Transnet signs final manganese contract
Transnet has signed a manganese rail contract worth R3bn with Kalagadi Manganese, the 10th and final contract in its plans to move 15.1-million tons to SA’s ports in 2019. /
Transnet has signed a manganese rail contract worth R3bn with Kalagadi Manganese, the 10th and final contract in its plans to move 15.1-million tons to SA ’ s ports in 2019.
Kalagadi, which is ramping up a R9bn mine and sinter plant near Hotazel in the Northern Cape, agreed to move 650,000 tons of sinter, which is a highergrade manganese product for the steel industry than ore, in the first year and then 1-million tons a year in the following years up to October 2023.
Transnet has now put in place contracts for SA ’ s 10 manganese producers, which include eight newcomers, a number of which are producing in excess of 2-million tons a year of ore, said Transnet chief customer officer Mike Fanucchi.
In the last financial year to end-March, Transnet moved 14.3-million tons and plans to rail 15.1-million in this financial year, he said, adding that over the next three years, Transnet will raise capacity to 18-million tons.
Kalagadi will be the largest source of independently produced sinter for steelmakers when it reaches its planned production capacity of 2.4-million tons a year by 2021/2022, said executive chair Daphne Mashile-Nkosi.
“Today is a historic moment. We have signed a contract that is a take-or-pay deal. I can ’ t fail. I have to deliver.”
Kalagadi ’ s rapid-loading station on a loop of rail can correctly load a train of 104 wagons with 63 tons each in less than four hours.
Transnet is using every available port in SA to export manganese instead of just the dedicated manganese terminal at Coega near Port Elizabeth in earlier iterations of its manganese transport plans, said Fanucchi. This arrangement, along with help from its customers, has allowed Transnet to grow its capacity to 15-million tons a year from 5-million tons in 2012 at a cost just a 10th of the original R29bn budget, he said.
The next phase will cost about R2.5bn to grow capacity to 18-million tons a year over the next couple of years, he said.
“If we had spent that R29bn to grow capacity to 16-million tons — and bear in mind we ’ ve spent a fraction of that to get to 15-million tons — the cost of getting manganese out of SA would have been a lot higher and we ’ d have been less competitive in the world market,” he said.
Kalagadi is preparing to test a prototype battery developed by a researcher it is funding, said CEO Thulo Malumise. The battery, which will be suitable for applications such as electric cars, uses manganese.
Kalagadi regards the devel
opment of manganese as one of the key minerals in power storage as a key development for SA, which holds 80% of the world ’ s known resources of manganese, as a way to create jobs and wealth, Mashile-Nkosi said.