South Africa’s improved energy supply over the last two years has boosted efficiency at Valterra Platinum, the company’s CEO told Semafor.
Craig Miller said the sharp reduction in power rationing enabled the major miner to reduce its working capital and invest more money into the business. Growth in Africa’s biggest economy was stymied for most of the last decade by rolling blackouts, known as loadshedding, but the situation has improved in part due to improved maintenance and increased solar energy use reducing demand on the grid.
Miller, whose company is a former Anglo American subsidiary that spun off last year, said improving economic growth was helping to boost investor sentiment. Improved efficiency in state logistics services was contributing to that growth, he added, in a country that accounts for more than 70% of the world’s platinum supply and relies on mining exports for around a third of export earnings.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week said the government would move forward with dismantling Eskom, the long troubled state-owned power utility, to create a “fully independent” firm.
