Sibanye-Stillwater, one of SA’s largest private sector employers, is forging ahead with R2.5bn worth of renewable energy projects, despite facing several land claims that delayed the projects for up to 18 months.
Business Day understands that three of Sibanye’s renewables projects were delayed by 12-18 months due to land claims that were individually lodged between July 1 2014 and July 27 2016 over portions of land including several owned by the group and its affiliates.
However, the mining house said it was proceeding with the projects after it sought expert advice on the validity of the claims, saying undertaking independent assessment was necessary to inform a decision on the projects.
“Historically, the Constitutional Court ordered that land claims lodged between July 1 2014 and July 27 2016 are valid, however, it interdicted the Land Claims Commission from processing those claims until the commission has finalised previous claims lodged before December 31 1998, or until parliament passes a new law providing for the reopening of the lodgement of claims.
“As such, the Land Claims Commission could not and would not process the claims despite the significant impacts to the projects. Sibanye-Stillwater consequently commissioned an independent expert assessment of the validity of the various claims that determined that the claims were either not valid or very low risk to the projects, given the redress sought by the claimants.”
According to the Minerals Council SA, 100 renewable energy projects to the value of R150bn are in the pipeline in various SA industries.
Sibanye-Stillwater announced in December the start of two utility-scale renewable energy projects in SA as part of its decarbonisation.
Sibanye’s Witberg Wind Energy Project in the Western Cape will have a contracted capacity of 103MW.
The second project is a multibuyer 150MW AC solar photovoltaic project developed and financed by Sola Group in a deal that will allow Sibanye to procure 75MW of the plant’s capacity over a 10-year power purchase agreement.
Other notable projects in SA include the Lephalale Solar Power Project, which provides about 30% of the energy needs to Exxaro’s Grootegeluk Coal Mine, made up of 129,000 solar panels covering an area the size of almost 450 football fields.
Insurance broker Crawford Dougall has found energy usage accounts for 30% of total cash operating costs for most mining companies and renewables can reduce operating costs by 25% in existing mining operations and up to 50% for new mines.
Crawford Dougall has warned SA mining companies, which are ploughing billions of rand in renewable energy projects to keep their operations running during blackouts, should consider the insurance risks that come with the increasing reliance on renewable energy.
The firm said renewable energy facilities carried insurance risks, with unique risk factors that are not shared with mines or other private offtakes, such as manufacturing facilities or heavy industrial users.
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