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Mail & Guardian

Roger Baxter

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Portia Joy Derby, chief executive officer of Transnet SOC Ltd., at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
ANDRE DE RUYTER

Transnet and mine companies have ‘a brilliant working relationship’, says Portia Derby

Chief executive has recently come to blows with the Minerals Council South Africa, which called for her axing in a leaked letter

  • Sarah Smit
5 min read
Transnet is falling well below its target of shifting 200 million to 220 million tonnes of freight a year, at which point — it is estimated — it will begin to make a meaningful contribution to the economy. Its current target is 170 million tonnes a year. Photo: (Karel Prinsloo/Bloomberg)
COAL

Coal miners knuckle down to find solutions to Transnet failings

According to the Minerals Council, logistical constraints induced by the railway’s setbacks have cost mining industry R51 billion in exports

  • Sarah Smit
7 min read
In its budget review, the treasury flagged Transnet’s high debt levels, saying it needs to make faster progress on its plan to improve operations and finances
COMMODITY BOOM

Minerals Council ‘encouraged’ by talks with Transnet after leaked letter

Logistical constraints caused production to fall 6% in 2022, according to the mining industry employer organisation

  • Sarah Smit
3 min read
Saldanha Bay, West Coast, South Africa, Railway trucks carrying iron ore from Sishen to Saldanha Bay terminal on the West Coast of South Africa. (Photo by: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
ALAN MUKOKI

Strike sets Transnet back — again

The industrial action is the latest in a series of economy-hitting upsets for the state logistics company

  • Sarah Smit
7 min read
Interior of the Rand Club in the Johannesburg CBD. Photograph: James Puttick.
ALICIA THOMPSON

Flight of the mining bosses: Joburg adapts amid corporate exodus

The city once traversed by mining prospectors has recently lost some of its most esteemed tenants, including Anglo American and the Minerals Council

  • Sarah Smit
9 min read
A mine employee measures the temperature of a mineworker, enroute to his evening shift at the Sibanye-Stillwater platinum mine, before letting him board a company bus at the Wonderkop taxi rank in Marikana, near Rustenburg. (Photo by Michele Spatari/AFP)
CORONAVIRUS

Mining industry vaccinates over 200 000 workers, mandatory vaccination not on the cards for now

Minerals Council aims to get 80% of its workforce vaccinated by November

  • Marcia Zali
2 min read
Mandatory vaccination involves, at a glance, the constitutional rights to bodily integrity, privacy, to protection against unfair discrimination and to freedom of thought, religion, conscience and opinion. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
AFROBAROMETER

‘Exciting’ ramp-up for Covid jabs

As more vaccines arrive in the country, South Africa could administer 420 000 doses a day

  • Sarah Smit
5 min read
An employee walks past stockpiled of coal for shipping at the Richard’s Bay coal terminal, in Richard’s Bay. (Dean Hutton/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

Coal on a drive to delay its demise

The just transition that is currently being executed is a balance between energy security and climate change, according to one analyst

  • Tunicia Phillips
8 min read
The pandemic is testing the resilience of most economies, especially those of developing countries. (Madelene Cronjé)
AMCU

‘More needed’ for miners to work again

Amcu and experts agree that mineworkers and their communities face a unique risk without a detailed response to Covid-19 from the sector

  • Sarah Smit
4 min read
(John McCann/M&G)
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Free up energy before the budget

Cyril Ramaphosa wants to do the right thing – bring independent power producers on to the grid. He must act despite opposition from top ANC members

  • Kevin Davie
9 min read
The council, which represents around 90% of South Africa’s mineral production, said it had filed an application for the review and setting aside of certain clauses of the 2018 charter. (Sandile Ndlovu/Gallo)
GWEDE MANTASHE

Industry in renewed battle over mining charter

The minerals council has applied for a judicial review of the charter over provisions that it says could leave it unsustainable

  • Lynley Donnelly
3 min read
In 2017, South Africa accounted for only 1% of global exploration. The council would like to see this increase to about 5%. (AFP)
ESKOM

Eskom’s proposed tariff hikes risk making mining unsustainable — minerals council

The debt-laden power utility is asking for a 15% annual tariff hike for three years

  • Carin Smith
2 min read
Although the statistics are significantly high
CHAMBER OF MINES

NUM to engage Sibanye as SA mine deaths soar to 31 this year

Early this year, 955 miners were temporarily trapped at another Sibanye-Stillwater mine in Welkom, after an electric cable outage during a storm.

  • Sibongile Khumalo
2 min read
The Chamber of Mines chief executive said Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s actions had the potential to sink the industry
CHAMBER OF MINES

Mining Indaba: Baxter climbs into Zwane and urges new leadership

“The vision of a transformed industry is something all South Africans must develop together” — ​CEO of the Chamber of Mines Roger Baxter

  • Lameez Omarjee
4 min read
ANGLO AMERICAN PLATINUM

Platinum talks attempt to end two-week strike

The drawn out labour action in the platinum sector has been costing the mining companies while police continue to quell protests in the North West.

  • Paul Burkhardt
1 min read