Manganese
Manganese is a metal with important industrial uses, particularly in steel.
South32 is the world’s largest producer of Manganese, which is produced at our Groote Eylandt Mining Company (GEMCO) and South Africa Manganese operations.
 | Key uses of manganeseManganese is an important alloy that is used to improve the quality and strength of steel or aluminium. For example, major infrastructure such as hospitals, office towers and bridges use steel that contains manganese to improve strength and resistance to corrosion. As the world increases scrap steel recycling, this has a limited impact on manganese as it is largely lost in the recycling process. |
Manganese also has the potential to displace cobalt in lithium-ion batteries with significantly higher intensity in manganese-rich cathode chemistries. While South32 currently does not produce battery-grade manganese, we have completed work at Hermosa on a selection phase pre-feasibility study for the Clark deposit which confirmed the opportunity to produce battery-grade manganese for the growing North American electric vehicle supply chain.
South32 produces Manganese at two of our operations - Groote Eylandt Mining Company (GEMCO) in the Northern Territory, Australia, and South Africa Manganese in the Kalahari Basin.
GEMCO is an open-cut strip mining operation, producing high-grade manganese ore and is located in close proximity to Asian export markets. It is one of the largest manganese ore producers in the world.
Mining started on the island more than half a century ago and a processing plant was commissioned soon after. Since then, the plant has gone through several expansions, with the most recent completed in 2013.
South32 owns 60 per cent of GEMCO and Anglo American Plc holds the remaining 40 per cent.
Our South Africa Manganese operation includes two manganese mines located in the Kalahari Basin. The open-cut Mamatwan mine started operating more than half a century ago, with the underground Wessels mine following a few years later.
The Wessels mine has vertical and incline shafts and uses the mechanized bord and pillar mining method, while the Mamatwan mine uses the terrace mining method.
The two mines are part of the Hotazel Manganese Mines (HMM) consortium, which we hold a 44.4 per cent interest in, and the remaining interest is held by Anglo America Plc and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment entities.
