JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has increased its shareholding in coal and renewable energy company Exxaro Resources to just over 15%, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Exxaro stated in a stock exchange news service announcement on Monday.

South Africa's State-owned PIC is Africa's largest asset manager with R2.083-trillion of assets under management as of March 31, 2018.

Exxaro has established itself as one of South Africa’s largest black-empowered resource companies, operating in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo regions, where the country’s highest coal resource concentrations are located.

Eighty per cent of the coal it mines is sold to domestic markets, with the balance sold internationally.

Headed by CEO Mxolisi Mgojo, the company has the only producing mine in the coal-rich Waterberg region through its Grootegeluk operation.

The company states that it is commited to contributing positively to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To that end, in South Africa it participates in the National Business Initiative to align the 17 SDGs with the country’s National  Development Plan.

In its latest environment, social and governance (ESG) report, it outlines its approach to transitioning towards a secure and more sustainable world for all.

The nature of its operating context is changing rapidly with sentiment hardening towards companies within the fossil-fuels sector, particularly over the past 12 months.

While climate change and related environmental matters have always been of material significance to Exxaro, in the past year, the necessity to elevate this matter to a broader, more prominent theme became apparent, the company states in its latest ESG report.

Exxaro was created in 2006 with the unbundling of Kumba Resources and Kumba’s coal and other assets merging with Eyesizwe Coal.