JOHANNESBURG – On the face of it, South Africa could do a lot more to speed up critical mineral mining development in South Africa.
Targeted is production of 244 00 t/y of graphite and 222 000 t/y of rutile and Malawi has gone to the trouble of constituting an inter-ministerial project development committee to work alongside Sovereign to assist in the permitting processes – and that comes a month after the government of Malawi applauded the investment by Rio Tinto and marked it as a milestone towards realising the country’s aspirations of growing the mining sector as a priority industry.
Under the Investment Agreement, Rio Tinto will provide assistance and advice on technical and marketing aspects of Kasiya including with respect to Sovereign’s graphite co-product, with a primary focus on spherical purified graphite for the lithium-ion battery anode market. Important is that modern mining companies bring green, renewable energy with them and Sovereign’s objective is to develop a sustainable power solution for Kasiya. In addition to access to hydro-generated grid power, conditions for a solar power system are favourable. Moreover, the independent power producer appointed to design a solution for Kasiya recently commissioned two solar projects in Malawi.