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South Africa mines less than 2% of global
manganese and the mineral is abundant, but processed and beneficiated manganese
products are critical and in demand, especially as most of the world's
manganese processing is done in China, local processing company Manganese
Mining Company (MMC) CEO Louis Nel has highlighted.
MMC produced about 80 000 t/y of high-grade
electrolytic manganese metal (EMM), he said during the Joburg Indaba 'Manganese – SA’s critical mineral' panel
discussion on October 3.
"We may want to think of manganese as
a critical mineral, but it is not. The supply is sufficient for demand. Its use
in high-end electric vehicle batteries is part of its future prospects, but,
with the projects that have been announced, there will be excess capacity and
it will also take some time before the core use in steelmaking is overtaken by
high-end needs," said management consulting firm McKinsey & Company
senior partner Zak Gaibi.
"South Africa is blessed with some of
the highest-grade manganese in the world, which is fortunate, but a lot of the
value is in processing these resources. About 60% to 65% of the costs currently
are in the broader supply chain and logistics. We need to compress these costs
to be competitive with China," he stressed.
With geopolitical shifts, there was an
opportunity for South Africa to explore how to progress the local beneficiation
of manganese, said Nel.
MMC was the only producer of high-grade EMM
based outside China. MMC has been processing manganese for 50 years and has
been running at maximum capacity for several years.
The company was currently looking at
producing high-grade manganese sulphate from locally mined manganese, first
from the metal and then directly from the ore. This project was funded and
should break ground in 2025 and start producing in 2026, he added.
"South Africa can capably mine
manganese, but does not have sufficient chemical skills to move from mining to
producing sulphate and battery minerals. It is therefore critical for South
Africa to partner with international companies that know how to process the
mineral as part of the next phase for manganese," said State-owned energy
mining company African Exploration Mining Finance Corporation (AEMFC) CEO
Lemogang Pitsoe.
"While manganese is not a critical
mineral, we need to develop a policy for strategic and critical minerals. The
world is not waiting for us [to develop a policy]. We need a clear policy for
developing strategic minerals," he added.
As a country, South Africa needed to look
at manganese differently, specifically how it could play a role further down
the value chain, as well as how it could put a supply chain in place that would
enable the country to play a role in the value chain, said diversified mining
company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) new business development executive Sihle
Mdluli.
Further, the downstream supply chain of
manganese differs from that of manganese ores because it is affected by
geopolitical issues, including decarbonisation and climate change.
"We must think carefully about where
we want to be in the value chain and what is present that can support
this," she said.
The sector should collaborate, including
with government, to solve some of the issues impeding exports, including
logistics and ports.
On the electricity side, the ferromanganese
and ferroalloys industry has suffered significantly.
"We need concerted efforts, including
from government, to look at how we can revive the ferroalloys sector in the
country. [ARM has] developed a technology for producing ferromanganese and
ferrochrome cheaply using less electricity, and we hope this will help to
revive the industry," she said.
Fortunately, there were several models from
countries around the world that South Africa could look to replicate for its
manganese resources, said Nel.
"Indonesia is dominant in nickel
refining at the moment owing to the approach its government took, while China's
strategy resulted in it securing 90% of all manganese beneficiation within its
borders."
However, only mining and shipping the ore
is not a model that will work, said Mdluli.
"ARM has invested in direct smelting
technology. It has been ten years in the making, through demonstrations and
piloting. We are now at the point where we are ready to commercialise it,"
she said.
In terms of research and development, the
challenge was that not all technologies would develop into viable products or
solutions. However, companies must be willing to invest and "kiss several
frogs before finding the prince".
"Technology will play a critical role
in the supply and value chains. We realised that our processing capabilities
are not enough to progress our strategy and we partnered with [manganese
battery products company] Innovative Manganese Technologies South Africa,"
she added.
Manganese refining technology was
centralised in China and South Africa. A key challenge for MMC was that
electricity cost comprised 40% of its overall costs, which had risen from 18%
of its costs one decade ago, said Nel.
"This is a significant cost increase.
We are essentially using electricity to convert ore into product. However,
South Africa does still have the ability to innovate to develop its processing
capabilities.
"We have a specialised team of
chemical engineers and a consistent pipeline of young talent. We partnered with
the University of Limpopo and we are confident that we have the tools and the
young people to assist us in building our new plants," he said.