Independent power producer Mulilo reports that Jan Fourie has officially assumed the role of CEO, where he will oversee the company’s growth ambitions in South Africa’s public-procurement and private-offtake markets for both renewable energy and battery storage. Fourie, who is an electrical engineer with a master’s in business administration, has 17 years of experience in the African power sector, most recently as a senior executive as Scatec.

Industry organisation the Energy Council of South Africa has welcomed the passing of the Climate Change Bill by Parliament on April 25. “The Climate Change Bill is a critical piece of legislation that seeks to enable the development of an effective climate change response and a long-term just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy and society for South Africa,” the council points it.

City of Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda announced on Thursday that the City intends to add an additional 50 MW of power to its grid by bringing online the Durban Street Substation, in the next financial year. Gwamanda was presenting the State of the City Address in Johannesburg, where he said the City has also planned for an additional 100 MW of energy by the financial year's end. “Our dedication towards avoiding loadshedding reflects in these actions aimed at protecting our citizens from discomfort and distress,” he said. He said that for “too long” the city had been struggling with the “endemic loadshedding” that has plagued South Africans. “…however, I am pleased to declare that we are taking firm measures to confront this obstacle directly. We recognise that we cannot tackle this crisis alone. It is for this reason that we have established partnerships with the Gauteng provincial government and Eskom to address it collectively,” he said. He noted and said he appreciated the increased focus on planned maintenance at Eskom, which he said had allowed the City to enjoy a temporary reprieve from loadshedding over the last month, with predicted record low stages of loadshedding for the coming winter months. Gwamanda noted that through the City’s partnership with the Gauteng government and Premier Panyaza Lesufi in particular, the John Ware substation's open gas turbine has been brought back into operation, enabling the infusion of a noteworthy 50 MW into the City’s network.

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) CEO Kobus Verster has confirmed that the company will be converting one of its three blast furnaces into an electric arc furnace (EAF) within the next four years. The company currently has two blast furnaces in operation at its Vanderbijlpark facility. However, since one of these is due for a refurbishment and relining in 2029, the decision has been made to take the opportunity to rather convert it to an EAF, as the latter produces fewer emissions.

Multinational miner Endeavour Mining, which owns and operates gold mines in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Senegal, continued to make progress against its strategic objectives in the first quarter of this year, CEO Ian Cockerill says. “Our operational performance is tracking in line with our group guidance, as production and costs are expected to progressively improve throughout the year, with performance strongly weighted towards the second half, as our two organic growth projects ramp up, and we expect significantly stronger performance from our Houndé mine,” he notes.

Diversified mining major BHP, which has made a rejected proposal to combine with Anglo American by way of a scheme of arrangement, confirmed on Thursday that it intended maintaining its multi-decade listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). BHPalso emphasised that, under its Anglo proposal, South Africa would continue to benefit from Anglo American Platinum and Kumba Iron Ore operating as independently listed South African companies investing in local operations, communities, and jobs.

Total air passenger demand grew by 13.8% in March, in year-on-year (y-o-y) terms, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports. (IATA is the global representative body for the airline sector.) International demand increased by 18.9% and domestic demand by 6.6%. Total passenger capacity went up by 12.3%, with international capacity rising by 18.8% and domestic capacity increasing by 3.4%. In March, the total load factor came to 82%, which was one percentage point higher than the figure for March 2023. The load factor for international flights was 81.6%, which was a 0.1 percentage point improvement on that for March last year. The domestic load factor was 82.6%, which represented a 2.5 percentage points increase over the March 2023 figure.

China’s leading metals companies, including its state iron ore buyer, are considering their next moves following BHP Group’s blockbuster $39-billion approach for rival Anglo American, potentially the largest mining deal in over a decade. The world’s top consumer of commodities including copper and iron-ore, China and its regulators play a key role in any global resources combination. In the aftermath of last week’s proposal, its mining companies are still trying to understand the exact configuration of a deal that is still in flux.

Despite a 25% quarter-on-quarter and 11% year-on-year decrease in production in the quarter ended March 31, ASX-listed Jupiter Mines’ 49.9%-owned Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining subsidiary remains on track to achieve guided full-year volumes of between 3.3-million and 3.4-million tonnes of shipped ore. Quarterly production was 749 598 t.

Fixed-wireless access provider Comsol has showcased the capabilities of private fifth-generation (5G) infrastructure to South African mining companies at its Midrand premises to demonstrate multiple indoor and outdoor use cases, with clients actively involved in the tests. Hosting immersive, practical private client days for the industrial and mining sectors, Comsol opened the doors for teams from various local mines to experience the potential and use cases of the relatively new technology in person.