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

Makwetla: Transnet is galvanising plans for a new export terminal to help small coal miners get into global markets.

Creamer: We have a very big coal terminal, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), and it's the biggest in the southern hemisphere and it does have spare capacity.

What is concerning Brian Molefe very greatly is that it is not prepared to accommodate smaller emerging miners in the coal space, because these people don’t really fit with the rules of the port in that you have to be an equity shareholder. He is saying despite having this extra capacity there, he will now, because he is coming down firmly on the side of the small guys, will have to take a decision to go ahead with new port, which will be right next door.

What we have in South Africa is a State owned rail, but the RBCT is owned by the private sector and now there are differences of opinion as to who should use that port. In order to solve the problem, because we know there is global demand building up. India particularly is looking to South Africa as a supplier of choice for coal.

They are seeing it coming through RBCT and if it can’t go through there the nation loses out. So, Molefe is saying that he is not going to allow the nation to lose out and instead of a State rail line feeding a private sector port, he will have a State line also feeding a State-owned port so that he can have that flexibility.

This was firmly put forward yesterday at the presentation of Transnet results, which I must say were spectacular. Transnet was 71% up in profits and really looking good going forward as well.

Transnet is riding a high wave saying its doors are open and they want to negotiate this, it is going to be counter productive if we put up another port, but if you don’t help the small coal exporters, I am going to go ahead with this port.

Makwetla: Global mining bosses and mineworkers locked arms in Limpopo this week to celebrate the construction of a massive new R20-billion diamond mine.

Creamer: This is fantastic, we have had so much angst between the worker and management that going up to Limpopo to Venetia to this fantastic diamond mine and seeing global management working with the mineworkers and actually changing roles where they had the sod turning.

You had Sir John Parker with a shovel shoulder-to-shoulder with the President of South Africa Jacob Zuma with a shovel and Mark Cutifani and Susan Shabangu digging the first holes while the workers quaffed their drinks and cheered. It was a little bit of a reversal of roles, but I think that the psychology was great for South Africa at the moment where we can have a little bit of reversal of these roles to make sure we go forward with projects like this, which is R20-billion worth of investment in two big shafts and a decline shaft.

Which companies are really investing money at the moment? At the moment you see mining companies just cutting back and here De Beers and Anglo American coming forward and saying we will plough $2-billion into the ground, because we can see the future, we can see that there is going to be a demand for diamonds and no better people than De Beers to decided that.

Also present there was Nicky Oppenheimer, obviously the Oppenheimer family no longer involved, but he was prepared to come and give his support. Twenty-one years ago it was his father, Harry Oppenheimer, with a shovel who dug the first whole at that Venetia mine, which has produced enormous taxes for South Africa.

It is a very valuable mine, South Africa’s biggest and most valuable diamond mine.  Now we are going to take that mine to the mid-century through this new investment.

Makwetla: The State wants to create a precious metals stock market to boost the local trade of South Africa’s gold, platinum, diamonds and gemstones.

Creamer: Again at Venetia, it was great that they allowed the media to interface with the Ministers, with the top brass of Anglo American and De Beers straight after their presentations to have a media conference.

There, the Minister Susan Shabangu, was asked about the State Diamond Trader. Here you want to set up a National Jewellery Forum, which they did this week, but the State Diamond Trader hasn’t been functioning. It was formed six years ago and it has been stuttering along. What are they going to do about that? Is it going to be disbanded?

Shabangu said it is not going to be disbanded, but it is going to be repositioned into what they call a precious metals and gemstones exchange. What people elsewhere in the world refer to as a bourse they want to create that in South Africa, because they say that the State Diamond Trader hasn’t been able to work well as a stand alone entity.

They want a far bigger spread for this of a State-enabled precious metals stock exchange type of effort. This they believe will give rise to those black diamantaires and black precious metal processors, which the State Diamond Trader has failed to do in any meaningful way.

Makwetla: 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.