JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The announcement of a 16-million-ton-a-year manganese export channel brought certainty to the existing shortage of rail capacity in South Africa, said manganese mining company Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining CEO Finn Behnken.

The company believed that the expanded rail capacity, to be constructed at the Port of Ngqura, in the Eastern Cape, could not happen soon enough for industry.

President Jacob Zuma last week unveiled, during his State of the Nation address, five significant geographically focused programmes aimed at unlocking key mineral resources and exports in South Africa.

These included a new ‘South Eastern node’, in the Eastern Cape, which would embrace the new 16-million-ton-a-year manganese export channel through Ngqura.

"Access to cost-effective and -efficient rail transportation is crucial for South African manganese exporters to become, and then remain, globally competitive,” he said.

Further, the expanded capacity could enable Tshipi, as well as South Africa, to capitalise on China’s growing manganese ore imports. Chinese manganese ore imports increased from 1.7-million tons in 2002, to over 11.6-million tons in 2010.

The company was expected to start production in 2012 at its R1.7-billion Tshipi Borwa manganese mine, in the Northern Cape. The 2.4-million-ton-a-year openpit mine could be expanded to grow with future markets and infrastructure expansions.

Tshipi is majority owned by businessperson Saki Macozoma’s Ntsimbintle Mining, and ASX-listed OM Holdings, in partnership with Jupiter Mining.

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