JOHANNESBURG – The world’s producer of the purest manganese metal is becoming greener and cleaner as it repositions for market acceptance in the battery electric vehicles market, where it sees phenomenal growth potential.
Some 1.8 MW of green power from a hydropower station in the Crocodile River is being commissioned, following the completion of a process of selection of a vendor for the supply of solar photovoltaic energy. For the last 49 years, MMC has taken the waste product of manganese mining in South Africa, the fines, and beneficiated them using chemical processing and large quantities of electricity to make 3% of the world’s manganese metal.
For some time, customers have been buying the company’s manganese metal to dissolve it and make manganese sulphate, which has prompted the manganese sulphate extension. “China already owns this space. That’s true for strategic minerals, for batter minerals. Ninety per cent of the world’s refining capacity is in China. We are an example of one little facility outside of China in the manganese space.