Page 20 - Mining Weekly News Today

Several reports published during Platinum Week indicate that in 2021, platinum jewellery consumed anywhere between 1.6-million ounces to two-million ounces of platinum, which makes it still the second demand source after automotive, coming in at around 25% of total platinum demand. Positive momentum for platinum jewellery is being maintained in the US, which shone like a star in 2021, and Japan, where platinum jewellery commands more than half of all jewellery sales.

There is no question that Operation Vulindlela has done a good job in identifying the main obstacles to important structural reforms in key growth- and job-creating sectors such as electricity, transport, water, tourism, and digital infrastructure. There is also no doubt that the initiative, established in October 2020 by the Presidency and the National Treasury, has made some important progress in tackling those obstacles.

"My genuine sense is that we are going to see a growth in the mining sector of an order of magnitude we haven't seen. I also think that we're going to find that the need for minerals is going to force the world to think that if we can't get minerals on our shore, where else do we get them from?

What the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) is forecasting for 2022 is a reduced but still large platinum surplus of 627 000 oz. But this surplus is extremely vulnerable to the issues the WPIC thinks may play out, particularly:

The World Coal Association, and its member companies, are in favour of a just transition to a net zero future, World Coal Association chairperson July Ndlovu said on Thursday. In his keynote address to the Southern African Coal Conference, Ndlovu emphasised the sincerity of the association’s standing by stating that “we are not disingenuous when we say this. We are real people with families and communities. We also want the best for the future of our planet, people and economies.

Dear valued reader, Those of you who receive the physical Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine will no doubt have noticed already that we have made a fairly dramatic change to our paper.

Diamond company Petra is exploring a responsible exit from its investment in the Koffiefontein diamond mining operations. The exit would be carried out together with its black economic empowerment partners Kago Diamonds and its Itumelang employee trust, the London Stock Exchange-listed company stated in a release on Tuesday.

Cobalt spot prices were flat for the month, LME inventory was lower.

The overall geopolitical situation is lending strong support to the hydrogen evolution, which in turn continues to drive the demand for platinum group metals (PGMs). Hydrogen Europe and the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance are now calculating that 2030 will see the generation of 320 GW to 400 GW of green hydrogen, at least half of which is forecast to be brought about with the help of PGMs.

Almost a year after the launch of the Steel Master Plan (SMP), Scaw Metals CEO Doron Barnes acknowledges the frustration many in the industry feel about the Plan