Cape Town, 07 February, 2023

Transnet Freight Rail and Kalagadi Manganese Resources (Pty) have finalised and signed an agreement ensuring sector transformation by helping emerging miners access new markets.

Transnet’s Group Chief Executive, Portia Derby, signed the agreement with Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, chairperson of Kalagadi Manganese Resources (Pty) Ltd, at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town today (07 February 2023).

Emerging miners, who are usually excluded from export markets due to capital investment challenges, are now able to access loading facilities accommodated on rail services, and grow their markets beyond the road networks.

As a part of Transnet’s emerging miner enablement project and this new agreement, Kalagadi Manganese Resources (Pty) Ltd has offered to make its rapid load-out station available for use by emerging miners, who have been allocated rail capacity from Transnet.

This is a giant leap towards enabling new emerging miner entrants into the manganese export sector, with Transnet has ensuring the availability of 2mtpa of rail and port capacity from 01 April 2023.

Emerging miners currently transport their commodities on roads, which often presents various challenges. Access to rail operations will grant them quicker turnaround times, decreasing the total time to only a third of what is the norm( 4 hours instead of 12).

The station is situated next to the Kalagadi Mine farm in Hotazel, Northern Cape province.
Derby reiterated that Transnet wanted to work with established and emerging manganese miners collectively in the interest of the South African market, to ensure that the market does not collapse. The country has 80% of the world’s manganese reserves.

Mashile-Nkosi said their company did not want emerging miners to experience the same hardships they have endured to date. She went on to add that she understood first-hand the pains associated with being an emerging miner and a woman in what is seemingly a man’s world of mining.

She closed off by saying and that emerging miners would benefit from railway access, which is a far better option than road transportation due to the current state of routes used to transport commodities from the Northern Cape to the Eastern Cape, where export facilities are situated.