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To: LoneClone who wrote (41912)	8/20/2009 7:23:24 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193988

SA's Transnet allocates manganese export capacity miningweekly.com By: Creamer Media Reporter 20th August 2009 Updated 3 hours ago JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – As part of its plans to attract new customers by offering integrated port-rail services, freight logistics group Transnet will allocate port and rail manganese ore export capacity to three customers on the port of Port Elizabeth export channel. The initiative, which was overseen by auditors KPMG, is the first open and transparent process to have been conducted by the State-owned group for the allocation of export capacity for bulk commodities, it announced in a statement on Thursday. Export capacity will initially be provided to the United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK), Assmang & Hotazel Manganese Mines (HMM), as of November 1 this year, as these companies had met all the relevant strategic and operational requirements set by the freight and logistics group. “We are delighted to have been able to leverage access for new players in the manganese export sector. Fair and equitable access to capacity allocation remains a key strategic objective for Transnet. Given the fact that, as matters stand, demand for capacity outstrips the available capacity, it is vital that aspirant clients have confidence in the fairness of the capacity allocation process,” said Transnet acting CEO Chris Wells. He added that there was also a need to “facilitate access” to port and rail capacity to broad-based black economic-empowerment (BEE) players, with UMK, and Assmang & HMM already having “significant BEE credentials”. The allocation to the three companies formed phase one of the allocation process, which would run until March 31, 2013. “We think this transaction will be good, not only for the miners which have been allocated new capacity; but it will also be good for the economies of both the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape in terms of the spin-offs it generates,” Wells stated. Transnet will make some capacity available to other new entrants, in a second phase of the process, once these companies had met the requirements set by the State-owned group. Simultaneously with the allocation process, Transnet is exploring expansion plans based on various feasibility studies it conducted and on the most appropriate funding options, the group added. “As we gear up to increase capacity, we will continue to work with the industry to allocate capacity in a manner that is fair and transparent and seeks to engender competition and the transformation of the South African manganese industry, which controls 80% of the world’s manganese reserves to being a globally competitive one,” said Wells. The port of Port Elizabeth export channel includes a rail service from Hotazel station, the most northerly point of most manganese mines in the Northern Cape, to the manganese bulk-ore terminal in Port Elizabeth, the primary harbour for export manganese in South Africa. Transnet has recently upgraded the channel and is able to offer rail and port capacity of up to 4,4-million tons a year of manganese ore.