The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed Botswana’s 2024 growth forecast to 1% from an earlier April estimate of 3.6% due mainly to lower diamond production, it said in a statement. The budget deficit is also expected to widen to 6% from 3.45% due to a fall in mineral revenues, the IMF said, urging the [...]

Platinum’s appeal is being bolstered by its wide discount to gold, increasing industrial applications, and inclusion on the critical mineral lists of many countries, World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) CEO Trevor Raymond highlighted at the culmination of Shanghai Platinum Week, where day-one viewership reached the 455 000 level. Poised to transform domestic price risk management [...]

Industry organisations Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) and professional services and management consulting firm Aon South Africa have announced the finalists for the CESA Aon Engineering Excellence Awards 2024. The organisations also highlight the critical importance of engineering excellence to develop resilient infrastructure that can withstand climate change effects and natural disasters, and which ensures [...]

Toronto- and New York-listed Platinum Group Metals, the near-term objectives of which are to advance the Waterberg Project in Limpopo to a development and construction decision, is working with the South African government to analyse the possibility of exporting platinum group metals (PGM) concentrate. An initial trade-off study has been completed to determine the viability [...]

Talk of alternative energy technology and fuels has increased in frequency and prominence among stakeholders in the transport industry, with both the public and private sectors having made commitments to decarbonise transport. For public entities responsible for ensuring viable public transport, the question of transitioning to alternative fuels was now a pertinent one, consultancy Zutari senior transport [...]

South African industrial users of natural gas are moving forward with the establishment of a R10-billion-a-year gas-aggregator company to provide the basis for large-scale gas infrastructure investments and transactions. The establishment of this gas aggregator (GasCo) will enable South African manufacturing to transition from a fragmented market to a consolidated and structured market enabling secure, [...]

For 30 years, 800 people at the now defunct Chamber of Mines Research Organisation (COMRO) devoted intense ongoing effort to research and development to advance mining in general and gold mining in particular. However, during a period of very tight gold-price constraint, COMRO ceased to function in the form it had to three decades at a [...]

Mainstream Renewable Power has hired Rothschild & Co to find an investor for its pipeline of South African renewable energy projects, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Japan’s Mitsui & Co.-backed group, with about 12 gigawatts of solar and wind projects in development in the most industrialized nation on the continent, seeks a [...]

With South Africa's mineral endowment and its public capital markets being two of its greatest advantages, both need to be put to work in a manner that is common in other global mining jurisdictions, Utshalo founder Paul Miller emphasised at Wednesday’s collaborative opening of the way for smaller investors to increase their shareholdings in the [...]

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson has revealed in a July 10 media release that an investigation has determined that at least R300-million has been stolen from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) by cybercriminals over a ten-year period. The latest incident took place in May, when cyber-attackers stole R24-million from the department. This [...]

Revego Fund Managers, which runs Africa’s first fund focused on primarily investing in operating renewable-energy assets, is seeking new investors as it works toward an eventual listing. The fund manager wants to raise about R3-billion to invest in projects to add to the R2-billion Revego Africa Energy Fund, a so-called yieldco focused on dividend flows, [...]

An employee of State-owned Eskom and a service provider to the utility last week appeared in the Hendrina Magistrate Court, in Mpumalanga, on charges of fraud, with each granted bail of R30 000. It is alleged that, between January and April last year, the service provider supplied five valve stems – stolen from the Hendrina [...]