Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo: Sibanye Gold is over the moon about a huge new gold project it is planning on the West Rand.

Creamer: This is a treatment of waste project, so it is not as if you actually having to mine, it is not deep dark and dangerous with none of that risk. All the mining has been done. The material is on surface. This is a retreatment of the surface material and there is a lot there. It has got a span of 35 years and has got low yield and high return with low risk. So it has a lot going for it and they are raising capital now to actually turn this to account. It will also have a huge environmental benefit because you get rid of all these slimes dams that blight the horizon. At the same time the material that is deposited afterwards will be deposited properly and there is also agricultural potential in doing that. In the meantime you are going to get millions of ounces of gold out of these dumps. You are going to get tens of millions of pounds of uranium out of these dumps. Also, you are going to get sulphur out of the dumps. It is like Ergo all over again, we know that when Anglo American retreated their dumps on the East Rand and this is now on the West Rand, the East Rand was like a licence to print money and it went on and on. We still see DRDGold doing that. It is no longer a mining operation, it is really a factory, so you have got to build a big central processing plant and the returns on this can be very good as Sibanye has already worked out. It will pay for itself within nine years and will have a very good internal rate of return. So, that is what they planning against the background, of course, of these gold talks where they indicated that a lot of their senior executives have been prepared to take a salary sacrifice if the gold strike does take place. They are of the view that a strike will not take place.

Kamwendo: The zinc-rich Northern Cape is on the receiving end of a welcome R9-billions worth of investment.

Creamer: The Premier of the Northern Cape Sylvia Lucas was as happy as Larry and even the Deputy Minerals Minister Godfrey Oliphant from the Northern Cape was as pleased as Punch. They are saying that it is the only province where you are getting proper mining investment. We see that the investment is being done by Vedanta, which is an Indian-rooted London-listed company that bought these assets from the South African giant Anglo American in 2010. It has been a brilliant deal for them because they kept those operations going, not only the South African ones but also Lisheen in Ireland at a point where Anglo was going to close them. So the $1.3-billion they paid for this asset has now been paid off. They are getting this new Gamsberg investment, the big Gamsberg deposit and the deposits in that are are among the best on the planet, for nothing. They are going into mining this now and they are doing it at a good time, because none of the big companies have been in zinc. Zinc has been unloved, so although you think what a time to go into a new mine, it is high risk, in actual fact none of the big balance sheets are behind zinc and although the commodities are down, zinc is a shining light, because it has been unloved for so long. The supply is now really being replaced, although this is a big new mine, it is really a replacement, because they are closing down the mine they have got in Ireland and this is a great boost for Aggeneys. There were three plane loads of politicians, journalists, service providers and bankers who flew in there to have a look at this as they start moving ahead. They believe that the market will be right and the market is poised to reach a pinch point in 2017. They will be coming through with this new zinc in 2018, so the timing they believe is very good. Vedanta is led in South Africa, by the South African Deshnee Naidoo, who has had a lot of experience with Anglo American, and Vedanta CEO with Tom Albanese, the American who is singing that this particular area could be a hugely important producer of refined zinc. It also takes in Namibia so it is a very sizable investment, but they are moving slowly because of market conditions but they are convinced that their timing will be perfect.

Kamwendo: Mine design has been given a R50-million boost with the opening of a state-of-the-art centre in Pretoria.

Creamer: Pretoria University this week opened its new mine design centre. They put R50-million worth of investment in that. The Anglo American company Kumba Iron Ore has actually contributed R18.8-million and the University put in R32-million. This is all around twenty first century thrust for mining, not only in South Africa, but they are looking at the whole of Africa. They are saying come to us in South Africa, design your mines through our virtual reality centre. This will mean that you will know exactly what your mine look and what it will do ahead of time. You can bring your board of directors here and they can walk through your mine in 3D and see exactly what is going on. They are very excited and they have been to the Democratic Republic of Congo and got the academics there keen on using this facility as well as Zambia. They have actually set a new benchmark for mine design in Africa.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, he’ll be back with us at the same time next week.