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AFRIcA DoWn UnDeR

Juwi has renewed availability of electricity remains the single big-
gest risk to the nation’s economic outlook.
South Africa is also experiencing its worst
loading shedding year on record, with the total
GWh shed in the first eight months of 2020 sur-
faith in Eskom passing the previously unwanted record set in
2019.
“Cumulative load shedding for 2020 is al-
ready 23% worse than 2019 and the new Es-
hile conceding Eskom still has some ma- kom CEO has warned that South Africa should
W jor issues to resolve, Juwi Renewable expect increased load shedding over the next
Energies Pty Ltd has welcomed recent changes 18 months as Eskom will no longer defer re-
made by the South African power utility, including quired maintenance and will aggressively move
a public commitment to embracing renewables. to prevent the deterioration of its power plants,”
Juwi global head of hybrid Dave Manning Manning said.
said Eskom’s “unbundling” of its activities into While coal remains the undisputed energy
three separate entities – generation, transmis- king in South Africa, renewables are steadily on
sion and distribution – over the past two years the rise. More broadly, renewables surpassed
was an important and positive step in the right coal in the US energy stakes for the first time
direction. earlier this year.
Manning said the utility’s recently published Dave Manning “Coal will continue to be impacted by the shift
2030 Transmission Development Plan in which power producers] as their projects’ full lifecycle towards renewables and natural gas genera-
it has committed to installing 6,000km of addi- cost and risk is fully factored into the tariff. tion, although it is expected natural gas prices
tional transmission lines and upgrading trans- “It does seem clear that as the energy sec- next year will increase coal’s relative competi-
formers to the magnitude of 30GW was also tor’s enabling environment is improving and po- tiveness,” Manning said.
being roundly welcomed in South Africa. litical barriers are being removed, there is little Juwi is also a business on the rise with more
“We’re also delighted to see there’s a clear doubt that the country is positioning itself to be than 3,500MW of renewable energy projects
acknowledgement from Eskom’s CEO [Andre a major ongoing up-taker of renewables and its announced globally last year. This includes Jo-
Marinus De Ruyter] as well as senior decision associated direct investments. This is not only a hannesburg-based miner Gold Fields Ltd which
makers that renewables are the lowest cost huge win for South Africa, but for the economy recently rolled out a major energy project at its
form of energy today and in the future,” Perth- and the environment.” Agnew mine, Western Australia, whereby 60%
based Manning told delegates at Africa Down Eskom’s ongoing struggles, including its debt of its energy is from solar and wind sources and
Under. blowing out to almost R500 billion, cannot be annual fuel savings are in the ilk of $5 million.
“In effect, there is no financial cost to Eskom overlooked in a South African economic con-
to procure energy from the IPPs [independent text. According to Bloomberg Economics, the – Michael Washbourne

Tietto stays aggressive at Abujar

ietto Minerals Ltd will leave no stone Speaking at Africa Down Under in we can drill a lot, lot cheaper than anyone
Tunturned in its quest to become West early November, Tietto executive direc- because we brought that drilling power
Africa’s next gold producer. tor Mark Strizek said the company was internally. It really is rewriting the rules of
Fresh from announcing an upgraded “rewriting the rules of exploration” by exploration.”
resource for its Abujar gold project in keeping the drill rigs turning while finalis- In the lead-up to Africa Down Under,
Cote d’Ivoire, Tietto has unveiled plans ing feasibility studies. Tietto announced a 40% uplift in the
to complete about 70,000m of drilling Tietto is expected to complete 7,000- Abujar resource to 81.2mt @ 1.2 g/t gold
over the next seven months to underpin 11,000m of drilling each month until the for 3.02 moz, including a high-grade 1.6
a DFS on a proposed large-scale open- end of Q2 2021, including 2,500m of moz @ 2.18 g/t at the AG deposit. It rep-
pit mining operation. geotechnical drilling for the DFS, about resents a 331% increase in total resourc-
Tietto remains on track to deliver a 28,000m of infill drilling for related mining es since the company listed on the ASX
PFS in Q1 2021 with the DFS to follow studies and more than 40,000m of explo- in early 2018.
about six months thereafter. ration drilling for further resource growth. Ivorian authorities also recently grant-
“We’ve got an eye on the prize to be ed environmental approval to Tietto, with
the next West African gold producer,” a mining licence the next major milestone
Strizek said. on the company’s development timeline,
“Very often when you run into the fea- coinciding with the release of the PFS.
sibility stage [the drilling stops], but we “We expect that in Q1 next year and
will continue with that high-tempo explo- the mining convention thereafter,”
ration. We’ve got a large land package Strizek said.
here at Abujar which one of the analysts “Importantly, it’s all been done before
said is severely unexplored, and that’s by others ahead of us. The Government
quite true. There’s lots and lots of targets. understands exactly what needs to be
Tietto executive director Mark Strizek “There’s a lot of drilling planned, there’s done. We’ve very, very pleased with the
with managing director Caigen Wang at still a lot of artisanal workings. The key support we’ve been getting.”
Africa Down Under differentiator about Tietto is the fact that – Michael Washbourne

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