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

Kamwendo: Richards Bay Coal Terminal has done brilliantly to set a new coal export record in this very tough market environment.

Creamer: It is quite remarkable that South Africa Inc can get together and do things. We see it here with the RBCT, because when you say RBCT it is really a conglomerate of private-sector and public-sector participation. Firstly, the mines have got to produce that coal. Then the State-owned Transnet Freight Rail has got to get that to RBCT.

Then the private-sector RBCT has got to process all of that and make sure that it gets through to the port. The port again is State operated. So, this public private partnership that works is a model for us in South Africa to show that even in very bad times, when the demand for coal is down, these guys come forward with an all-time record with 75.4-million tons. We have never had that before, they should have been reporting that times were tough and they couldn't get through it.

Instead they putting in the extra mile. This benefits South Africa. Coal is the commodity that generates more foreign exchange then any other commodity at the moment. With our weak rand we need every bit of foreign exchange we can get. It is no wonder that Nosipho Siwisa-Damasane is the business women of last year. She has got a fantastic team there. The reports of distance between Transnet and private terminal – look how they all have come together.

You go down there they come and smile at you at the same time. That is the way South Africa has got to work. RBCT 28% black-owned, 3% black women owned, really black managed and the coming together of this, I think is a feather in the cap of South Africa.

Kamwendo: Anglo American sold off yet another mine this week as part of its rapid mine-disposal programme.

Creamer: Anglo American is disposing of its mines and its disposing of them fairly rapidly. Word on the street at the moment is that several of our coal mines here could be sold under the umbrella of Anglo American. I hear that five consortiums have been short listed for these South African coal assets that Anglo wants to dispose of.

The one in the lead seems to be a very prominent one. We can’t name it at the moment, but if it does come through then it will be very good for South Africa, because we will keep these assets at a high profile. That was not the case with the coal mine that Anglo American sold in Australia this week. It was a fairly low profile buyer that we know very little about. The terms are confidential, so those sort of deals we are not to happy with, but we leave them for Australia.

That is the second coal mine that Anglo American has now sold in Australia and it looks like a third one will be sold. We know the two copper mines have been sold by Anglo American in Chile and we also see coming up in South America they will be auctioning. The word auctioning indicates that they really want to get rid of the stuff, niobium and phosphates also in South America. That is the state of play now and it is a situation from 55 mines they may come down to 20 mines.

Those will be top tier mines so it will be a totally different Anglo American to the one that we are used to. They have suspended their dividend, their business units have been cut from six to three. Everything is changing with Anglo American, along with the value of its shares, which we see have really been decimated.

Kamwendo: At last, a special economic zone is on the way for platinum.

Creamer: Yes, I am so pleased about this, because we have been looking at the development of platinum which we are blessed with in South Africa for a long time now. The minister hasn't really put a timeline on the special economic zone (SEZ) before, but at Davos he put a timeline on this and said that we will have this platinum SEZ this year.

This could be the starting point of what we call a Silicon Valley for platinum. We need to do a lot more with our platinum. If we can be the first mover, particularly with fuel cells, a window of opportunity is there for the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs, in not only the fuel cell business, but a lot of the platinum business. You can see the three departments are working here.

It is not only the Department of Trade and Industry led by Rob Davies, but also Science and Technology have been working on this with Hydrogen South Africa for a long time. Of course, the Department of Mineral Resources wants to see a lot more platinum used, because we see the price of platinum still in the doldrums. This is our special metal, South Africa has got the Aladdin’s Cave of platinum, the lions’ share of the world platinum.

If we can lead and be the first mover and create these zero emission fuel-cells in an energy world that needs a lower carbon footprint, it seems very obvious this is also an energy source that generates water and doesn't consume water like the other energy sources do so voraciously. We are very glad to hear that Rob Davies says this will be the year for the SEZ for platinum that we hope will become the Silicon Valley of platinum.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.