Resource intensity trends of ferrochrome production in South Africa
type: CreativeWork
description: South Africa owns more than 70% of the world's known chromite reserves. Chromite has historically been the most feasible source of chromium suitable for ferrochrome production, which in turn is an essential raw material for stainless steel production. Stainless steel has a myriad of applications in modern society. The South African ferrochrome industry was developed on the foundation of abundant raw material; historically cheap electricity and labour; and investment into industry research and infrastructure. The industry, like other mineral industries, has made a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of South Africa. The South African government, through the Department of Mineral Resources, has drafted a mineral beneficiation strategy that is focused on developing the downstream industry to leverage the abundant mineral resource for prolonged and increased benefit to the South Africa. Yet while the ferrochrome and stainless-steel value chains have been identified as strategic, their mining and processing is resource intensive and a significant contributor to emissions that have the potential of causing environmental degradation. In order to have meaningful engagement between stakeholders, there must be reliable information. This has resulted in the development of sustainability indicators to facilitate engagement. Of the various types of sustainability indicators, resource intensity, which is the ratio of the resource used to the unit product, was selected for this study. This was because resource intensity trends can be used to show the effects of environmental constraints quantitatively and qualitatively, such as ore grade and the effects of technological innovation on processing a mineral resource. In this way, decisions can be made regarding the environmental impacts and the technology required to mitigate these. From a review of similar studies, it was found that approach for a similar included gathering data from mining company reports and…
abstract: South Africa owns more than 70% of the world's known chromite reserves. Chromite has historically been the most feasible source of chromium suitable for ferrochrome production, which in turn is an essential raw material for stainless steel production. Stainless steel has a myriad of applications in modern society. The South African ferrochrome industry was developed on the foundation of abundant raw material; historically cheap electricity and labour; and investment into industry research and infrastructure. The industry, like other mineral industries, has made a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of South Africa. The South African government, through the Department of Mineral Resources, has drafted a mineral beneficiation strategy that is focused on developing the downstream industry to leverage the abundant mineral resource for prolonged and increased benefit to the South Africa. Yet while the ferrochrome and stainless-steel value chains have been identified as strategic, their mining and processing is resource intensive and a significant contributor to emissions that have the potential of causing environmental degradation. In order to have meaningful engagement between stakeholders, there must be reliable information. This has resulted in the development of sustainability indicators to facilitate engagement. Of the various types of sustainability indicators, resource intensity, which is the ratio of the resource used to the unit product, was selected for this study. This was because resource intensity trends can be used to show the effects of environmental constraints quantitatively and qualitatively, such as ore grade and the effects of technological innovation on processing a mineral resource. In this way, decisions can be made regarding the environmental impacts and the technology required to mitigate these. From a review of similar studies, it was found that approach for a similar included gathering data from mining company reports and…
author: Dlamini, Reuben Mkhuleko
keywords: Chemical Engineering
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:52Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Chemical Engineering

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32688