The Coega Development Corporation has welcomed national cabinet’s decision to issue Transnet Port Terminals with a permanent operating license for operating the manganese terminal at the Port of Ngqura. The announcement was made public on Friday, 16 August 2015.

The operating license will support the upgrading of the South African railway network from the Northern Cape to the Port of Ngqura, adjacent to the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ).

In the first R2.3-billion phase, a rail infrastructure development project will double sections and introduce new passing loops for 200-wagon trains through a railway line that runs from Coega to Cradock, De Aar, Kimberley and finally Postmasburg.

The existing manganese at the Port of Port Elizabeth will be relocated to a new facility at the Coega IDZ.

“The decision will strengthen Nelson Mandela Bay’s position as a prime location for investors, especially those with interests in mineral ores and processing plants beneficiating raw minerals for export and downstream manufacturing in the metro,” said Dr Ayanda Vilakazi, CDC Head of Marketing and Communications.

“The manganese container terminal has been one of the fundamental drivers for developing the Port of Ngqura and the Coega IDZ in the first instance. It will ensure bulk mineral storage and handling facilities at the Ngqura deep seawater port and beneficiation of minerals in the IDZ,” he added.

Dr Vilakazi said Coega and the Port of Ngqura projects were planned and designed as a national strategic growth nodes, promoting economic growth and development in the Eastern Cape through manganese.