even this year, and so we've had to defer that by three months. In our announcement, we said that previously we were looking at Christmas this year, but now we've said we'll be producing concentrate at the end of the first quarter of 2027.

Is this trading agreement largely on Glencore taking bulks, copper and zinc concentrates from Prieska into the market?

It is. We start with the bulk concentrate out of the Uppers, then we move into the copper and zinc concentrate for the Deeps. The Uppers is a smaller, getting-match-fit-ready part of the operations. The real prize is the Deeps. We have a very clear line of sight into the Uppers and into the Deeps and, pleasingly, Glencore will be marketing our concentrate off into the future.

When I chatted to BHP Xplor, they really loved everything about Orion and they said what's very interesting is the possibility of deep copper-centric metal systems emerging in South Africa's Northern Cape.

Yes, that's the simple detail around BHP Xplor. South Africa has, to my knowledge, been explored extensively. The issue with the Northern Cape is undercover exploration, the Kalahari and those type of deposits. Pleasingly, Orion's deposits are at surface. They are not undercover and the large amount of data we have on the Northern Cape, and in particular, our thinking, our IP, around what that region looks like, is, to my mind, what attracted BHP Xplor. They think it's a very prospective region, and Orion showed them a very clear, well-thought-out, professional understanding about how to explore in the Northern Cape.

You've executed the binding prepayment agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore for a $250-million prepayment facility, and it's linked to all these sales of concentrates. What subsidiary is this and give us a little bit more insight into that.

A lot of it is in confidence, but we now have a relationship with Glencore that provides us with substantial funding, US$250-million, and that comes in two tranches. There's an initial tranche of US$40-million, which allows us to start execution of the Uppers. The second tranche, which is US$210-million, comes in two segments. There's an earlier US$50-million that allows us to address long-lead items for the Deeps and there's a subsequent US$160-million that comes a little later, when we're in the main activities of executing the Deeps and bringing it into production.

So, that's the prepayment, and it is a prepayment. We have to repay that over time, but it's linked also to the offtake ag...

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.

Mining's standout 2025 performance was in "other metallic minerals", Minerals Council South Africa reports.

Owing to the exceptional 17.2% higher 2025 production performance, this sub-sector, which includes silver, cobalt, lead, titanium and zinc, is now being viewed as one which is worth monitoring.

What Mineral Council South Africa describes as 'bottom line', South Africa's mining sector displayed a distinctive divergence in 2025, marked by steel-linked commodities such as iron-ore, manganese, chromium – as well as transition minerals – strengthening Chinese steel exports to record levels.

Headlined is the masking of divergent trends by the marginal 0.1% overall 2 mining production increase .

Lower production centres on traditional revenue anchors such as platinum group metals (PGMs), gold, and coal, while production growth was driven by bulk commodities and emerging metallic minerals. (Also see infographics accompanying this report.)

Mining's resilience, Minerals Council South Africa points out, reflects structural shifts in demand and production, with implications for competitiveness, energy use, and policy.

Commodities that registered production growth in 2025 over 2024 were:

At the lower end of the production scale were PGMs, which were down 4.4% owing to prices negatively affecting production until May 2025 – and then rains impacting production from October to December.

The 1.7% decline in gold production is viewed as being largely geological, while coal's 0.7% lower output is seen as likely reflecting slightly lower domestic demanded. Export volumes were a marginally higher 71.9-million tonnes.

GOOD PRECIOUS METALS PRICES

The 2025 $3 440/oz gold price was 44.1% up on that of 2024. Platinum was also a 34%-higher $1 279.8/oz, palladium a 17%-higher $1 150.4/oz, and rhodium, a 35.3%-higher $6 258/oz.

At the declining end of the commodity price scale was coal at a 14.9%-lower to $90.4/t and iron-ore at a 6.6%-lower $103.7/t.

One of the infographics accompanying this report show 2025 mineral sales returning to nigh 2022 levels, with gold sales 29.7% higher at R185-billion, PGMs 19.5% higher at R206.7-billion, chromium ore 3% higher at R65.4-billion, and copper 9.4% higher R7.7-billion.

Coal sales were 3.1% down at R194.3 billion, iron-ore sales fell 8.7% to R83.5-billion, manganese sales were 1.8% lower at R49.1-billion, and nickel sales fell by 8.9% to R8.9-billion.

iron-ore (+3.0%), manganese (+5.0%), chromium ore (+3.9%), which are commodities linked to China's 2025 steel exports reaching a record 119-million tonnes, 7.2% higher than in 2024.diamonds with the production 3.9 increase seen as a sign of slight luxury market recovery.building material production being up by 2.9% on probable construction-linked recovery.

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.

Renewable energy trader NOA Group on Friday clinched yet another deal. Announced on Friday is that Sibanye-Stillwater and NOA have concluded a 138 MW renewable energy power purchase agreement.

This is in addition to NOA's transactions with Sereti Green, DRDGOLD, and Pan African Resources.

Headed by CEO Karel Cornelissen, NOA is a renewable energy generator, aggregator and trader and is helping to transform South Africa's energy market by enabling open-market trading.

The additional supply to Sibanye-Stillwater will increase the renewable energy portfolio of this platinum group metals and gold-mining company to 765 MW.

In terms of this agreement, Sibanye-Stillwater's South Africa operations will be supplied from NOA's portfolio of aggregated solar and wind generation facilities under a flexible ten-year agreement, supplemented by short-term supply on a take-and-pay basis.

This additional renewable energy supply to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Sibanye-Stillwater from NOA is expected to reduce the mining company's greenhouse gas emissions by 433 080 tCO₂e a year from 2028 onwards.

The electricity will be delivered through a national wheeling framework using the Eskom grid.

The transaction reflects the strength of NOA's growing fleet of renewable energy generation assets and underpins NOA's execution capability in structuring long-term renewable energy solutions for energy-intensive customers.

Cornelissen described the transaction as reinforcing the accelerating shift toward large-scale wheeled renewable energy in the mining sector.

"We have scaled to deliver 1.5 TWh per annum of renewable energy to some of South Africa's leading mining companies," Cornelissen explained in the release to Mining Weekly.

The agreement was structured to meet Sibanye-Stillwater's additional energy requirements on flexible terms, which mitigate potential variations in the group's future energy demand.

"Our role is to absorb complexity while delivering bespoke renewable energy solutions aligned to real operational objectives. This agreement demonstrates what can be achieved when scale, execution capability and long-term strategy converge," Cornelissen explained.

Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Richard Stewart highlighted the renewable energy supply agreement with NOA as "another critical step towards reducing our carbon emissions and achieving our goal of carbon neutrality by 2040".

"As we further entrench our position as the leading renewable energy user in the South African mining sector, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to creating shared value for all our stakeholders through commercially attractive, sustainable energy security, while supplying our customers with responsibly produced products," Stewart explained.

Sibanye-Stillwater has secured a 765 MW renewable energy portfolio through off-balance-sheet financing with its various projects financed by Independent power producers and other third parties. By 2028, 56% of total energy demand from the South Africa operations of Sibanye-Stillwater will be met by renewable energy supply.

The annual renewable energy cost is forecast to average 20% to 30% lower than forecast Eskom wholesale annual tariffs, translating into a saving of more than R1-billion per annum from 2028.

Through the renewable energy portfolio, greenhouse gas emissions of 2.63 million tCO₂e a year are expected to be avoided from 2028, 41% lower compared than 2024 emissions. The recent additions to Sibanye-Stillwater's SA renewable energy portfolio. The conversion factor used is 1.08 tCO2e per megawatt hour.

Sibanye-Stillwater's current portfolio of renewable energy projects comprises 89 MW of wind energy from Castle wind farm, 75 MW of solar power from Springbok solar photovoltaic, 103 MW of w...