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Global Mining Projects in Progress 2022
Published: 08 Mar 22
Countless industries globally depend on the supply of mined mineral resources, making the mining sector crucial to the world’s economy.
The reliance of high-tech industries on critical metals, such as platinum-group metals, lithium, cobalt and rare earths, which are used in a range of industrial applications, such as electronics, clean energy, aerospace, automotive and defence, is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Gold, mined for thousands of years, is still considered a store of value, while iron-ore, coal, potash and copper remain some of the most exploited commodities in terms of volume.
However, the minerals sector is no exception to the effects of Covid-19, albeit in varying degrees. Open access publisher MDPI contends that the pandemic has had the biggest effect on projects implementing feasibility studies and on projects for the development of new mines. This also holds true for the extraction of residual resources in mines before closure.
Creamer Media’s ‘Global Mining Projects in Progress 2022’ report covers more than 80 mining projects across Africa, Australia, East Asia, South-East Asia, Europe and the Americas, all offering very compelling mining propositions, with several excellent prospects in the pipeline.
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Real Economy Yearbook 2022
Published: 01 Mar 22
The world and South Africa seem to be lurching from one crisis to the next.
This time last year, governments and businesses globally and locally were preoccupied with finding ways of recovering from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the associated lockdowns, which had seriously disrupted production, supply chains and economic activity.
While the virus remains a threat and more lockdowns have been implemented in China this year, countries are finding ways of living with the virus, the potency of which has also, thankfully, weakened as new variants have emerged and communities gained natural and vaccine-induced resilience. It is urgent, however, that further momentum is built – and fast – so that these green shoots do not get trampled on before bearing fruit.
Creamer Media considers these events and the ramifications thereof in its Real Economy Yearbook 2022, in the hope that South Africa's stalled public infrastructure roll-out will provide visible evidence of progress in the months to come but also lay the foundation for future growth and job creation.
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Projects in Progress 2022 (First Edition)
Published: 01 Mar 22
South Africa has made investment, especially investment in infrastructure, a key priority as it desperately seeks to reignite growth and spur employment creation through the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.
It is one thing prioritising investment, but quite another making it happen, particularly given global and domestic headwinds.
Globally, the ongoing pandemic, rising inflation, an intensifying climate crisis and a growing number of conflicts, epitomised by, but definitely not limited to, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are all undermining the allocation of capital to developing economies.
Domestically, the microeconomic reforms that are viewed as so crucial to unblocking investment in energy, logistics and digital infrastructure are either progressing too slowly or experiencing growing pains.
On all these fronts, South Africa is currently lacking, which is why partnerships are now so crucial between government and business.
To lay the foundations for far higher levels of economic growth, government needs to enter into a true collaboration with the private sector and civil society to realise infrastructure delivery.
In such an environment, government should use its policy muscle to leverage those fixed investment areas, such as green energy, which will have the biggest economic-, employment- and climate-resiliency multipliers, while ensuring that the guardrails are in place to prevent corruption and abuse of dominance.
It is a partnership that can begin with pockets of excellence, such as unlocking new distributed power generation by miners, before being progressively expanded to other crucial areas, including water, sanitation, roads, bridges, rail, housing, and broadband infrastructure.
It is time to beat the backlog together.
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Platinum 2021/22: A market set for deficit rather than surplus
Published: 19 Jan 22
The World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) states that green hydrogen has the potential to play a significant role in decarbonising the global economy and that platinum has a significant role to play in that economy. According to the WPIC, capacity targets for the generation of green hydrogen in the European Union and China will cumulatively require between 300 000 oz and 600 000 oz of additional platinum by 2030. The hydrogen fuel cell and green technology sectors are expected to significantly drive platinum demand, and with South Africa holding about 91% of the world’s platinum group metals (PGMs) reserves, the country stands to benefit from the rapidly growing global hydrogen economy. South Africa, with its world-leading solar and wind resources, and vast PGMs resources used in the electrolysers needed to produce green hydrogen, has the competitive advantage to produce and export green hydrogen. It must, however, move swiftly to exploit this advantage, which could be worth $2.50-trillion by 2050. Creamer Media’s ‘Platinum 2021/22: A market set for a deficit rather than a surplus’ report provides an overview of the platinum market in this context. The global focus of the report is on supply and demand, as well as the creation of a green economy revolving around green hydrogen, while the focus in South Africa shifts to platinum production, the country's role in green hydrogen production, the regulatory environment, electricity and labour relations challenges, as well as the main participants in the sector.
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Battery Metals 2021/22: Demand for battery metals surging
Published: 15 Dec 21
As the world increasingly turns towards reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and decarbonisation, the use of electric vehicles and stationary energy storage systems is expected to increase.
The International Energy Agency estimates that nearly 10 000 GWh/y of batteries and other energy storage technologies will be required by 2040. As demand for batteries increases, so will demand for the metals and minerals that are needed to manufacture them; and with little or no inventory in the system and demand set to more than triple by 2025, buyers are seizing all they can. Meanwhile, battery metals producers are rushing to expand their operations and are evaluating new opportunities to keep pace with the surging demand for lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, graphite, manganese, vanadium and some rare-earth metals.
Creamer Media’s ‘Battery Metals 2021/22: Demand for battery metals surging’ report provides an overview of the battery metals market in this context. Globally, the focus of the report is on supply and demand and the creation of a sustainable battery value chain, while in Africa, the report’s focus shifts to some of the key mining projects under way.
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Road, Rail and Ports 2021/22: Towards more private-sector participation
Published: 10 Dec 21
South Africa had, in times past, by far the best transport infrastructure in Africa; however, declining road conditions, and freight and passenger rail, as well as port capacity shortages and inefficiencies, are now all proving to be a constraint on trade and economic growth.
After contributing substantially to the country’s formative development, the rail sector has shown a downward trend for several decades, with a lack of adequate investment, poor management and theft and vandalism all impacting on performance.
Meanwhile, the country’s major road corridors are, as a consequence, overly congested, and subjected to overloading, contributing to South Africa’s carbon emissions.
The performance of its ports has also declined, compared with other ports on the continent and worldwide, with a recent World Bank analysis highlighting South Africa’s container ports as among the worst performers globally. Government plans to tackle the constraints are in the early stages. Creamer Media's ‘Road, Rail and Ports 2021/22: Towards more private-sector participation’ provides an overview of South Africa’s ongoing investment in road, rail and ports infrastructure, with a particular focus on the size and state of this infrastructure, and the funding and maintenance of these respective networks, as well as the challenges these sectors are facing.
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Road, Rail and Ports 2021/22: Towards more private-sector participation
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Gold 2021/22: Safe haven in a time of crisis
Published: 09 Dec 21
After declining in 2019, global gold production was further negatively impacted on by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with overall output estimated to have fallen by 5.20% to 108-million ounces.
However, persisting high bullion prices are expected to push up output going forward.
Market research company Fitch Solutions forecasts that global gold production will increase from 109-million ounces in 2021 to 141-million ounces by 2030, averaging a growth rate of 3.20% a year, compared with a 0.80% average growth rate in production from 2016 to 2020.
The market research company contends in its 'Outlook for Global Gold Mining' report, published in June 2021, that, over the medium term, global mine production growth will remain strong, as high prices by historical standards encourage investment and output growth.
Meanwhile, the lifting of lockdown restrictions and the release of pent-up demand for gold is likely to herald a period of robust demand in 2022, particularly on account of gold’s safe-haven status.
Creamer Media’s ‘Gold 2021/22: A safe haven in a time of crisis’ report reviews the global and South African gold markets in this context. Globally, the focus of the report is on supply and demand, while in South Africa, the report shifts to a look at the performance of major and smaller companies in the industry, including the impact of labour relations, gold companies’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, and criminal activity in the sector.
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Gold 2021/22: Safe haven in a time of crisis
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Telecommunications 2021: A changing landscape
Published: 02 Dec 21
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of the telecommunications industry, as the world relied on connected services to keep economies operating during intermittent lockdowns and restrictions throughout 2020 and 2021.
Connectivity has become as essential as electricity and water, and some industry proponents argue that connectivity should be a basic human right, as Covid-19-related restrictions reveal a digital divide in access to universal and affordable connectivity services.
South Africa’s own telecommunications industry has proven a critical enabler of connectivity on an unprecedented scale: it kept businesses operating by enabling employees to work from home, connected families that were separated, enabled home-schooling for students and facilitated the continuity of daily life as people turned to their computers and smartphones to substitute their in-person activities online.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa believes that some of this newly developed reliance may continue in the “new normal” or at least until the emergence of a long-term solution, such as universally adopted vaccines, making ongoing access to reliable digital infrastructure for telework, telemedicine, food delivery and logistics, online and contactless payments, remote learning and entertainment all the more urgent.
Creamer Media’s ‘Telecommunications 2021: A changing landscape’ report considers the evolution of South Africa’s telecommunications market, the companies operating in it, the new technologies they are adopting, as well as the challenges they are facing, such as spectrum and data costs, in this constantly evolving landscape.
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Energy Roundup – November 2021
Published: 10 Nov 21
Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa.
The November 2021 roundup covers activities in October 2021 and includes details of State-owned electricity utility Eskom’s reliability maintenance recovery programme; Eskom’s joint venture with coal miners Exxaro and Seriti Resources to develop renewable-energy projects; and the growing constraints on South Africa’s power grid, which could precipitate a crisis similar to the one experienced in 2008.
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Diamonds 2021: Agility in the face of crisis
Published: 26 Oct 21
The diamond industry was already under pressure before 2020, and the situation was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which compelled the major miners to adopt a price-over-volume strategy and take steps to support the midstream segment. They reduced production by 20% and allowed customers to postpone purchases, and when demand recovered in the third quarter of 2020, the major miners lowered rough diamond prices by 10%.
Consumer demand received a further boost from strong holiday jewellery sales in December 2020, and 2021 has thus far proved to be a success for all segments of the diamond value chain, with miners achieving record sales, midstream margins growing amid high prices and jewellery sales exceeding previous forecasts.
Creamer Media’s ‘Diamonds 2021: Agility in the face of crisis’ report provides an overview of the world diamond market amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The report highlights rough diamond production, supply and demand, imports and exports, the production of synthetic diamonds, as well as the responsible sourcing of diamonds.
The report has a specific emphasis on diamond mining activities in South Africa over the past 12 months, and provides updates on the country’s major and midtier diamond producers, junior diamond mining companies, explorers and developers.
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