Potent power station
Most of South Africa’s coal-fired power stations are in Mpumalanga. When Duvha power station came on stream in 1984, its chimneys were the largest freestanding concrete structures in the southern hemisphere. Kendal power station’s cooling towers are currently the largest structures of their type in the world. When Kusile power station is completed near Delmas in 2016 it will be the country’s biggest, contributing a massive 4 800 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. Kusile will be the first South African power plant to use flue gas desulphurisation, which will remove sulphur dioxide from exhaust gases. Eskom anticipates that the town of Delmas will see its GDP expand by 25% as a result of the investment, and that South Africa’s GDP growth will expand by 0.34% as a result of the power station.

World’s largest sythentic-fuel plant
Sasol’s huge Secunda operation includes the coal-toliquid gasification plant that converts coal into synthesis feed gas. Other operations include coal mining, refining liquid fuels and chemical production.

Sasol’s synfuel plant has the capacity to produce 150 000 barrels per day of liquid fuel from coal. In 2009 Sasol produced seven million tons. The primary feedstock for synthetic-fuel production is coal, and the plant is located in the heart of Mpumalanga’s coalfield region.

Nine Sasol Advanced SyntholT (SAST) reactors produce hydrocarbons, which are recovered and purified into solvents. Products manufactured at the company’s Secunda complex include petroleum, paraffin, jet fuel, creosote, bitumen, diesel and lubricants. Gas by-products include oxygen and acetylene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and hydrogen and nitrogen.

Marvellous mills
Sappi Kraft has upgraded the Ngodwana Mill several times. This integrated paper and pulp mill has the annual capacity to produce 140 000 tons of newsprint and 240 000 tons of kraft linerboard and white top linerboard. The mill also has the capacity to produce 410 000 tons per year of unbleached kraft pulp, bleached chemical pulp and market pulp. In addition, 100 000 tons of mechanical pulp can be generated. The mill generates most of the power that it needs to run, and is capable of exporting excess power to the national grid when occasion demands.

Mondi’s softwood sawmill in Sabie is the largest of its type in Africa and Sonae Novoboard’s panel and board plant is, likewise impressively big. Tsb Sugar is one of the biggest contributors to the provincial economy, with 3 500 staff members. The company’s three mills process about 700 000 tons of sugar per year and the Malelane Refinery has the capacity to produce 345 000 tons per year.

One and only
The town of Middelburg is home to Columbus Stainless, South Africa’s only producer of stainless-steel flat products. Spanish company Acerinox has the majority holding in the company, with the Industrial Development Corporation being the minority stakeholder. The company’s plant has an ISO 14 001 accreditation for environmental management.

ARM Platinum and Norilsk Nickel Africa run Nkomati Mine, the only mine that is a primary producer of nickel, most other nickel production in South Africa being a by-product of mining for platinum. The mine produced 4 833 metric tons of nickel in 2010. This represented a 115% increase in production over 2009. A concentrator plant is on-site and the company is currently working on a scheme to more than double production levels. The capital outlay for the project will be R3.7-billion.

The Manganese Metal Company is the world’s largest producer of pure electrolytic manganese metal. The use of selenium-free technology means that the metal produced is 99.9% pure and also contributes to worker safety.

Also based in Nelspruit is Delta EMD, a global leader in the production of electrolytic manganese dioxide, which is a key component in the production of alkaline batteries.

Super subtropical studies
Nelspruit is the location of one of South Africa’s premier research institutions, the Agricultural Research Council’s Institute for Tropical and Sub-Tropical Crops (ARC-ITSC). Established in 1926, the ARC-ITSC has earned an enviable reputation for ground-breaking research into crop varieties and diseases. The institute has successfully introduced new root stock of avocados, a new banana cultivar and improved the yields of coffee plantations.

Current programmes include the introduction of integrated pest management, research into citrus greening disease, and a big indigenous plant breeding scheme to assist farmers in marginal agricultural areas. More than 700 species have been entered into databases and inoculated into tissue culture.