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Base metals company Orion Minerals, which on Thursday September 17 described itself as being on the way to becoming South Africa's next significant copper producer, has taken firm steps to sharpen its own corporate governance as it transitions from copper project development to fully fledged mining and processing.

Two complementary base metal production hubs are being developed by Orion in South Africa's well-endowed and well-established Northern Cape mining jurisdiction.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company, headed by CEO Tony Lennox, is reviving the Prieska Copper Zinc Mine, near Copperton, which from 1971 to 1991 produced 430 000 t of copper and a million tons of zinc from volcanogenic massive sulphide metal deposits when previously operated by Anglovaal.

Revived production from Prieska is now expected in the third quarter of next year amid

Orion's progressing Okiep Copper Project also having a premier historical copper record in a district that produced more than two-million tons of copper over 150 years.

Fresh exploration drilling is also under way in a South Africa well served by mining and engineering know-how.

Emerging, too, on Thursday was an impressive self-scrutiny by Orion of its corporate governance, a fact-packed annual report plus promising participation in BHP Xplor accelerator programme in New York. BHP Xplor is a nine-month accelerator programme that provides mineral exploration and technology companies with up to $500 000 in equity-free funding and mentorship.

"During the year, we continued to define how Orion will operate as we progress towards becoming South Africa's next significant copper producer," Orion stated in its media release to Mining Weekly, which emphasised the company's ambition to create an organisation centred on "experienced people, accountability, practical systems and adaptability".

Interestingly, February's binding agreement for a $250-million copper and zinc concentrates prepayment from a Glencore subsidiary is now South African Reserve Bank approved, with $40-million earmarked to fund the construction and start-up Prieska's Uppers, and $210-million for the funding of the same at Prieska's Deeps.

Also beneficial has been the partial conversion into equity of the loan facility of South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation as well as value engineering improving the sequencing of the development of the Uppers, where first phase production implementation will take place.

Meanwhile, at Okiep, drilling results have confirmed ongoing high-grade Flat Mine East copper mineralisation, with intercepts of 7.88 m at 9.24% copper and 3.33 m at 17.12% copper reported

Following completion of Prieska and Okiep definitive feasibility studies in March last year, Orion stated that its focus throughout the reporting period had been on project execution planning and funding.

Prieska's first phase, the company said, would target early production from the shallower, higher-grade Uppers with dewatering of historical underground workings progressing in parallel.

Prieska's second phase would target the more extensive Deeps resource as dewatering, shaft rehabilitation and infrastructure provision are completed.

Exploration will continue alongside development. Five extension targets have been identified at depth and are planned to be evaluated through underground drilling as access improves, providing further potential to expand the resource base and extend mine life.

With Prieska moving from planning to executable work packages, Torque Africa was appointed as drilling contractor and Enprotec to build, own, operate and transfer a 20 000 t/m Uppers concentrator.

At Okiep, Flat Mines' definitive feasibility study completion facilitated the completion of a...

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.

Nasdaq-listed Critical Metals Corporation has released a study on its proposed 50:50 joint venture rare earths refinery with State-owned Romanian entity Fabrica de Prelucrare a Concentratelor de Uraniu, finding it will require capital expenditure of $1.85-billion.

The proposed refinery is being designed to process up to 100 000 t/y of eudialyte concentrate feed and, based on current modelling, produce about 27 943 t/y of rare earth and critical metal products in the form of chloride salts and other ultra-pure products.

The expected byproducts include 25 670 t/y of high purity silicon dioxide, or silica, powder. Revenue from the silica byproduct production alone can reach $600-million a year.

Critical Metals says the silicate recovery system will contribute value in revenue and avoided acid costs, potentially transforming a conventional waste stream into a significant revenue contributor.

The refinery's total revenue is expected to be $2.2-billion a year before operating costs, taxes and capital recovery.

Critical Metals finds the refinery to have a net present value of $4.5-billion, an internal rate of return of 55% and a projected payback period of two years.

The company says the proposed refinery will use a multistage, mixed-acid leach process at elevated temperatures, followed by cascading recovery steps designed to produce high-purity rare earth salts, metals and critical metal salts for advanced industrial, aerospace, technology and defence applications.

A key feature of the proposed process is the recovery of materials that would traditionally report to tailings, including silica and potentially alumina, iron and copper. Current process modelling targets a tailings stream of about 1% of feed tonnage, supporting the company's objective of developing a lower-waste processing route.

The refinery can also produce between 50 t and 70 t of high-purity hafnium every year during the first five years, together with 20 t to 30 t of hafnium chloride.

Critical Metals is considering multiple shipping and rail routes for the movement of concentrate from the Tanbreez rare earths project, in Greenland, to the proposed refinery location in Romania. If developed as currently contemplated, the refinery has the potential to become a significant Western supplier of rare earths and critical metals.

"This represents a significant evolution in the Tanbreez value proposition and reinforces our commitment to a true mine-to-metals strategy. By combining Tanbreez's exceptional eudialyte resource with advanced processing in Romania, we have the potential to capture substantially more value from every ton of material while producing the high-purity rare earths and critical metals that Western markets increasingly require," says Critical Metals executive chairperson and CEO Tony Sage.

Importantly, he adds, the company's proposed process is designed to recover valuable by-products such as high-purity silica rather than treating them as waste, potentially improving both the economic and environmental profile of the operation.

"We believe this integrated approach has the potential to establish Critical Metals as an important non-Chinese supplier of critical materials to the European and US markets, with Tanbreez providing the resource foundation and the proposed Romanian refinery delivering the downstream value."

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There is no argument that the Mogalakwena platinum group metals (PGM) mine in South Africa's Limpopo province is "definitely" the PGM mining industry's most exciting endowment, Valterra Platinum executive head mining operations Willie Theron stated emphatically during the company's value-chain media briefing.

Valterra has communicated to the market that Mogalakwena, on a six-element (6E) basis, is targeting production of between 900 000 oz and a million ounces a year. "But I just want to highlight our inclusive resource number," said Theron, as he reported that, on a 4E basis, there are 285-million ounces at Mogalakwena, which against the targeted production offers multi-century mine-life potential of 300 years plus – "that's how massive that resource is," Theron pointed out.

Then, after going beyond Mogalakwena alone and extending out to the likes of Valterra's Amandelbult, Mototolo, Twickenham, and Unki, he pointed out that Valterra's huge resource is enough to keep this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company busy "for millennia, never mind decades".

Mogalakwena mines the Platreef, which Theron explained is not just about mining this reef that others are now also pursuing. "It's about concentrating the Platreef and going through smelting and refining of the Platreef."

And there is going to be a lot more of that because the Mogalakwena openpit mine is on the way to being followed by Valterra's Sandsloot Underground Project.

The Sandsloot Underground Project is an underground PGM development situated beneath the former Sandsloot openpit at the Mogalakwena mine.

"If you look at Mogalakwena specifically, it has a one-to-one platinum-palladium ratio.

"It doesn't have any chrome, and it has very little rhodium. But it does come with a nice tick on copper and a nice tick on nickel, and it does give us a fair amount of gold.

"Almost 70% of our gold that we produce as a company comes just from Mogalakwena. If you recall, it's close to 100 000 oz. So, that is very important to note about the Platreef orebody.

"What's also interesting about the Platreef orebody is that it dips at a 45o angle and then flattens out.

"So, anyone that looks at the Platreef orebody needs to consider how they're going to treat base metals and then also how they're going to deal with Platreef's characteristics, because what's also quite interesting about the Platreef orebody is that it has a lot of clay material associated with it, and you don't use the same PGM-recovery methodologies."

AMANDELBULT GENERATING HIGHER REVENUE

While Mogalakwena is where major growth is being planned, it is the conventionally mined Amandelbult that is Valterra's bigger revenue generator, located as it is on the northern part of the western limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex and also, like Mogalakwena, in Limpopo.

There is a difference between the northern part of the western limb in that it has 1.5-m-thick upper group two (UG2) reef and when you look at its UG2 specifically, the platinum-palladium ratio is two parts platinum to one part palladium, which turns Amandelbult into the highest valued basket in the Valterra portfolio.

At this moment, Valterra gets more revenue from Amandelbult than Mogalakwena owing to Mogalakwena having a one-to-one platinum-palladium ratio.

"So, on a revenue basis, Mogalakwena is actually at a lower end owing to Amandelbult being two parts platinum, one part palladium, along with very good rhodium and very good chrome, and also interestingly enough, nice ruthenium and nice iridium, so a very important orebody."

SOUTH AFRICA CAN PROVIDE WORLD'S PGM NEEDS

Clearly, given Valterra and its PGM peers, South Africa can give the world the PGM metals that it needs. There's enough metal in the ground for decades and decad...

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Industry body Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has welcomed an announcement by the federal government on a "Productivity Mega Deduction" as a permanent measure allowing businesses to fully write off the cost of most new capital assets in the year they are put to use.

For Canada's mining industry, the Productivity Mega Deduction would allow companies to immediately deduct the full cost of a broad range of eligible depreciable assets acquired on or after September 15, once those assets are available for use.

This could include a broad range of machinery, equipment and infrastructure used to build, operate, modernise or expand mines, as well as equipment used in mineral processing, smelting and refining.

Qualifying Canadian development expenses incurred from that date would also be immediately deductible, including costs associated with developing new mines and qualifying development work at existing operations.

Mining projects require enormous upfront investment, often years before they begin generating revenue, MAC states, adding that receiving these deductions sooner will improve project cash flow and net present value, lower the effective cost of investments in equipment and mine development, and could help some marginal projects or brownfield expansions meet companies' investment thresholds.

"Making immediate expensing permanent will also provide greater certainty for the long-term investment decisions needed to bring new mines into production, extend the life of existing operations and strengthen Canada's mineral-processing capacity," the organisation explains.

Importantly, the measure is broadly commodity-agnostic. This broad eligibility is especially valuable in mining, where projects frequently produce multiple minerals and investment decisions must account for changing markets over the long life of a mine.

"Today's announcement by Prime Minister Mark Carney is transformative. With these announced new measures, Canada will become one of, if not the most, competitive mining tax jurisdiction in the world," says MAC CEO and president Pierre Gratton.

"It will usher in a new age of new mining investment, spurring job creation, supporting local and Indigenous businesses and increasing Canada's supply of the minerals and metals the world needs and wants from a trusted country like ours. We expect these measures to have demonstrable effect in the near to medium term.

"For mining, timing matters: Canada is competing with other jurisdictions for the investment needed to build out mineral supply chains, from base metals like nickel and copper to the critical minerals that allies are counting on.

"By covering all of mining rather than a narrower list of commodities, the Productivity Mega Deduction stands to mark a turning point for investment across the sector and builds on Canada's growing strength in other commodities like gold and precious metals," Gratton concludes.

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Hive Hydrogen South Africa on Tuesday, September 15, awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for South Africa's pioneering $5.8-billion green hydrogen ammonia project to Spanish company Técnicas Reunidas.

"The Técnicas Reunidas proposal was outstanding in all respects. Our aim remains to produce the lowest cost green ammonia globally," said Hive Hydrogen chairperson Thulani Gcabashe, a former Eskom CEO and Standard Bank chair.

In its final stage of development, the Hive Hydrogen project is viewed as South Africa's lighthouse green hydrogen project as well as being the flagship green hydrogen project for the EU's Global Gateway programme in South Africa.

Under development is a renewable hydrogen and green ammonia production facility capable of producing a million tonnes a year of green ammonia for supply to international and domestic markets.

The projects own grid-connected large-scale wind and solar PV renewable energy plants totalling 2 930 MW, will power the green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility in Gqeberha.

Multi-faceted, the initiative is seen as being on the way to creating more than 20 000 employment opportunities.

The $9-billion FEED contract is due to commence in Nelson Mandela Bay next month.

Técnicas Reunidas track and services commercial director Gonzalo Pardo said his company was looking forward to delivering a successful FEED and contributing to Coega's role as a benchmark for Africa's sustainable industrial growth."

The contract has been awarded amid the Coega green ammonia project being viewed as having the potential to establish the Eastern Cape as a global export hub for green hydrogen and green ammonia, while supporting industrial development, skills creation, local supply chains, employment and South Africa's transition towards a lower-carbon economy.

The strategic Coega location provides access to the deep-water Port of Ngqura and South Africa's exceptional renewable-energy resources provide a platform for the production and export of competitively priced green ammonia to emerging international markets.

The renewable-energy generation and associated upstream electrical infrastructure required to supply the project form a separate workstream and are not included in this FEED award, which is related specifically to the project's molecule production portion of the green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility, as well as the associated process infrastructure.

A separate request for proposal will be sent to shortlisted special engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) entities.

Técnicas Reunidas was reportedly selected following "a comprehensive competitive procurement, technical and commercial evaluation process" and is said to bring extensive international experience in the delivery of large-scale energy, hydrogen, and ammonia process facilities.

A key feature of Hive Hydrogen South Africa's project execution strategy is for the successful ammonia production plant FEED contractor to roll over from FEED into the full EPC phase for the green ammonia production portion, subject to the successful completion of FEED, achievement of the required technical and commercial outcomes, project approvals, financing and final investment decision (FID).

The EPC scope associated with the ammonia production plant is estimated at $1.8-billion, Hive stated in its media release to Mining Weekly.

This FEED-to-EPC strategy is intended to maintain continuity between engineering and project execution, retain the knowledge developed during FEED reducing interface transition risk, improve schedule certainty and provide a clear pathway towards construction and commissioning.

This FEED programme will further develop the engineering definition to establish the...