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South Africa needs to find ways to build and sustain its alluvial diamond sector in particular, given this country's "incredible" alluvial sector which hosts "exceptional" diamonds.

Accompanying these comments to Mining Weekly by diamond luminary Dr John Bristow was a picture of a 176 carat white diamond probably carried down the Orange River from Lesotho and recovered by Namdeb in the offshore setting on the Namibian side of the West Coast. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The diamond is the largest of its kind discovered at the Southern Coastal Mine in Oranjemund in the past two decades.

However, the chances of recovering such diamonds on their way though South Africa have dininished significantly as only about 22 alluvial diamond operators on our diamond-carrying rivers compared with ten times that number not that long ago.

Bristow emphasised the importance of a natural diamond business comeback and the need to realise that it is a marketing business. amid the diamond business being huge, particularly in synthetics, and continuing to change and to grow.

"Going back to the period that I joined De Beers and worked for De Beers back in the 1980s and 1990s, De Beers's marketing was just incredible," Bristow recalled.

Bristow is credited with developing a unique micro-mineral (perovskite) age-dating technique at the Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES) of the Australian National University in Canberra.

He did this development with Hugh Allsopp of the Bernard Price Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, and also Bill Compston of the Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES). This took place in the 1980s, and it was carried out courtesy of De Beers.

"You're now starting to see marketing becoming much more aggressive, much more in tune with young people, and certainly, in spite of all the doom and gloom, we're starting to see an uptick in diamond prices, particularly for better quality diamonds," Bristow pointed out.

"The big stones and quality stones are doing quite well. The diamond business has been out there 2 000 years. It's not going to go away in a hurry, and it's seen lots of challenges in the past, from great depressions, the global financial crash, and now this somewhat more severe downturn.

"But it's adaptable. We're seeing that already. It'll come back. I'll be a different business, but it'll be a solid business again," Bristow forecast in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly.

CUTTING, POLISHING ADVANCE

"When you have a natural diamond, no matter how big or small, you look to maximise the number of diamonds that you can cut off.

" the previous decades, in the early stage of the diamond business, you would work exclusively on a lap, and you would cut the diamond into a shape, and then you would use a polishing lap, and end up with a lot of very fine powder in producing a gemstone diamond for a piece of jewellery.

"Now, there's been huge innovation in cutting and polishing and one of these days, when you have time, go to Melrose Arch and visit Greg Katz and see the amazing cutting, and polishing of diamonds being done on mostly exceptional diamonds from South Africa's West Coast, our Orange River, the Vaal River, and so on. The great thing about diamonds, whether it's synthetic or whether it's natural diamonds, innovation is the norm, and that process is ongoing," Bristow reported.

"We should just bear in mind that synthetic diamonds or lab-grown diamonds, have been around since 1954, when General Electric started producing them for industrial uses and shortly after that, De Beers followed and also started producing synthetic diamonds for a whole lot of industrial applications.

"You will remember the big factory buildings De Beers had on the East Rand, and can recal...

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.

Canada's Suncor Energy said on Sunday it had agreed to sell its interests in three offshore oil assets to London-based Ithaca Energy ITH.L for C$1.2-billion ($841.69-million) in upfront cash.

The deal covers Suncor's 48% interest in Terra Nova, 40% stake in White Rose and 38.6% interest in West White Rose, and includes an additional contingent payment of up to C$350-million tied to future oil prices.

Ithaca will also assume investment commitments and all future liabilities associated with the assets, including a C$500-million regulatory well compliance program starting at Terra Nova beginning in 2027 and the estimated abandonment and lease liabilities totalling C$1.4-billion, Suncor said.

Ithaca said the acquisition marks its first international deal and will establish a presence in offshore eastern Canada.

The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to Ithaca's adjusted EBITDAX, free cash flow and dividend per share from completion, Ithaca said.

"This transaction further focuses our efforts on opportunities that generate the greatest long-term shareholder value," Suncor CEO Rich Kruger said.

Suncor will retain its interests in the Hebron and Hibernia offshore projects.

Separately, Suncor said it has increased share repurchases under its normal course issuer bid to C$750-million per month from C$500-million beginning in October.

The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, the companies said.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the catalytic properties of platinum and palladium being researched and developed as a potential source of significant upliftment for drones; the 828 000 t of manganese that went through Namibia’s Port; and the ordinary shares of Siba

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.

South Africa's Manganese Producers Consortium (MPC), which represents producers that account for 60% of South Africa's manganese ore exports, does not direct individual producers on the corridors or export routes they use.

Those decisions reflect each producer's specific operational, commercial, customer and logistics requirements, and it is therefore not the MPC's remit to comment on individual routing choices.

This is what the MPC pointed out in response to a Mining Weekly reader noting the use of Namibia's Port of Lüderitz by South Africa's manganese exporters and whether there were any plans to strengthen the Upington–Ariamsvlei–Lüderitz rail link and to step up exports via Lüderitz.

The reader query arose ahead of the ASX-listed Jupiter Mines reporting in its latest financial year 2026 (FY26) annual report that of the above-plan 3.5-million tonnes of manganese it sold in FY26, 828 000 t went through Lüderitz.

In South Africa, the Saldanha Bay corridor and the Gqeberha/Nelson Mandela Bay corridor are the two manganese ore transport corridors, with Saldanha regarded as a good bulk-commodity transport route because very little else travels along it. In contrast, the rail line to Gqeberha is considerably more complicated in that, as a multi-freight line, it carries a lot more than just manganese and even has passenger and automotive connections at different points.

Also, when it reaches the Gqeberha port, the manganese ore is made to wend its way through a four-terminal port complex.

Several manganese mining companies tell Engineering News & Mining Weekly that, instead of 16 t being made to go along the troublesome Gqeberha route and only 8 t along the better Saldanha route, the way forward should be for 12-million tonnes a year to go down the Saldanha line, and a matching 12-million tonnes through Gqeberha, as part of what they term the 12x12 strategy.

Regarding the use of Lüderitz and whether this rail route is going to be strengthened for greater use, the MPC stated in its response to Mining Weekly's reader query: "We recognise that some manganese ore volumes are exported through Lüderitz, with the Upington–Ariamsvlei–Lüderitz route providing an alternative logistics option for certain producers. These and other alternative routes currently play an important bridging role while the Saldanha Bay and Gqeberha/Nelson Mandela Bay corridors are not yet able to move the full 24-million tonnes per annum by rail envisaged under the long-term dual corridor 12x12 strategy.

"We support the government's national rail reform programme and its efforts to develop a well-coordinated, balanced and optimal solution across South Africa's two principal manganese export corridors, namely Saldanha Bay and Gqeberha/Nelson Mandela Bay. This aligns with the dual-corridor approach reflected in the recently published draft National Rail Master Plan.

"The dual corridor 12x12 strategy envisages a sustainable, long-term rail capacity of 12-million tonnes per annum through Saldanha Bay and 12-million tonnes per annum through Gqeberha. This approach provides the most appropriate long-term basis for planning manganese rail and port capacity, investment and operational recovery.

"Critically, bulk ore logistics systems need to be designed and managed as integrated mine-to-port corridor systems," the MPC pointed out.

"Rail and port performance are interdependent: reliable rail capacity without a functioning export terminal does not deliver additional exports, and additional terminal capacity without dependable and cost-effective rail supply does not solve the logistics constraint.

"The objective must therefore be to achieve a balance to ensure cost-effective and sustainable end-to-end performance across both rail and p...

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.

ASX-listed Osmond Resources has published a scoping study advancing the case for the EU's first rare earths, zircon and titanium mine.

The scoping study for Osmond's Orión project, in Jaén province, Andalucía, Spain, confirms a low capital expenditure requirement of $299-million, an after-tax net present value of $2.31-billion, an internal rate of return of 145% and a payback period of six months.

Osmond believes the Orión project can generate average earnings of $531-million a year and can comprise an owner-operated underground room and pillar mine with minimal surface disturbance. Yearly monazite concentrate production from the project is forecast to contain 2 160 t/y of neodymium and praseodymium oxide, 94 t/y of dysprosium oxide and 24 t/y of terbium oxide.

The project's planned Module 1 alone can cater for 6% of the EU's expected neodymium and praseodymium demand by 2030, 24% of the region's zirconium demand and 8% of its titanium demand.

Orión is poised to supply three of the EU's 17 strategic raw materials and five of its 34 critical raw materials.

Osmond says established technologies for monazite, zircon, rutile and ilmenite recoveries underpin the project's preliminary flowsheet and that there is upside potential that will be investigated in respect of rutile product separation and silica sand sales.

The upside potential from downstream opportunities includes rare earth oxide production, titanium and zirconium metal powder production, hafnium metal production and silicon metal production.

Osmond plans to undertake additional drilling to increase the scale and confidence of the Orión resource, to update the scoping study and to complete the current prefeasibility study- (PFS-) level metallurgical testwork programme. The PFS work is targeted at the Nagrom deposit, particularly for premium-grade zircon recoveries, a near-pure rutile stream and an upgraded monazite concentrate.

The company is also working on applications for various EU and Spain project support schemes.

Osmond also aims to complete a secondary listing of its shares on the Bolsa de Madrid in the short term.