[miningmx.com] — TRANSNET Freight Rail has ruled out using the Sishen-to-Saldanha railway line for the future transport of manganese ore, saying the line’s capacity would be fully reserved for the expected increase in iron ore supply from the Northern Cape.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the sod turning ceremony at Tshipi e Ntle’s Borwa manganese development near Hotazel on Wednesday, Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama said the transport logistics group would have completed a feasibility study for the upgrade of the manganese line to Port Elizabeth by February.
Also, Transnet was aiming to vacate the manganese terminal at Port Elizabeth’s harbour in favour of the deep-water Ngqura port at Coega, around 30km from the windy city. Gama said the manganese line’s capacity would be increased from the existing four million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to between seven million and 12 million tonnes by 2013. Gama said Transnet expected the demand for the transport of manganese to increase further to between 18 mtpa and 22 mtpa by 2017, and that the group would invest in new capacity accordingly.
The decision to use the Ngqura-line as a dedicated manganese channel would come as a disappointment to the majority of the Northern Cape’s manganese producers, who were holding out for co-sharing the Saldanha-line with iron ore producers.
The study on the manganese line coincides with similar research into expanding the iron ore line’s capacity to around 90 mtpa (an existing upgrade from 47 mtpa to 60 mtpa would be completed soon). According to an investors’ presentation of Tshipi, “industry participants’ was looking at securing 12mtpa of this increased capacity for manganese.
Tshipi director Moss Ngoasheng said the group preferred Saldanha due it being the closest port to South Africa’s manganese producing district, and that “contamination’ between iron and manganese ore could be avoided by the use of containers for manganese.
However, in response to a question whether manganese producers’ quest to make use of the Saldanha line amounted to “wishful thinking’, Gama said: “It is fairly simple to deduce that you need a single channel for iron ore due to capacity requirements.’
Tshipi’s Borwa mine would start producing manganese ore in the second half of 2012, with the capacity to deliver 2.4 mtpa for 60 years. It has prequalified through Transnet’s Manganese Export Capacity Allocation for the mine’s longer term transport requirements, although it was still negotiating with Transnet for allocation when production would commence next year.
“We want an interim solution from Transnet,’ said Tshipi’s chairperson Saki Macozoma. “We don’t want to do trucking; that destroys the roads and is expensive.’
