Modern Mining August 2023

early stages of production – we will be able to advise on production rates at a later stage.” Future Metals Future Materials and Metals is the miners most recent addition to the group’s portfolio of assets with Glenover, which produces phosphate, vermiculite and rare earth elements, being the segment’s first project. The Future Materials and Metals portfolio diver sifies Afrimat’s exposure wider than ferrous metals and aligns it to global trends, such as the advance ment of technology for decarbonisation (through rare earth minerals) and food security (through fer tiliser products). “Glenover is a greenfield project that started its first production during this year and is currently in the ramp-up phase. The project contains three essential businesses – fertiliser for agricultural applications;

Jenkins, to deliver growth for the short-to-medium term and our Future Minerals and Metals projects for the longer-term. This talks to a production line-up for today, tomorrow and the years ahead.” Product demand Afrimat’s Bulk Commodity division currently pro duces three key minerals, namely iron-ore and anthracite for which demand remains strong and manganese, for which demand is currently soft. “Although the dollar price has come down from its highs of a year ago, the price of iron-ore remains rea sonably high for both the international and domestic markets. We are also happy with the price of anthra cite. The global demand for anthracite remains solid especially given that anthracite was largely sourced from Russia in the past. However, our biggest chal lenge remains ramping up our mine to reach its full potential and we are, in fact, in the final stages of bringing the Nkomati anthracite project into full production.” For manganese, Afrimat is in the early stages of production; however, global demand for the com modity remains subdued. “We have only just started producing manga nese and I believe that there is an imbalance in the demand supply fundamentals for manganese glob ally, which resulted in demand for the product being rather soft.” Afrimat produces just over 2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of iron-ore and has reached steady state production from its anthracite mine, which is designed to deliver 1.2 mtpa of run of mine material and between 700 000 - 800 000 tpa of saleable product while manganese is at early stages of pro duction, with tonnages yet to be finalised. “The manganese mine is a new deposit at the

Afrimat’s Harrismith Quarry in KZN.

Drilling being undertaken to firm up the resource.

August 2023  MODERN MINING  13