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South Africa's platinum group metals (PGMs) mining and marketing company Valterra Platinum this week affirmed sustainability as being at the heart of the future of mining when it hosted its inaugural Sustainability Day to highlight the role responsible mining plays in driving competitiveness and long-term value creation.

The event followed the publication of Valterra Platinum's first sustainability report in March and reinforces sustainability as a strategic imperative embedded across the business.

Sustainability is the practice of using resources responsibly so that human needs are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, ensuring long-term viability for the planet and society.

Valterra Platinum supplies PGMs that underpin cleaner technologies. These cleaner technologies, it stated, specifically include:

hydrogen energy systems; andemission reduction solutions.

Collectively, hydrogen energy systems and emission-reduction solutions make this Johannesburg Stock Exchange- and London Stock Exchange-listed PGMs company a central driver of the transition to a lower-carbon global economy.

As demand grows for cleaner mobility, industrial decarbonisation, energy security, and emerging technologies such as AI, sustainability is increasingly shaping operational performance, market access, customer relationships, and future growth.

"The cleaner, more electrified and more connected future the world is building, depends on the metals that we mine, and we need to produce these metals in ways that are responsible, resilient and trusted," Valterra CEO Craig Miller stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

"The scale and pace of today's challenges call for integrated thinking, stronger partnerships, real innovation, and a willingness to lead. Sustainability should be more than a compliance exercise. It has to be a driver of operational excellence, an enabler of innovation and a source of resilience – and that's why sustainability is integrated into everything we do," Miller added.

Valterra's sustainability strategy is guided by two mutually reinforcing principles: protecting and creating value. Value protection focuses on securing the company's licence to operate, managing regulatory and social risks, and ensuring reliable delivery to host communities and stakeholders. Value creation focuses on strengthening operational resilience, enabling cost efficiencies and energy security, supporting long-term growth, and building enduring customer relationships.

The sustainability strategy is also anchored in three interconnected priorities.

The first of these is climate and environment, which involves advancing decarbonisation, resource stewardship and climate resilience.

This year, Valterra and Envusa Energy announced the commercial operation of the 240 MW Mooi Plaats solar PV project in South Africa's Northern Cape.

The Koruson 2 project, when completed later in 2026, will reach up to 520 MW of renewable energy, of which 79% will be allocated to operations.

This will meet about a third of Valterra's electricity needs, strengthening the pathway to a 30% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030.

It will also ensure operational energy security, deliver cost savings of about R300-million a year and is expected to abate about 2.2-million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year.

Furthermore, Valterra's smelting operations comply with the Minimum Emissions Standard regulations and with SO₂ abatement systems that convert emissions into sulphuric acid.

While this investment delivers no additional PGM ounces, it reflects the company's commitment to doing the right thing for the environment in which it operates.

Water stewardship remains a priority, with programmes to improve water effi...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the completion of Manganese Metal Company’s new plant in Mpumalanga; the rare earths project in the Northern Cape that was highlighted on day two of the Junior Indaba; and the fantastic opportunity for junior mining companies.

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.

Copper producer Glencore Canada has welcomed the Québec government's passage of Bill 11, which establishes a stable regulatory framework for the Horne Smelter operations through to 2033.

This regulatory stability enables the company to progressively resume its air emissions reduction projects.

The law provides Glencore Canada with more time to comply with strict emissions standards.

In particular, Bill 11 extends the deadline for reducing ambient air arsenic emissions at Horne to 15 nanograms per cubic metre until 2029/30, which is a two-year delay, and maintains it at that level until at least 2033.

Glencore Canada put $300-million worth of planned environmental investments on hold earlier this year pending clarification on its air emission allowances and a clear operating framework. At the time, uncertainty surrounding future emissions requirements and permit conditions made it impossible for the company to proceed with projects, even those critical to the smelter's future.

The air emissions reduction projects, once complete, will cement the Horne Smelter's position among the highest-performing copper smelters in the world - in terms of environmental performance.

Glencore custom metallurgical assets COO Marc Bédard says Canada's only copper smelting capacity has never mattered more, amid intensifying global competition, rising tariffs and ongoing supply chain disruptions, with the plant contributing to economic resilience and national sovereignty.

"Governments worldwide have recognised the strategic importance of domestic refining in the critical minerals value chain. Many jurisdictions have introduced targeted measures to support modernisation and ensure long-term competitiveness.

"Canada has identified critical minerals and secure supply chains as strategic priorities, but federal support has yet to match that ambition. While programmes to support key industrial assets exist, the pace of implementation has not caught up to the urgency on the ground," Bédard states.

Glencore Canada is calling on the federal government to match provincial efforts with timely and concrete support through the Strategic Response Fund. "The federal government's support is essential to secure the economic viability of the smelter and the substantial investments to ensure the modernisation and competitiveness of the Horne Smelter and Glenore Canada's complementary Canadian Copper Refinery operation.

"The regulatory certainty provided by the government of Québec, along with its existing targeted programmes, speaks to how much the province values the copper sector. What remains is decisive federal action to solidify Canada's commitment. Government of Canada support is critical to unlocking future capital investment that will ensure the future of Canada's last copper smelter and refinery," Bédard says.

He concludes that the Horne Smelter has demonstrated that it consistently delivers on its commitments to its workers and its environmental targets. With the right federal partnership, Canada could have a midstream anchor worthy of its critical minerals ambition.

According to a 2026 KPMG socioeconomic study, Glencore's Canadian copper operations supported more than 2 330 direct, indirect and induced jobs in 2024, and contributed $1.2-billion in direct GDP.

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Activist investor Elliott Investment Management late on Wednesday called on Australia's largest gold miner Northern Star Resources to immediately restore shareholder value by changing its board and undertaking a formal strategic review, citing severe underperformance.

Elliott burst publicly onto Northern Star's register last week with a more than A$1-billion ($700.80-million) stake, calling for a review and new leadership, citing repeated "operational missteps", including seven outlook misses in four years, and a share price that vastly underperformed its peers.

The call from Elliott, which successfully pushed BHP to collapse its dual listing after a five-year campaign, came as the $19-billion miner was in the process of recruiting a new CEO and in succession planning for its chair.

Northern Star responded to Elliott's approach with a letter to shareholders earlier on Wednesday, saying it was happy to work with the activist investor and consider a board candidate that Elliott might suggest.

The US-based investor said: "The board's letter indicates that it does not understand the magnitude of change required to win back shareholders' trust, starting with significantly strengthening the board itself."

The case for a strategic review of Australia's largest listed gold miner is now clearer than it was before the board published its letter, Elliott added.

ACTING FASTER

In its shareholder letter, Northern Star said that it did not consider it the right time for a sale process. The miner acknowledged that it had been approached by several companies on considering various corporate combinations, given the underperformance of its shares.

"Their response is definitely less than adequate and detailed plans for creating value are still amiss," said Elan Miller, a deputy portfolio manager at Blackwattle Investment Partners.|

"I would be of the view that management are not fully across the asset or the production issues and therefore there really needs to be a reset in people way deeper than just the CEO," he added.

Northern Star appears to want to go forward with its richest assets, Kalgoorlie's Super Pit, the Hemi and Pogo projects, said analyst Daniel Morgan of Barrenjoey. Remaining assets could be sold to cashed-up mid-tier gold miners, he added.

"I think a lot of what Elliott is looking for Northern Star to do, (it) will do, but Elliott's pressure is going to make Northern Star act faster," he said.

In its letter, Northern Star said that investment banks in the last six months had proposed a spin-off of assets, in an option also reviewed by its financial adviser, but one the miner decided not to act on.

Over the past year, Northern Star has faced several headwinds at its Kalgoorlie gold operations in Western Australia, and it said achieving the lower end of its fiscal 2026 production guidance would be challenging.

Shares of the company fell as much as 5.3% to A$17.55 in early trade on Thursday, their lowest level since March 24. The broader benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.8% by 00:38 GMT. The stock has lost nearly 33% in value so far this year, outpacing gold's 5% decline.

The global copper market is expected to remain in deficit as growing demand from the energy transition collides with the realities of bringing new supply to market.

In this episode of IN FOCUS, Absa Corporate and Investment Banking head of resources and energy coverage Shirley W