Mining

Africa is home to sizeable reserves of the world’s critical minerals. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

UN Trade & Development (UNCTAD) leaders have explored the potential for Africa to become a competitive hub for green industrialisation at an event held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The gathering was a pre-event for the organisation’s 60th anniversary in Geneva, Switzerland, and was held under the theme of ‘Maximising Africa’s Potential: Leveraging Demand for Critical Minerals to Boost Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development’. Here, senior leaders such as Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD secretary-general, made clear how critical minerals will be fundamental to the energy transition and can be catalysts to lift millions out of poverty and create a fairer world. This opportunity is particularly ripe for the African continent, which is home to sizeable reserves of the world’s critical minerals including 55% of cobalt, 47.65% of manganese, 21.6% of natural graphite, 5.9% of copper, 5.6% of nickel, 1% of lithium, and 0.6% of iron ore globally.

However, in order to realise this, Grynspan said the world must break free from the past and reject the extractive model that has kept resource-rich nations dependent and poor. “Instead, we must embrace a new paradigm that prioritises domestic value addition, fosters regional integration and empowers local communities,” she remarked.

A competitive Africa

Antonio Pedro, the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s deputy executive secretary, contributed his voice here, surmising how adding value to critical minerals in Africa could help make the continent a competitive hub for green industrialisation.

“Imagine the potential if African minerals are processed into African batteries, installed into African cars that are driven across the continent and the world,” he commented. “This would accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and the electrification of transport systems on the continent, create decent jobs and make Africa a competitive hub for green industrialisation.”

However, Pedro warned that the mining boom that does not deliver benefits across society “will leave us back at square one” and called for justice and equality in how minerals are harnessed in the global energy transition. He was joined in this sentiment by The African Union Commission’s deputy chairperson, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, who called for the right policy mix and fair international structure and systems – ones that do not threaten African nation’s efforts to increase and enhance beneficiation and value addition as some do currently.

“It wouldn’t make sense to not trust our continental certification systems and instead condition Africa’s minerals to go hit another certification system just to come back to us for value addition or trade among ourselves,” Nsanzabaganwa said.

Seizing the opportunity

According to UNCTAD, African countries generate only about 40% of the revenue they could potentially collect from the sizeable minerals reserves under their feet – a narrative that must change if the opportunity is to be realised.

Amid current global crises, limited fiscal space, slow growth and high debt, African countries need to maximise the financial and development benefits of these resources, UNCTAD advised. Participants at the event in Ethiopia therefore discussed ways to enhance revenue mobilisation and fiscal administration, boost regional value chain integration and increase investment in infrastructure, skills and innovation to support minerals-based industrialisation on the continent while promoting climate action.

The Maple Program provides customers with data of the CO2 and oil saving made by choosing to retreat or repair tyres. (Image source: Kal Tire)

Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group, a dedicated tyre management and supply partner, details its Maple Program, a tool to quantify and reward saved oil and carbon emissions to help inspire a greener future

The Group has made clear its dedication to driving positive change across the globe, providing mining tyre expertise and innovations that help to drive fleet availability, sustainability and safety within operations. Earlier this year, the company spoke to African Review and shared more about how its growing footprint on the continent and the new solutions which are helping to support its future expansion trajectory. Following this, we reached out to Kal Tire again to learn more about its Maple Program, an initiative pioneered to support mining sector commitments to sustainability and best practice by accrediting efforts to extend tyre life with the company’s sustainable tyre solutions.

African Review: What is Kal Tire’s Maple Program?

Kal Tire: The Maple Program provides Kal Tire's customers with validated data of the CO2 and oil savings made by choosing to retread or repair existing tyres rather than buy new.

New tyres require large amounts of raw materials in their construction and production energy is required in the manufacturing of these new tyres, particularly during the curing process. Additionally, CO2 is emitted transporting from manufacturer facilities to mine sites, which can often total many thousands of kilometres across sea, road and rail routes to get to site.

Kal Tire's Maple Program takes into account this reduction in raw materials, production energy and transportation distances to award customers with a certificate, rated with 1 to 5 maple leaves, depending on the percentage of the fleet, or total tonnage of tyres that have used these sustainable tyre solutions.

Up to 5 tonnes of rubber, steel, carbon black, oil and various textiles are used in a single 63" tyre used on 350 ton+ haul trucks. Each truck requires 6 of these tyres, and some larger sites can have many dozens of large haulers on-site. By choosing to retread or repair these tyres, customers can see potentially significant CO2 savings, sometimes totalling many hundreds of tonnes.

African Review: How powerful is a Maple certification today in an environment of ever-growing scrutiny around emissions?

Kal Tire: As environmental scrutiny grows throughout the mining industry from governments, stakeholders and local communities, companies are increasingly investigating more ways to demonstrate their total emissions reduction. We have seen particular growth in companies reporting their retread and repair CO2 savings through the Maple Program over the last 12 months, who are displaying an increased appetite to report on their Scope 3 emissions, which applies to any activities from assets brought into operations from external sources, such as tyres.

We have seen some key African customers use the emissions data from the Maple Program in their ESG reporting to help reduce their Scope 3 emissions and mention the Maple Program specifically to help the drive towards more sustainable business practices.

We ensure the Maple Program is continually validated every year, which includes ensuring CO2 savings figures are as accurate as possible - for each region that Kal Tire operates in, local emission factors are used, which fluctuates annually depending on how energy is generated in the country - for example, coal-powered, nuclear, hydro energy, etc. Raw material figures such as the cost of producing rubber, steel and carbon black are also updated as part of this process, provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA). This ensures the program is always up to date and helps further motivate customers to protect their existing tyre investments.

African Review: Since the introduction of the Maple Program in 2019 how rapidly have appetites towards tracking environmental impact developed within the mining community, especially within the African continent?

Kal Tire: Several key customers across our operations in West Africa and southern Africa have embraced the value that environmental awards such as the Maple Program can bring. This has led to increased interest in our sustainable tyre solutions.

In West Africa, we launched a retreading technique called Ultra Tread. In this process, the tyre is removed after completing its planned hours on the front position of haul trucks. Instead of being rotated to the rear to run out the remainder of life, the Ultra Tread process is performed, restoring the tyre to its original tread depth and returning to the front position. As well as giving excellent return on investment and faster turnaround times than traditional retreading, it also carries great environmental value – up to 75% less emissions are used in the raw materials and production of these tyres vs. their new equivalent. Ultra Tread gives a whole new life to tyres on the front position and can be potentially performed multiple times.

Optimised burden relief is crucial for optimal fragmentation during the blasting process. (Image source: BME)

BME has helped a South African coal mine that was facing highwall challenges cuts costs while retaining optimal fragmentation through the implementation of a modified pre-split design

The hydrogen-powered T 264 haul truck prototype at Fortescue’s facility in Perth. (Image source: Liebherr)

The Liebherr and Fortescue hydrogen-powered T 264 haul truck prototype has been operated for the first time in a significant achievement for both companies

The truck, known as Europa, contains a 1.6MWh battery and 500KW of fuel cells. It can store more than 380 kg of liquid hydrogen.

“With Europa soon moving to site, Liebherr and Fortescue have taken an important step closer to their common target of developing and building zero emission solutions for the mining industry that are both field proven and energy agnostic,” commented Joerg Lukowski, vice president of sales and marketing for Liebherr Mining. “This success demonstrates the incredible capabilities of two Tier 1 companies working together to develop viable technologies today that can help the mining industry move towards a decarbonised future.”

Fortescue Metals CEO, Dino Otranto, remarked, “Following the success of our battery electric haul truck prototype at site, we’re thrilled to now have Europa up and running on hydrogen. This is a huge achievement for the team and brings Fortescue another step closer to having a fleet of zero emission trucks at our sites by the end of this decade.

“We’re aiming to transport Europa to our mining operations within the coming weeks where it will then undergo further site-based testing and commissioning. The subsequent test results will inform our future fleet of zero emissions trucks that we’re delivering with Liebherr.”

There has been a number of initiatives from top manufacturing companies to incorpoate hydrogen in their offerings including from Bobcat and Caterpillar.