Manganese marketing approach needs reviewing – Menar
Menar MD Vuslat Bayoğlu outlines diversification plans to Mining Weekly Online’s Martin Creamer. Video: Darlene Creamer. Photograph: Dylan Slater.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa is not getting what it should out of its world-leading manganese endowment, says Menar MD Vuslat Bayoğlu.
Bayoğlu believes that the current marketing approach needs to be reviewed.
He would like to see manganese marketing taking its cue from iron-ore marketing to ensure that South Africa benefits more from manganese. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
Menar expects to be awarded a water-use licence in the second quarter of 2020 for its East Manganese project, in the Northern Cape.
The company’s move into manganese – from its controlling and management positions in Canyon Coal, Zululand Anthracite Colliery and Kangra Coal – is part of its strategic diversification into minerals and metals beyond coal.
Last year, the hands-on investment company acquired East Manganese through its mining development subsidiary Sitatunga Resources.
Amid the high temperatures and open spaces of the Northern Cape, the move into manganese is now also presenting potential renewable-energy possibilities – but the drastic fall in the price of manganese is of major concern.
“It’s a big issue. It’s something South Africa has to talk about, because 18 months ago the manganese price was $8.5/manganese unit, which is about $285/t. Today, it’s even less than $100/t – it’s $2.5/manganese unit.
“Most of the manganese mines, especially medium- and small-sized mines, are unprofitable. They’re losing.
“Manganese is a critical mineral in steel-making and also in battery-making. So, actually we can do better in manganese, by understanding the markets, and not flooding the markets,” says Bayoğlu, who would like to diversify further into manganese.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
“Because we’re in manganese now and we’ve got land in the Northern Cape, we might consider putting solar panels in the Northern Cape and then having a ‘wheeling’ agreement with Eskom to send power to Middelburg or Delmas or Bronkhorstspruit,” he says.
Through ‘wheeling’ – the transportation of electricity from within an electrical grid – the company could distribute solar power to its coal centres in Mpumalanga, where the lack of land for the positioning of solar panels put paid to an earlier study into the feasibility of building a 3 MW renewables plant in Middelburg.
“These are the things that we’re discussing among ourselves, about what can we do to have our mines use renewable energy,” he tells Mining Weekly Online.
Menar also has a nickel/cobalt project in Turkey and is considering copper projects in South Africa and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation