Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor Jon Gericke speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Gericke: South Africa’s Rand Refinery this week entered a key gold partnership with the Government of Ghana.

Creamer: Well, I tell you, the gold price is going through the roof so everybody wants to get into gold and the reputation of South Africa’s Rand Refinery is sky high at the moment. You can see the London Bullion Market is promoting this idea of Rand Refinery helping others in Africa. They went through to Ghana. The government is very pleased that they have formed an association with the refinery that is in Ghana. The big thing is to get the smaller players into refineries with high standards and guard against artisanal miners going the wrong way when it comes to gold. If you can get their gold flowing into recognised refineries, it’s going to be great for the continent of Africa and helping out is South Africa’s Rand Refinery, which is an accredited refinery that enforces strict, audited compliance to eliminate conflict gold, combat money laundering, and ensure environmental and social responsibility throughout its supply chain.

Gericke: The world’s largest alliance of CEOs this week elevated two top South Africans to great new heights.

Creamer: This is the Hydrogen Council and the CEO of Sasol and the CEO of Valterra Platinum, both on this, which represents value of about $9-trillion. This global Hydrogen Council is big and for every action, there is an opposite reaction. We saw the White House Administration give hydrogen a knock on the jaw. This has made these people far more determined. They are running around and there are projects just going crazy. What did we see in Joburg at the end of last year? We saw a Toyota going around on hydrogen. Where did that hydrogen come from? It came from Sasol. Who sponsored all this? Valterra Platinum. Who is benefiting from all this? Well, the climate is going to benefit, because we want to do this to better the climate, but also we’re all going to benefit, because who wants to import oil at this stage? It’s surrounded by war and broken law. You can get help from green hydrogen and look at the way they're moving very, very fast around the world.

Gericke: Martin, you keep telling us about this hydrogen, when is it going to be like a regular statements that hydrogen as a fuel?

Creamer: A long time still, because it’s a new entry. So, you’ve got to wait. But, I can tell you, the likes of Peter Cox, who was headed Sasol three decades ago, said he could do it tomorrow. So you know, you have got a country here with a lot of means to get it going and hopefully we will do it in Africa. You heard our President, Curil Ramaphosa, sit in Abu Dhabi and say to the president of Abu Dhabi, this is the big thing for Africa. Green hydrogen. Let's move on it.

Gericke: The discovery of a huge Blue Diamond has put South Africa’s famous Cullinan Mine back on the map.

Creamer: Yeah, look at this South Africa. We had the biggest white diamond in 1902/1903. That diamond is all over the crown jewels and it’s in royalty. Now, it looks like we’ve got the biggest blue diamond, which is really great. This has really had a flurry of response. You can see the reports flying through and they’re calling it massive.  It’s great for Cullinan at this time, because we know the diamond business is down and anything that can build it up at the moment is good. It looks like this will at least focus attention on the potential around our diamonds in South Africa. Still big diamonds in South Africa, which is great.

Gericke: Hopefully it stays in the country and isn't put into some other royalties jewellery.

Creamer: Well, that is the thing. Once they start cutting it, you can't do much about it, but the Diamond Fields Advertiser is looking at it easily attracting more than R600-million. So, it looks good.

Gericke: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing, editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly.