Clients have used SFA to provide the analytical link with banks and financial institutions to support investment decision making and provide robust market support. The SFA team is constantly providing rich insights for its clients on structural events moving the PGM markets, particularly when the situation continues to change. SFA is a trusted advisor to Board members and senior management of significant stakeholders and provides regular assistance to strategy and planning efforts. With extensive experience covering the PGM markets and industry fundamentals, SFA can provide you with our latest market outlook and the window of scenarios.

• These reviews include discussion of the portfolio’s exposure to material ESG risks, as well as exposure to sustainability-related business involvements, climate-related metrics, and other factors.
• Stay up-to-date with a quarterly 5-year forecast on ruthenium’s technological developments and underlying evolution of supply, demand and end-use applications.
• SFA is a trusted advisor to the Boards and senior management of major stakeholders and provides regular assistance to hydrogen strategy and planning efforts.
• Business Involvement metrics are calculated by BlackRock using data from MSCI ESG Research which provides a profile of each company’s specific business involvement.
• The Fund manager considers ESG criteria in combination with other information during the idea generation, company research, portfolio construction and ongoing monitoring phases of the investment process.
• A newer system, called dry stacking, involves using vacuums or pressure filters to remove all the water from tailings so the resulting dry waste can be stacked.
• Upstream supply chain activities, such as mining or the collection of scrap, will be covered wherever possible through the recognition of existing programmes that set a similarly ambitious standard and run an equally robust assurance programme to ResponsibleSteel’s.

It included a comparative analysis of performance and costs, contrasting the relevant mining methods and consequent workforce models. The analysis provided valuable insight into productivity achievements and production timelines focusing on those contracts used in platinum mining. A review of other sectors was also completed to determine whether the contracts currently in use in the platinum sector are in line with any trends that are being observed in other areas. A strategic recommendation on the approach in terms of the contractor vs. owner-operated for a specific project, that lowered project risk to reach steady-state production was provided.

Investment Approach

https://www.tokenexus.com/ getting high marks from the Sustainability Yearbook are those that have worked to ensure and improve conditions in the areas where they work, involve local people and take steps to reduce negative impacts throughout the mining process. The Juruti Mine is one of three Alcoa locations globally that have developed a biodiversity action plan. The global goal is to achieve a footprint-neutral condition in mining operations by 2030, which means that the amount of area disturbed for mining each year will be offset by an equal amount of rehabilitated land. Alcoa World Alumina in partnership with the Municipal Administration of Juruti and in agreement with the local community have prepared and introduced an initiative called the Positive Agenda. The Positive Agenda, which has so far received investment of R$69 million, aims to greatly improve quality of life by investing in areas such as rural and urban infrastructure, health, education, culture, the environment, public security and social assistance.

With a view to leveraging greater value through improved production in line with business planning, SFA worked alongside the PGM producer’s management team, referencing past achievements so as to identify future risk, and challenging its operational planning to ensure maximum value. The producer’s business plan was reviewed in detail, taking into account shaft performances, with analysis and benchmarking of the wider sector also included, ultimately creating detailed mine valuations. The obvious solution here is to accelerate the development of critical minerals and a clean energy supply chain closer to home, either in Western countries or Western-friendly regions.

PGM price forecasting and project incentive pricing

“We’re walking the ground, doing the measurements to make sure the standards seem fair and achievable,” says IRMA’s Boulanger. “We’re looking at ‘does the standard work in diverse environments and political contexts around the world? ’ We know we will make some mistakes, so we will be piloting certification through next year,” Boulanger says. The programme will include an independent third-party mechanism to verify implementation of the standard. The following graph shows the aggregate production ounces at risk at country level, both from a drought as well as flood perspective.

With high energy-intensive processes required to produce lithium hydroxide, SFA can help investors evaluate the sustainability of the lithium supply chain. Released every three months, this price risk-focused report details-impacting factors for platinum, palladium and rhodium markets for the next three years. SFA is a trusted advisor to the Boards and senior management of major stakeholders and provides regular assistance to hydrogen strategy and planning efforts. SFA is closely following the green hydrogen water electrolyser and mobility players and projects underway across the industry, and national strategy developments. SFA provides regular data flows of mine supply and metallurgical pipelines, basket prices, mine economics, and PGM demand to assist strategic decision-making.

Keywords

Another common focus of activism is weaker environmental and social standards of mining in poorer parts of the world. Growing attention is currently focused on the miserable conditions under which artisanal miners extract cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , for example. On 28 March, the Mining 2030 Investor Agenda – an investor coalition focused on engagement with the global mining sector and led by the Church of England Pensions Board – hosted its first roundtable to explore the role of mining for the low-carbon transition. Carbon Pulse is a subscription-based service providing unrivalled news and intelligence on carbon pricing and climate change policies.

• But it would be a tragic own-goal if NGO campaigns helped to entrench this situation of weak local standards, just as it would be if such activism helped block mineral supplies key to the energy transition on a global level.
• Alongside the client’s management team, we firmed up and verified key shaft production parameters.
• For funds with an investment objective that include the integration of ESG criteria, there may be corporate actions or other situations that may cause the fund or index to passively hold securities that may not comply with ESG criteria.
• Certainly, that thinking has influenced a number of recent government initiatives in this area, from the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ in the US to the UK government’s ‘Critical Minerals Strategy’.
• The SFA team is constantly providing rich insights for its clients on structural events moving the battery metals markets and battery technology substitution.
• Grasberg dumps about 80m tonnes of waste into the Ajkwa river system every year, according to Earthworks.

mining benchmark provided an independent chapter of concise market commentary on the global cobalt market, detailing cobalt by-product and primary cobalt supply, demand trends, trading conditions and pricing of the metal. The SFA team provided independent research and analysis to an organisation formed by six leading platinum producers to develop the market for platinum investment. SFA’s data and analysis helped to ensure greater transparency of the global platinum market and the delivery of regular data to potential investors. A significant mining conglomerate requested SFA to evaluate a cobalt deposit in the DRC and appraise its investment potential. The team assessed the resource potential, mining strategy, processing routes, and developed an NPV model to evaluate the attractiveness of the resource using different market price scenarios and critical project success factors. The Fund invests globally at least 70% of its total assets in the equity securities (e.g. shares) of companies the main business of which is the mining and/or production of base and precious metals and/or minerals.

Renewable energy and green hydrogen economics

Trusted partnerships and collaboration with governments, policymakers, local communities, labour, civil society, technology developers, industry associations and financial institutions can create an ecosystem for change. Executives and decision influencers need to consider value chain and cross-sector integration in their decarbonisation strategies. Our quarterly price risk-focused report details factors impacting the lithium, nickel and cobalt markets for the next five years and future battery technology trends. This assignment compared contract mining with owner-operated models employed on each new PGM project, undertaken by listed mining companies during start-up and then steady-state, since 1997 in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

• SFA offers a broad spectrum of services for miners in PGMs and battery metals and materials, applying our strategic focus and bespoke approach to meet your needs.
• ResponsibleSteel has been working with IRMA and TSM to determine how ResponsibleSteel could use the outputs of their respective mine level verification programmes as the basis for such recognition.
• In 2014, the company spent $6.8bn in direct contributions to countries in which it operates, including investment in improving drinking water provision.
• “We are really working to establish long-term plans for rebuilding communities and restoring the environment,” he adds.
• The nucleation method helps reduce costs by 40% compared to the traditional rehabilitation method due to decreased topsoil removal and branch disposal.
• Skarn has developed a novel methodology to analyse and benchmark physical water use and water-risk exposure on ESG and mine production.