
Bernard Swanepoel
EXECUTIVE CHAIR: Manganese Metal Company
‘This is a phenomenal exponential expansion — the South African story taking a big step forward’
AS the face and voice of the Joburg Indaba series of annual mining investment conferences, Bernard Swanepoel is perhaps this book’s arch-potstirrer. Uniquely argumentative in tone, an instalment of the conference has been opened in London, where Swanepoel’s brand of comic impatience with the evasive, the vague, and the uppity has a new stage. Long may these conferences thrive.
Swanepoel is also directly involved in mining as the chairperson of Manganese Metal Company (MMC), a privately held firm that refines pure manganese from facilities in Mpumalanga province. The goal is to move into the production of high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM), the fancy-sounding name for a product automakers need in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries. MMC has a 6,000t/yr plant currently under construction for commissioning in 2026 ahead of accreditation and sales a year later. Beyond that, MMC wants to build a larger plant, producing 30,000t annually from 2030. Both plants will use a bespoke MMC technology to produce a crystallised form of HPMSM.
The first plant will do this from metal, the second from ore at a capital cost upwards of R570m. MMC is hoping for the assistance of the IDC in funding its projects. Producing HPMSM has strategic importance globally as China controls 95% of the supply chain. Some HPMSM is produced in Mexico and Belgium, but MMC is hoping its initial metal-to-crystal plant will have first mover advantage whilst also acknowledging the benefit of potential ‘market-opening’ investments by Australians South32 and Jupiter Mines should they approve moving into this specialised, critical product.
LIFE OF BERNARD
A mining engineer, Swanepoel came to prominence in the 1990s as the force behind Harmony Gold and a brand of low-frill mining that nurtured many other successful disciples including Neal Froneman of Sibanye-Stillwater and Jan Nelson of Copper 360. After running his race at Harmony, he set up investment company To The Point, a 30% shareholder in MMC, as well as THINKspiration, which is behind the investment conferences with Paula Munsie’s Resources 4 Africa. A runner with Comrades ultramarathon credits, Swanepoel is an unassuming titan of South African mining.