In the news

MineralsCouncil South Africa (MCSA) president Mxolisi Mgojo noted that all of the council’s previous office bearers had been re-elected at the 128th annual general meeting. Read More

 State electricity company Eskom has asked the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to grant it an additional three percent annual increase for the years 2020 - 2022 to help recoup losses on its Regulatory Clearing Account, and then recover the balance over five years. Read More

Rooftop hydroponics is part of a new "urban agriculture initiative" taking place in the South African city of Johannesburg. This farming - which uses water rather than soils to grow plants - is proving popular among green entrepreneurs, as Jessica David Preyser discovers. Read More

One of the companies to have benefitted most from a recent High Court ruling on the principle of “once empowered, always empowered” is DRDGOLD, followed by Sibanye-Stillwater and, in the pure-play platinum sector, Impala Platinum (Implats). Read More

The Compensation Commission for Occupational Diseases (CCOD) has steadily increased the number of payouts to injured miners over the past three years, a trend that suggests the reforms instituted by commissioner Barry Kistnasamy have turned the troubled fund around. Read More

The IMF has given SA a vote of confidence, revising its growth projections, but also warned that progress would be slow unless structural reforms were implemented. Read More

Mining is expected to detract from first-quarter GDP, despite a 3.1% increase in February. But economists say an amended Mining Charter, to be released in May, should revitalise investment in the sector. Read More

If SA’s efforts to deliver an improved Mining Charter in coming weeks are successful, Business Monitor International (BMI), a unit of FitchGroup, will upgrade the country’s low score on the regulatory sub-Saharan mining risk/reward index. Read More

Mines minister Gwede Mantashe says that’s he’s aiming to finalise the third version of the industry charter by May and it may ask the requirements for black ownership levels and other targets. I had a conversation with Peter Major who is an analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions about the comments by the minister and also about the state of the platinum industry in South Africa. Read More

It would be difficult for South Africa to recover the ground it had lost in platinum market share because of the high cost base of many of its remaining producers. Read More