Russia's leading private business group Renova has announced that on March 22 its South African joint venture United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK), in which it holds 49 percent, has officially launched production operations at a manganese mine at its deposit in the Kalahari Desert, underlining South Africa's potential to develop its manganese exports.
"Although the country has 80 percent of the world's identified high-grade manganese reserves, it has only cornered 15 percent of the world market for what is an essential ingredient of steel," South African mining resources minister Susan Shabangu said at the launch of UMK's mine.
UMK's deposit is estimated to hold 282 million mt of manganese, of which 41.3 million mt are proven reserves. "Last year we [UMK] mined 1.5 million mt of ore, thus becoming the third largest producer of manganese in South Africa," the statement from Renova said.
In 2011, UMK plans to supply 1.8 million mt of manganese to the market. Currently, UMK exports its products to western and eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, as well as to India and China.
Investment in the launch of the new mine totaled about $200 million. The license for exploration in an area of 15,200 hectares of manganese deposits in the Kalahari Desert was obtained by UMK in 2005. Plans are also at an advanced stage to build a sinter plant with an annual capacity of 750,000 mt.