MMC wants to beneficiate more manganese ore. The manganese metal producer has its eyes trained firmly on the future, and this is dominated by the international electric vehicle (EV) market.

MMC’s plant in Mbombela is running at full capacity, producing 28 000 tons of manganese metal per year.

As the EV market and lithium-ion batteries for these vehicles are set to explode over the next decade, they are increasingly having to reduce their manganese metal supply to other industries to meet the battery industry’s demand – a situation MMC CEO Louis Nel expects to only worsen, as EV demand is forecast to triple over the next five years alone.

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Already, the 7 000 tons of manganese they supply to Japan annually is being utilised for lithium-ion batteries.

To this end, representatives of MMC met with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) on their site on Friday. “We do believe exporting raw manganese ore to China is not in the best interest of South Africa, considering almost 30 per cent unemployment,” Nel explained. MMC is one of the last companies in the country that beneficiates ore, a strategy that falls firmly within the DMRE’s future views.

South Africa is blessed with about 80 per cent of the world’s high-grade manganese ore resources, the refined products of which are used in everything from stainless steel to aluminium alloys, and MMC is the world’s largest producer of the selenium-free metal.

“We produce the best manganese metal money can buy,” Nel said. And they want to produce more. Lithium-ion battery production is currently China-dominated, but massive sites are planned for Europe and North America. Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) cathodes also make up 51 percent of all EV batteries, a number which is expected to grow.

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“To participate in 10 per cent of the market, we need to produce an additional 15 000 tonnes per annum, for which we need an additional 45 000 tonnes of raw material,” Nel said.

However, with this plant, expansion will be required. Last week MMC met with the Industrial Development Corporation, who also wants in on the EV market.

Nel cited MMC’s existing brand, international reputation, more than 45 years’ experience and established logistics of trade as making them the corporation’s ideal vehicle for participation in this market.

“MMC is the logical vehicle for South Africa to participate in the EV market,”he said.