More mining smelters at risk of closure due to rising costs and falling prices

Tawanda Karombo

More mining smelters in South Africa will likely close down due to higher costs of production that are impacting operators against the backdrop of lower prices for ferrochrome at a time Merafe Resources is increasingly shifting to chrome ore exports while closing down smelter furnaces. In a joint venture with Glencore, Merafe’s joint venture (JV) has already shut down 10 of its 22 furnaces in the past few years, translating to massive job losses. Worse still, the JV has put its smelting operations under business review at a time volatility in ferrochrome prices is expected to persist. “The reason we going into review is that our smelting operations are under tremendous pressure and are not making money at current prices. “We are reviewing the ops to see if we can…

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Star South Africa (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2025-03-11

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