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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
Hopes up for a return of mining certainty, another step on road to fuel cell roll-out, adding value to African minerals in Africa
By: Martin Creamer 10th June 2016 The ANC has raised hopes by reversiign its stance on legal encorcement of the Mining Charter; another step has been taken to drive platinum demand through fuel cell development; and the demand for mineral beneficiation by the African Union needs to be accompanies by the availability of... →
Top brass standing down, profitable AMD removal, tin mine unfolding in DRC
By: Martin Creamer 3rd June 2016 Three CEOs in platinum, coal and diamonds have announced their resignations in quick succession; a profitable solution has been found to the acid mine drainage problem; and the first infrastructure is being built at a proposed new tin mine in central Africa →
It’s time for predictability, consistency, integrity with an end to policy somersaulting
By: Martin Creamer 27th May 2016 The South African mining industry is now significantly smaller than in it was in 1994. Mining Ministers have come and gone. As one Minister becomes familiar with the territory, another comes in cold and begins afresh. Each has promised predictability and consistency but none has delivered any. →
Platinum inching towards widespread global use
By: Martin Creamer 20th May 2016 Platinum mining companies are right to put much effort into marketing platinum group metals, which have the potential to play far-reaching industrial and investment roles in the modern world. While on the one hand platinum is opening the way for a clean, modern energy future, on the other hand it... →
Brenthurst Foundation signposts a way forward for Africa’s struggling mining sector
By: Martin Creamer 13th May 2016 Solving the current crisis in the African mining sector requires moving from the current series of tactical actions to a more cohesive, inclusive and strategic approach. The intent must be to exit the current backward-looking, destructive, downward spiral in which mining is currently locked and... →
New thinking for changing mining sector coming out of opportunity chasing Australia, Canada
By: Martin Creamer 6th May 2016 While the South African mining industry is still grappling with the issues of the past, other mining jurisdictions like Australia and Canada are putting strong emphasis on the future. After just coming off one of the largest mining investment periods in its history, Australia is now an economy in... →
Opening of new heavy mineral sands mine highlights currency benefits, technology adaptation, water saving
By: Martin Creamer 29th April 2016 The official opening of the new Fairbreeze heavy mineral sands mine in Kwazulu-Natal provides an interesting insight into the currency dividend that global companies receive from operating in South Africa. It also throws light on the advantage of vertical integration at a time of weak commodity... →
Gold tailings to mineral binders, tracer techniques and water, tailings handling know-how
By: Martin Creamer 22nd April 2016 Acid mine drainage (AMD) continues to be both a curse and an opportunity. Water is precious and not matter what form it takes, studying economic ways of recovering it is appropriate. In this edition, Mining Weekly reports on three activities within the State-owned Council for Geoscience (CGS)... →
South Africa needs a massive, collective heave-ho to put itself back on vital economic growth incline
By: Martin Creamer 15th April 2016 South Africa needs to find a way to align the goal of promoting economic transformation with that of expanding the economy as a whole in order to open up gainful opportunities for all South Africans. →
Ghana acknowledging importance of mining to its economy
By: Martin Creamer 8th April 2016 Ghana has done well to cut Gold Fields' tax rate; Australians are want to push their company tax rate down to 20%; and Botswana deserves kudos for deferring mine royalty payments on a case-by-case basis. →
Protecting national patrimony, technology redirecting mining, seawater’s metals and minerals
By: Martin Creamer 1st April 2016 Recovering metals and minerals optimally is what we owe to future generations; Australians are grasping at graphite in Southern and East Africa; extracting metals and minerals from the sea economically is a hard ask. →
Pushing South Africa forward, regulating to spur investment, righting investor perception
By: Martin Creamer 25th March 2016 Economic deterioration is making it increasingly essential for South Africans to step up to the plate and insist that this country be made to chart a positive new course. →
China ferrochrome imports, early coal recovery signs, coal for synfuels in line
By: Martin Creamer 18th March 2016 Merafe ferrochrome shoots the lights out; coal coming off the bottom; Sasol has enough coal for synfuels plant →
Difficulty in selling mines may result in the closure option coming to the fore
By: Martin Creamer 11th March 2016 Because most mining majors do not want to give mines away at fire sale prices, the expectation is growing that care-and-maintenance options may take centre-stage. As things stand currently, for-sale notices are ubiquitous, with the likes of Anglo American, Freeport-McMoRan, Vale, Rio Tinto, BHP... →
Sibanye shows good faith, Northam bucks the trend, Harmony hedges the rand
By: Martin Creamer 4th March 2016 Sibanye calls unions back to the table; Northam Platinum bucks the trend by planning growth projects; and Harmony surprises by banking the weak rand. →
London listing marked start of sad tumble of battered Anglo American
By: Martin Creamer 26th February 2016 The 99-year-old Anglo American, an important former participant in the development of the South African economy, has been reduced from a company which had hundreds upon hundreds of assets in the past to one that will have only 16 of them in the future. Its listing in London in 1999 marked the... →
Africa’s mineral-poor outdoing mineral-rich, entering phase of becoming world’s factory, making right choices as change accelerates
By: Martin Creamer 19th February 2016 What mining must do in Africa was spelt out at last week's 2016 Investing in African Mining Indaba →
New EU emissions testing to boost platinum demand, platinum fuel cells wanted to power taxiing planes on runways
By: Martin Creamer 12th February 2016 Brussels last week took ratified proposals to increase European Union (EU) nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission limits for new cars – and a UK airline said it was looking to using fuel cells to power aircraft taxiing on airport runways. Both initiatives should be music to the ears of platinum-mining... →
Platinum fuel cell investment, new govt backing imminent, timeline for Platinum Valley
By: Martin Creamer 5th February 2016 Anglo American Platinum is investing to platinum fuel cell economics; new government fuel cell backing is believed to be imminent; and the special economic zone for platinum now has a 2016 timeline. →
Crystallisation and AMD, cobalt and human rights, new gold mine’s snags
By: Martin Creamer 29th January 2016 The use acid mine drainage water in Eskom power stations may be possible; child labour to produce cobalt is decried; new gold mine in Liberia seeking to defer payments →
More robust investor programme, thematic conference approach at this year’s Indaba
By: Martin Creamer 22nd January 2016 A more robust investor programme and a wider but more thematic approach to the conference agenda is being built into this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, which the organisers say will especially address the growing interest in infrastructure investments that support new and current... →
Is autonomous operation the ultimate path mining needs to follow?
By: Martin Creamer 15th January 2016 Given the issues currently facing the mining sector under the depressed commodity prices, increased costs and the need for operational safety, it is the view of Navin Singh, the mining and mineral resources manager at South Africa’s State-run Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, that... →
In 2016, let’s make mining and stop trying to break mining
By: Martin Creamer 11th December 2015 The South African mining industry’s delicate make-or-break phase was outlined earlier this year by some of the sector’s leading lights, who made it clear that that only a give-and-gain approach from all sides will prevent the struggling industry from losing colossal value. →
From COP to COP, platinum fuel cells make some progress but far short of what’s needed
By: Martin Creamer 4th December 2015 The window of opportunity is still wide open for fuel cells to take their rightful place as efficient, versatile and scaleable energy sources of clean, reliable and cost-effective power. →
Tragic Brazil slimes dam disaster forcing relook at mine waste storage
By: Martin Creamer 27th November 2015 The destructive collapse of the large iron-ore slimes dam at the Samarco mine in Brazil is putting pressure on companies to have their tailings technologies reviewed by independent auditors – as well as forcing a relook at the efficacy of how mine waste is currently stored. →
Private sector must drive mining industry collaboration with all the might at its disposal
By: Martin Creamer 20th November 2015 The South African mining industry needs to claw its way back along a new path of collaboration, convergence and shared value. →
Streaming to lower debt, Lonmin on a knife edge, Zambian mining cries out
By: Martin Creamer 13th November 2015 Streaming is in to raise cash quickly; Lonmin's future growing grimmer; Zambian mining in a dire state; and a production hiatus is forecast for gold mining. →
Worker investment success, platinum offtake agreement, market cap decimation
By: Martin Creamer 6th November 2015 South African mineworkers plough their money into education and training; R750-million is going into a second furnace at a Limpopo platinum smelting comples; and PwC calculates the cost of another annus horribilis for mining. →
Mining must lobby hard for revision of Davis tax committee’s misguided recommendations
By: Martin Creamer 30th October 2015 By now the mining industry and individual mining companies will have submitted their objections to the potentially crippling recommendations of the Davis Committee on Tax and now the industry must also go out and lobby for the committee’s misguided recommendations to be expunged from the next... →
Time for radical change to way mining CEOs are incentivised, boards must stop rubber-stamping skewed M&A
By: Martin Creamer 23rd October 2015 Boards of directors of mining companies should play on th eoperational strengths of their CEOs when it comes to incentives and put an end to the traditional of share bonus schemes. →
Implats’ R4bn for shafts, another platinum bid, equity raise for coal
By: Martin Creamer 16th October 2015 Impala Platinum is raising money to complete two big shaft projects; Sibanye intends unlocking synergies of R800-million a year; and Wescoal wants more money to conplete its flagship colliery project →
South Africa needs to carve out a far more clear-cut policy on coal
By: Martin Creamer 9th October 2015 There was a shock revelation at the Fossil Fuel Foundation conference in Johannesburg last week when coal fundi Xavier Prevost told the meeting that top quality South African coal was no longer a sought-after commodity on world markets. Once the darling of global markets, he revealed that local... →
Platinum fuel cells are the answer in VW emissions snarl-up
By: Martin Creamer 2nd October 2015 The debacle that Volkswagen has caused by misrepresenting the volume of emissions that emerge from the exhaust pipes of its vehicles may just be the catalyst that the world needs to accept platinum fuel cells, which do not emit a single speck of environmental nasties. →
Modernising Obuasi, optimising blasts, uranium opportunity
By: Martin Creamer 25th September 2015 Plans are being rolled out to revive Ghana's under-performing Obuasi gold mine; a company outlines how to save money by blasting precisely; and a nuclear body is projecting a likely under supply of uranium in the years ahead. →
South Africa needs strong new national mining champion to invigorate the local economy
By: Martin Creamer 18th September 2015 The South African economy needs a national mining champion to inject new vigour into the economy as well as the mining board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The primary listing in London of Anglo American and the loss of the old Gencor assets into Australian hands has left the JSE with... →
Glencore management's own cash ploughed into business
By: Martin Creamer 11th September 2015 Global commodities mining and marketing company Glencore is taking sweeping financial steps to stave of the commodity price downturn. →
Mine of the future, managing coal, manganese terminal
By: Martin Creamer 4th September 2015 Universities are designing the mines of the future; a call has been made for South Africa to ensure future coal reserves for essential domestic use; and engineering design is imminent for the new Ngqura Manganese Export Terminal →
The indispensable nature of South Africa’s mining industry needs to be widely acknowledged
By: Martin Creamer 28th August 2015 The modern world would be much the poorer without mining, which is something to be borne in mind as the industry takes huge strain under the collapse of commodity prices. As often outlined by Chamber of Mines of South Africa CEO Roger Baxter, mining and the minerals are integral to society and... →
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