Sale of South African aluminium assets to Alcoa of US on track, South32 reports

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The sale of South Africa's aluminium value chain assets to Alcoa Corporation of the US remains on track for completion in the June 2027 half-year, Johannesburg-, Sydney- and London-listed South32 reported in its September quarterly on Monday, October 19.

In the three months to September 30, aluminium production was largely unchanged as South Africa's Hillside Aluminium in KwaZulu-Natal continued to test nameplate capacity with a quarterly output of 179 000 t. South32's Brazil Aluminium is in ramp-up and as reported in March, South32's Mozal Aluminium is on care and maintenance.

As a global producer of materials across the aluminium value chain – taking in mining, refining and producing bauxite, alumina, and aluminium – Alcoa of Pennsylvania was on July 1 described by South32 COO Africa Noel Pillay as being well positioned to operate South Africa's Hillside Aluminium business into the future. This followed the signing by South32 of a binding conditional agreement to sell Hillside to the New York-listed Alcoa for up to $5.6-billion.

In addition to the Hillside aluminium smelter and South Africa's idled Bayside smelter, Alcoa, headed by president and CEO William (Bill) F Oplinger, will also acquire South32's interests in Boddington bauxite mine and the Worsley alumina refinery in Australia, as well as the Mineração Rio do Nortebauxite mine and the Alumar alumina refinery and aluminium smelter in Brazil.

Meanwhile, on the manganese front, South Africa's manganese output for the quarter was 528 000 wet metric tonnes following South Africa Manganese lifting underground productivity at the Wessels mine in South Africa's manganese-rich Kalahari basin, which is home to 80% of the world's manganese.

South32's South Africa Manganese is made up of two manganese mines, the opencast Mamatwan mine, which started operating more than half a century ago, and the underground Wessels mine, which followed a few years later. Wessels has vertical and incline shafts and uses the mechanised bord-and-pillar mining method, while Mamatwan applies the terrace mining method. The two form part of Hotazel Manganese Mines.

New South32 CEO Matt Daley spoke of achieving key development milestones for the company's copper and zinc growth projects.

Sierr