Mintek in South Africa – if Africa had great leaders, it would put Mintek at the core of its plans!
Written By Tshepo Magagane
NB: well done Bafana-Bafana – I will be honest, I did not see this one coming especially against Korea (ratings upgrade & path to investment grade and now first time in knock-out stages👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼)! Time to have that HOPE & OPTMISM & BRAVERY & VISION from the 80/90s when the likes of the U.S called us terrorists!
Anyway, back to the topic – But that is not going to happen – it is about striking a deal whereby your family can make a quick buck.
Think about this, there is NO NATURAL DEMAND FOR PGMs – this is not hyperbole.
Every bit of use case you see is bn the likes of Mintek, Industry and the SA Government.
Value-add is about R&D – yes, ownership of minerals is important BUT R&D is crucial.
We used to have detailed discussion with the likes of Heraeus and you immediately realise – these guys know SA maybe better than you do (they are a USD30bn downstream player whereby the average employee is a German Phd) – imagine replicating that across all minerals in Africa.
South Africa had a terrible terrible past 10yrs but see fiscal performance (to a point whereby ratings upgrades are coming through) – mostly to do with PGMs – the record tax take is driven primarily by the sector (even during the worst times such as Covid)!
I have given eg
1. It costs less to bring copper rods from China through Durban than from Zambia through Botswana – there is a bloody solution there; there is!
2. Take the high-grade manganese in Luapula – to send it overseas to be mixed with the lower-grade manganese from NCape in SA; tells us that the continent will never grow (if you dont grow, you cant learn)
3. Lithium – with all my doubts re: DLE, sodium etc – is there a way to do precursors in Ncape SA with all the abundant renewables
Take the best in class case study of Royal Bafokeng – created through PGMs – even Botswana does not compare with that success…
…or here is the stinker, I always compare them to their sister Batswana tribe, Bakgatla, similar endowment but failed terribly – yet in that I promise you, their failure would be an untold success across many African mining communities – Africa no one is coming to save you unless you start thinking like this!
The failure of African leadership is truly painful – see this illegal immigration crisis in SA – just purely failure (abject basic failure of African leadership)!
PS: DRC pushes out 3.4Mtpa of Copper – that is easily PBT of USD33bn (DRC operations have tailings grades of 1% – tailings) – see what the CIT should be; then add VAT then PAYE then Dividends then CGT…
…yet right now the DRC does not have money for the Ebola outbreak!
You tell me; does any of that make any sense🤷🏽
