The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has awarded four major construction tenders collectively worth nearly R7-billion for projects in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, which will help boost the construction sector and should be seen as part of the broader national effort by government to invest in economic infrastructure, it said. Additionally, in [...]

The National Treasury has missed the 30-day legislative deadline to respond to a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application submitted by industry organisation SA Canegrowers, which is seeking access to all information and data relied upon when introducing the Health Promotion Levy, also known as the sugar tax, as well as subsequent decisions to [...]

Civil action nonprofit organisation the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has brought an application against the National Energy Regulator of South Africa's (Nersa's) demanding the full records of decision to award generation licences to gas-to-power company Karpowership. Nersa has not revealed the financial implications of the deal, estimated to be more than R200-billion for the proposed 20-year [...]

Carletonville’s Blyvoor Gold Mine has announced the approval of the first phase of its solar energy project. Up to 40 MW will be generated near its mining operations on Gauteng’s West Rand, following Eskom’s first phase approval.

The threat posed by pathogens to global wheat crops is increasing as a result of the effects of climate change, researchers at the GEMS Informatics Centre (GEMS) of the University of Minnesota and non-profit organisation 2Blades Foundation (2Blades) have jointly warned in a new study (published in “Frontiers in Plant Sciences”). GEMS is an agri-food [...]

Teraco Data Environments, Africa’s largest data-center company, raised R11.8-billion in funds to assist with its expansion plans and power build-out, said its CFO Samuel Erwin. Just under half of the loan financing, which was led by South Africa-based lender Absa Group will be used as growth capital to build out the company’s solar capacity and data centers, Erwin [...]

Battery metals investment and exploration company Marula Mining, which is delivering its first shipment of lithium ore from its Blesberg lithium and tantalum mine in the Northern Cape, has received a funding boost by clinching of a partnership with Q Global Commodities (QGC). As a majority shareholder and major investor in three future metals projects, [...]

Contract mining firm Moolmans, which is a subsidiary of JSE-listed Aveng, has entered into a new five-year contract, valued at about R7-billion, with its long-standing client and South African manganese miner Tshipi é Ntle. This contract award will result in significant investment in equipment, people, processes and systems and is firmly aligned with Aveng’s goal of ensuring [...]

Petrol and diesel prices will be hiked on Wednesday, with oil having become more expensive due to stronger Chinese demand. Unleaded petrol (both 93 and 95) will increase by 28c a litre, while diesel will be hiked by between less than a cent and around 9c a litre. Paraffin will increase by 58c a litre, [...]

Emerging production hubs in the Northern Cape are opening the way for South Africa to be a producer of future-facing ‘green’ metals to support the global energy transformation and to mitigate against climate change.  The two emerging production hubs are the Prieska Copper-Zinc Mine and the Okiep Copper Project Mining tenements.

Integrated primary vanadium producer and energy storage solutions provider Bushveld Minerals produced a record 3 842 t of vanadium in the 12 months to December 31 and has set its production guidance for this year at between 4 200 t and 4 500 t of vanadium. Although production in 2022 was higher than the 3 [...]

As economically-crippling loadshedding continues unabated across the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that government is going through to motions of establishing whether a National State of Disaster could be declared to alleviate power cuts. Speaking at the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) National Executive Committee lekgotla in Johannesburg on Monday, Ramaphosa acknowledged widespread calls for [...]