Northern Cape Business 2019/20 edition

OVERVIEW
Mining
A huge zinc project near Pofadder could lead to the Northern Cape
acquiring a smelter and a refinery.
When phase three is reached, the biggest new
mining project in South Africa will deliver
600 000 tons of zinc for Vedanta Zinc
International.
Located about 60km from the small Northern Cape
town of Pofadder, the Gamsberg zinc project (pictured)
has so far attracted $400-million in investment from the
company and started trucking product to the Port of
Saldanha in 2018. Phase one of the open-pit operation
will deliver an annual load of 250 000 tons of zinc. If it
proceeds to phase three, it would likely go underground.
Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited,
was quoted by the Sunday Times in 2019 saying that
another $400-million might well be committed by the
company as it strives to ramp up production volumes.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, a former
mine union official, was the guest of honour when the
Gamsberg project was officially opened. He made a plea
for South Africa to create more value from its mineral
products. He said, “We must therefore move away from
the ‘pit to port approach’ where resources mined here
are transported out of the country as raw as they are from
along the Sishen-Saldanha route.”
Ramaphosa was referring to the 861km railway line
that carries iron ore from the northern parts of the
Northern Cape Province to the Port of Saldanha on the
west coast. The line has a capacity of 60-million tonsper-year
but a truck colliding with a bridge in November
2018 led to the closure of the line and reduced capacity.
The line was quickly repaired in record time and services
returned to normal.
The president’s wishes might well be answered by
Vedanta who have expressed an interest in building a
refinery and a smelter. The fact that South Africa’s power
grid has been experiencing shutdowns is less of a problem
when one considers that Vedanta is the world’s largest
single independent power producer. In India it uses coal
SECTOR INSIGHT
Ekapa Mining paid R300-million to
buy out Petra Diamonds from a JV.
• Assmang will spend R2.7-billion at
its Gloria manganese mine.
and renewable resources to generate
10 000MW.
At the same time, the Northern Cape
Province is continuing with planning
towards developing a deep harbour at
Boegoebaai. Part of the strategy involves
the creation of a commodities corridor
linking the Upington Special Economic
Zone (SEZ) with the port. The Gamsberg
Mine and related industrial investment
along the corridor would increase the
sustainability of the project.
Ramaphosa made specific pledges
from government’s side to fast-track
development around the zinc project.
He announced the establishment of an
intergovernmental task team led by the
Department of Trade and Industry to
explore the possibility of establishing
a Special Economic Zone to unlock
further investment in sulphuric acid
and fertiliser. The aim is to develop
infrastructure, accelerate skills
development and empowerment, and
consolidate economic development in
the Northern Cape.
The president praised Vedanta
for spending R44-million on skills
development, health, enterprise
development and municipal
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