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

Kamwendo: The latest iron-ore results prove that government and business collaboration is helping our economy.

Creamer: This has emerged in the half year from Kumba, when this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed iron-ore mining company was able to export more iron-ore the the corresponding period of last year, even though the global market is tougher. And it’s thanks to government and business, the public sector and the private sector, getting together. The public-private iron-ore corridor programme and the public-private iron-ore user forum have helped.

They speak about upkeep and keep up and that’s what they have done. They have made sure the maintenance is up and we got more iron-ore out. I think we’re going to do more in the future. Obviously, all our logistics problems are not over. Big things still need to be done, but by government and business working together, we have seen greater exports. Not in huge percentages terms. Half-year iron-ore sales were 3% up giving an increase in volume that enabled us to grasp more value because our iron-ore prices were 8% above global benchmark prices, which is so important because that reflects the quality of South African iron-ore.

Customers are realising now that the quality of our iron-ore is worth paying 8% more for and that is a great benefit to us at this point. And what is be done as well at the Kumba operation in the Northern Cape is expanding ultra high dense media separation, which means we are going to get more high quality in the future and also better-than-benchmark prices in the future.

Kamwendo: Investing in coal mining and wind energy at the same time is providing admirable energy security in Mpumalanga.

Creamer: You know, Mpumalanga is South Africa’s coal-mining province and coal is not going to be providing our energy forever. It has got a finite horizon. The wind and sun have got an infinite horizon, so what Seriti Resources CEO Mike Teke has done really deserves a big pat on the back, because he is getting the best out of both worlds – the coal world and the wind energy world. He reports that his fourth wind turbine is going up into the air, while his brand new new coal mine down the road is ramping up as well, creating strategic balance.

It is known that renewable energy is unlikely to be able to employ all the people who are now working in mining, but if you gave got a new coal mine going up, you are putting more people to work in there and with another wind energyd turbine also being commissioned, more jobs are being created there at the same time. It’s a fantastic idea from Mike Teke with his Seriti Resources. He has engaged the special company called Seriti Green as well, which is doing renewable energy while coal mining is also being expanded, a very good balance, which is great for South Africa.

Kamwendo: The data centres that are springing up worldwide are demanding major investment in new power stations.

Creamer: We had the Coal & Energy Transition day in Johannesburg this week and the managing director of Menar, Vuslat Bayoglu, pointed out that the data centres are springing up like mushrooms around the world and most of them require as much electricity as 100 000 homes. Can you imagine – 100 000 households? That is the extent to which data centres and related artificial intelligence additions are demanding electricity in so many places.

So, what the message was at the Coal & Energy Transition Day is that we are already deep into world’s new high-energy era. These data centres may not be springing up in South Africa, but they springing up around the world particularly fast. He put people on video from Google and they said that, please get going quickly on your energy, because we don't want blackouts and particularly with the artificial intelligence, when you have got all that information going through, you don't want blackouts, because it is going to be very problematic.

They are saying produce more energy and South Africa is being urged to do as much as it can from every bit of energy source that we can and have a mixture of energies, the renewables, the solar, the wind, coal-fired energy, everything you can turn to energy, so that you don't run out of electricity.

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