Limpopo Business 2017-18 edition

SPECIAL FEATURE
company’s most recent life-of-mine expansion project
will result in the mine producing until the 2040s.
Soon after the announcement of the designation
of the SEZ, the dti said that a consortium of Chinese
investors, Sino, has agreed to put R40-billion into the
Musina-Makhado SEZ where they will operate the
mineral beneficiation operations.
The first phase of this is to build a power plant.
The dti estimates that the completed SEZ could
create more than 20 000 jobs.
Provision in being made in the planning phase
for light, medium and heavy industry at the SEZ.
A petrochemical zone is envisaged which could
contain any or all of the following facililties:
• coal-to-liquids plant
• coking coal plant and power generation
• methanol plant
• synthetic bitumen plant
• plasma waste gasification plant
• water treatment plant.
Tubatse SEZ
Musina-Makhado SEZ
In July 2016 the national cabinet approved the
Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Located in the far north of Limpopo in the Vhembe
region, Musina-Makhado is strategically located
near the border of Zimbabwe and on the Great
North Road which links South Africa to the broader
Southern African region.
The location of the Musina-Makhado SEZ, with
links to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique,
promotes the Trans-Limpopo Spatial Development
Initiative. Logistics will be one of the key focus areas
of the SEZ.
Other sectors to be concentrated on include
agri-processing (Foskor has a plant in nearby
Phalaborwa), energy and mineral beneficiation.
Exxaro has coal- mining operations in the north and
De Beers’ giant Venetia diamond mine is nearby. The
A second application for an SEZ at Tubatse is pending.
Tubatse is in the Sekhukhune District Municipality
and hosts a number of mining operations.
The SEZ in Tubatse will focus on the beneficiation
of platinum group metals (PGM) and mining-related
manufacturing. The province of Bashkortostan in
Russia has also expressed an interest in the SEZs
of Limpopo.
Phase one of the SEZ project would see a 280ha
site developed to accommodate:
• a mining suppliers park
• light manufacturing
• heavy manufacturing
• logistics
• a solar energy cluster
• a PGM beneficiation cluster.
Among the products that might be produced at
the SEZ are catalytic converters, hydrogen fuel cells,
chemotherapeutic agents, wind turbine blades,
platinum jewellery and photo-voltaic solar modules.
Metal processing that holds potential includes the
conversion of magnetite to pig iron and steel, magnetite
to vanadium pentoxide and waste to titanium.
25 LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2017/18