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Martin Creamer
Martin Creamer is Creamer Media Publishing Editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.
Tel: +2711 622 3744
First Word
Minerals Council South Africa should now publish national chrome strategy as platinum strategy follow-on
By: Martin Creamer 22nd March 2019 Maximising South Africa’s platinum group metals (PGMs) endowment through the development of a national platinum strategy is key and Minerals Council South Africa must take a bow for publishing its 14-page PGMs roadmap. Now it should do the same thing for South Africa’s chrome ore endowment, in... →
Mining’s eyeing of renewable energy alternatives will intensify with 13.82% electricity tariff award
By: Martin Creamer 15th March 2019 Just about every mining company you speak to these days has renewable energy in its sights and all report that initial indications are that solar power installations beat the Eskom tariff – and that was before the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) granted its latest tariff... →
Glencore’s praiseworthy coal capping indicative of intensification of global trend to low-carbon future
By: Martin Creamer 8th March 2019 It takes praiseworthy strategic thinking to say ‘so far and no further’ when it comes to a commodity that is an integral part of one’s business but that it exactly what Glencore, the world’s biggest supplier of seaborne coal did when it announced last week that it would not increase is coal... →
Global mining world correct to take action on slimes dam negligence, establish strong auditing behaviour
By: Martin Creamer 1st March 2019 The global mining world is correct to focus intensely in on monitoring particularly the upstream varieties of mine tailings storage facilities (TSFs), which has taken so many lives and caused such environmental damage. The Brazilian tragedies have been ghastly and every time one checks on the... →
South African mining falling behind on energy, automation, discovery, development and longevity fronts
By: Martin Creamer 22nd February 2019 South African mining was at one stage ahead of the world, leading on all fronts using the cheapest energy. All that has ended and South African mining now finds itself far behind. Its African counterparts are streaking ahead in the use of renewable energy, the ushering in of automation and the... →
Mining Indaba strengthens continental approach, diamond exploration boosted, precious metals mining has new environmental stricture
By: Martin Creamer 15th February 2019 The Investing in African Mining Indaba has evolved over the last quarter century into an even that has promoted inclusive growth on the continent. A promising axis between South Africa and Ghana was enhanced when President Cyril Ramaphosa challenged mining to take ten value-adding steps to spread... →
Platinum-group metals need wider range of uses to ensure ongoing demand in wake of auto disruption
By: Martin Creamer 8th February 2019 Every day we read about electric vehicles taking over from conventional petrol and diesel vehicles. Even though the accuracy of many of these reports is challenged by those doing convincing calculations, at the end of the day, the automotive market is going to be disrupted in one way or another,... →
UN is right to alert business to opportunity of mining world’s quickly rising brine mountain
By: Martin Creamer 1st February 2019 There are about 16 000 desalination plants in the world and these discharge 142-million cubic meters of brine daily, which is well up on previous estimates and enough in a year to cover KwaZulu-Natal in 30 cm of saturated salt water. What is needed is a mining of the salt and metals contained in... →
New commodity-specific vision needed for threatened platinum mining businesses
By: Martin Creamer 25th January 2019 Whenever I interviewed platinum-mining executives in the late Seventies and early Eighties, they would invariably discuss marketing, marketing and more marketing, which platinum needs because it is never consumed and comes back in recycled form. I would go to the platinum fortress of the time,... →
Informal land occupation should not be allowed to trump formal mining investment
By: Martin Creamer 18th January 2019 It is the age of informal triumph. Informal land occupiers are able to stop formal mining applications by winning victories in the law courts. Informal mining under the Gold City of Johannesburg wins vocal support while formal officially licenced mining is vocally condemned. →
Incipient low-cost energy development must be crafted to bring back low-cost minerals-energy complex
By: Martin Creamer 14th December 2018 It is good news that the pilot projects of South Africa’s hydrogen strategy are nearing commercialisation, as Department of Science and Technology hydrogen and energy chief director Dr Rebecca Maserumule told attendees of the thirtieth International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the... →
South Africa must use clean renewable energy to build new minerals-energy complex
By: Martin Creamer 7th December 2018 The South African economy of the past benefited immensely from a combination of rich minerals and metals and low-cost coal-fired electricity. The platform that gave rise to strong economic growth was referred to as South Africa’s minerals and energy complex. →
Coal set to continue to command energy scene for some time as renewables progressively gain market share
By: Martin Creamer 30th November 2018 The Fossil Fuel Foundation (FFF) put up a good show at last week’s coal event in Johannesburg. The message was driven home that there must be full cognisance of the importance of coal to South Africa, even though the product is being cold-shouldered because of the need to decarbonise the world.... →
Positive corporate thinking is emerging that has potential to stimulate vital new investment
By: Martin Creamer 23rd November 2018 It is wonderful that top South African business leaders are speaking out on the merits of stepping up investment in the South African economy. First the country had Brian Joffe, who created the huge Bidvest group before leaving that in good hands and turning his attention Long4Life, and now we... →
Determined approach of mining majors to people and planet bodes well for future
By: Martin Creamer 16th November 2018 Mining majors are firmly committing to supporting communities and protecting the environment. They are nailing their colours to the mast of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, meeting the membership standards of organisations like the International Council on Mining and Metals and... →
Mine modernisation momentum building up unstoppable steam
By: Martin Creamer 9th November 2018 There is just no stopping the pace of mine modernisation globally. There will be no turning back at the level of the mining majors. All of them are seizing on every bit of appropriate technology available to create better mines that present less risk to health, better protect Mother Nature and... →
Time to fulfil mine modernisation plans optimally to boost mining efficiency, extend mine life, preserve jobs
By: Martin Creamer 2nd November 2018 Virtually every mining company you talk to has plans to modernise its operations and it would be beneficial for the industry to share information publicly about what is working best. This is because successful modernisation will not only be a major boon to the mining companies themselves, but... →
Mining’s performance must improve for the good of the South African people
By: Martin Creamer 26th October 2018 Although the mining production figures for the month of August were regrettably still on a downward trajectory, sentiment in the sector has improved by leaps and bounds since Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe took office. Disaggregation of August’s output data by Investec exposed a... →
Time to enlarge the mining industry for the good of all the people of South Africa
By: Martin Creamer 19th October 2018 There are good reasons why the South African mining industry should not be too big, Dutch disease being one of them, but the present size of mining at only 4% to this country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is a lost economic opportunity second to none. Worst of all is that the cause of mining’s... →
Releasing exploration companies from onerous regulatory burdens is positive
By: Martin Creamer 12th October 2018 Mining Charter Three does not tie exploration companies down to the obligations it places on new mining licence applicants. Exploration has not been encumbered with 30% black economic empowerment obligations, 5% carried interest for labour, 5% carried interest for communities and the other boxes... →
Proper stimulation of mining can ensure better living standards for the people of South Africa
By: Martin Creamer 5th October 2018 Johannesburg and Los Angeles have something special in common. They were both catalysed by gold mining. The Witwatersrand gold rush of 1886 led to the establishment of Johannesburg and the California gold rush of 1848 led to the development of Los Angeles. Both cities are examples of the... →
Irony of resource-rich Africa remaining poor must be reversed
By: Martin Creamer 28th September 2018 There are many world leaders holding thumbs that Africa will move to the next level in the not too distant future. Encouraging African steps just taken include the African Continental Free Trade Agreement between 44 African Union member states, with the goal of creating a single market. But even... →
Investor confidence takes on new hue, South Africa needs to embrace it with vigour
By: Martin Creamer 21st September 2018 Investor confidence is no longer a stand-alone in the South African context, where it includes other key confidences. In delivering 51% higher headline earnings of R4 814-million in the 12 months to June 30 accompanied by a hefty R1.7-billion cumulative dividend payout, African Rainbow Minerals... →
Govt should remove the carbon tax threat hanging over the metal smelting sector
By: Martin Creamer 14th September 2018 The renewable energy factor that predominates the latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) provide and excellent reason by the Cabinet should instruct the National Treasury to put a hold on its plan to introduce a carbon tax on January 1 next year. Enshrined in the latest IRP is the strongest... →
Minister’s big exploration stimulus must also be fully transparent to be credible
By: Martin Creamer 7th September 2018 Somehow Cabinet Ministers seem to say more outside the country than in it. Mining Weekly has been striving for effective stimulation of the dormant exploration business for some time, but the publication had to wait for Minerals Minister Gwede Mantashe to go to last week’s African Down Under... →
Gwede Mantashe tweet is sentiment boost for problem ridden South African mining
By: Martin Creamer 31st August 2018 Shakespeare noted that there is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken in the flood, leads to a fortune. Last week’s great tweet by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe urging South Africans to celebrate their wonderful treasure chest of mineral wealth has been taken in the flood and... →
South Africa should set out with iron will to achieve benchmarks of world’s top mining jurisdiction
By: Martin Creamer 24th August 2018 Way before the new millennium, leading South African gold mining companies organising secondary listings on global stock exchanges would say how determined they were to meet the so-called Ontario benchmark, a safety level attained by Canadian mining companies that became the Holy Grail for... →
Department of Mineral Resources entering the fray to stop mining companies from closing mines
By: Martin Creamer 10th August 2018 The new Department of Minerals Resources (DMR) is showing a strong tendency to resist companies that apply to shut mines or put mine shafts on care and maintenance. The DMR is advocating applying Section 52 of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act ahead of the labour-reducing... →
Regulatory hiatus causing even friendly major miners to back off exploration
By: Martin Creamer 3rd August 2018 Exploration is vital to keep mining going and although Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has expressed concern about many mine shafts being put on care and maintenance, Minerals Council South Africa is correct to point out that the real setback for the future sustainability of the South... →
South Africa lacks funding for capital-intensive mining, needs to encourage foreign investment
By: Martin Creamer 27th July 2018 The South African mining industry is huge and contributes immensely to the balance of payments through exportation, but it could never have got off the ground without foreign investment. Even when South Africa’s savings was considerably bigger than it is now and even before banks stepped back... →
South African people can benefit from innovative approach to junior mining promotion
By: Martin Creamer 20th July 2018 Junior mining is being considered as a special case by the powers that be, who are advocating an approach of juniors making special representations, which sounds like the authorities have run out of their own ideas. Certainly, junior mining is not going to get off the ground if it has to bear the... →
Cooperation needed to fill Africa’s trillion-dollar infrastructure gap
By: Martin Creamer 13th July 2018 The Global Infrastructure Hub, a G20 initiative, calculates the infrastructure gap in ten of its ‘Compact with Africa’ countries to be $1-trillion in over the next 22 years, representing a 42% investment gap, which the global organisation describes as being one of the world’s largest regional gaps. →
Lesson for South Africa from Australia’s less endowed Queensland state
By: Martin Creamer 6th July 2018 South Africa could do well to follow the path Australia's Queensland state has taken to create mining jobs. →
South Africa’s secretive DMR needs to subject itself to transparency evaluation, set reform priorities
By: Martin Creamer 29th June 2018 The Department of Mineral Resources needs to subject itself to an impartial transparency evaluation to identify its vulnerabilities – and the past period has shown that there are indeed very many – and to set reform priorities. →
China kindling hope of accelerated use of platinum fuel cells to clean world’s air
By: Martin Creamer 22nd June 2018 The corridors of mining power are abuzz with reports of quick steps being taken by China to introduce platinum-catalysed hydrogen fuel cells at scale. Heavy fuel cell vehicles are being rapidly produced and the necessary hydrogen filling-station infrastructure provided, stimulated by 100%... →
Junior miners fund needs to be given momentum that only foreign direct investment can provide
By: Martin Creamer 15th June 2018 It is wonderful news that the Department of Mineral Resources is at last acknowledging the important of junior mining promotion by announcing its intention to create a junior miners fund for emerging black startups of greenfield exploration projects. But what has still to be acknowledged is that... →
Global view of clean air as a human right highlighting need for clean coal, emissions-destroying platinum
By: Martin Creamer 8th June 2018 Globally, clean air is being seen as a human right, even in dictatorial parts of the world, which has seen vigorous public protest against air pollution that damages health. People of the world are demanding that air ceases to contain particles that penetrate their lungs and causes illness, with... →
Chamber rebrand as Minerals Council South Africa establishes valuable ‘reboot’ opportunity for South Africa’s most important industry
By: Martin Creamer 1st June 2018 The introduction of the Minerals Council South Africa provides the struggling South African mining industry with a chance to establish an important new beginning. Proper leadership has the potential to set South Africa on an upward course under the growing realisation that if the country... →
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