Kalagadi Manganese –a new manganese mine project at a cost of more than R2.2 billion near Hotazel in the Northern Cape – will be the South African Industrial Development Corporation’s (IDC) biggest investment in the 2010-11 financial year. The expected output is to be some three million tons annually (mta).

Construction of a sinter plant at the mine has begun and in May 2011, work is to start on a manganese smelter at Coega in the Eastern Cape. In 2009, the Rio Tinto group dropped plans to build a major aluminium smelter at Coega, citing concerns about the cost and supply of electricity. However, says IDC divisional executive (resources) Ufikile Khumalo, the Kalagadi smelter “is a very robust project”.

The complete scheme is expected to cost about R12 billion. ArcelorMittal, which has a 50% stake, has agreed to buy 50% of the output from the sinter plant and smelter, to supply its steel mills across the world.

Khumalo is quoted saying that about 700,000 tons from the sinter plant will be consumed at the smelter, the rest going for export. If all goes according to plan, the first production from the smelter – which will produce about 320,000 tons of high-carbon ferromanganese a year – should be seen in 2015.

The transport implications of the project have not been spelled out at this stage, but impact very obviously on the railway between Hotazel and the Eastern Cape, together with its recently completed connection to the new harbour at Coega.

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