‘Extra manganese to be shipped from Ngqura’
The aim is to execute on an integrated schedule for port and rail . . . in 2023
THE extra manganese Transnet is aiming to ship out of Algoa Bay will be moved through the Port of Ngqura and not Port Elizabeth, Transnet Freight Rail has confirmed.
Transnet Freight Rail spokesman Mike Asefovitz was responding to a question from The Herald following news from the mining indaba that manganese miners are eagerly awaiting the expansion of the rail network from the Northern Cape to Algoa Bay.
Speaking at the South African Mining Indaba in Cape Town last week, Anglo American South Africa deputy chairman Norman Mbazima said manganese miners were constrained by limitations on the railway line and were enthusiastically waiting for extra capacity to allow them to export more manganese.
Transnet has already said that as a sustainable manganese supply to China and Europe is established, it will upgrade the 1 100km line from Hotazel to Ngqura.
In line with this strategy, it would spend R12.5-billion over the next seven years.
The news from Cape Town attracted the attention of manganese watchers in Port Elizabeth, where the two ore export sites in the harbour have been caught up in a storm over air pollution.
Since The Herald’s January 10 exposé about the issue, Transnet has sought to engage frustrated tenants and nearby residents, and a range of monitoring and dust-reducing measures have been implemented.
But with the transfer of the manganese terminal from Port Elizabeth to Ngqura now only in 2023, there were questions around the possibility that, before the new terminal was ready, large new loads of ore would be brought through the city, escalating the chance of worse dust emissions.
In his response, Asefovitz said: “The aim is to execute on an integrated schedule for port and rail so the entire supply chain will be operationally ready around the same time in 2023.
“It does not make financial sense to fast-track either port or rail before the other.”
Asked to confirm that this meant that the extra ore would be directed only to the new Ngqura terminal and not through Port Elizabeth, Asefovitz said that was correct.
He said the line would be upgraded and expanded with partial doubling of the rail section between Kimberley and De Aar and the provision of new dual voltage locomotives and wagons.
According to Port Elizabeth port manager Rajesh Dana, while the manganese dump at Port Elizabeth comprises some 5.1 million tons of ore, the eventual capacity of the one at Ngqura will be 24 million tons.