Monday, 14 April 2025: Exxaro Resources and Eskom today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that focuses on collaboration on strategic initiatives, research, and projects in the areas of Carbon Emissions Reduction, Air Quality and Just Transition. This is consistent with South Africa’s commitment to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, international environmental standards, and national regulatory frameworks.
The agreement focuses on jointly measuring, managing, and reducing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and potentially investing in innovative technologies to drive decarbonisation. It also emphasises inclusive and focused transition initiatives such as skills development, job creation in green sectors, and stakeholder engagement to ensure climate resilience. Additionally, the MoU includes provisions for data sharing and transparent reporting to track progress and ensure accountability.
“This collaboration marks a significant step forward in our commitment to enabling a just transition (known as an impactful transition at Exxaro) and building a climate-resilient, and low-carbon future. By leveraging our deep experience in the diversified mining and energy solutions sectors, we aim to drive innovation that not only decarbonises and reduces air pollution in our operations but also delivers meaningful socio-economic benefits for the communities we serve. The collaboration with Eskom is important as we work to accelerate practical and scalable solutions that support South Africa’s energy security and environmental ambitions as part of our purpose of Powering Better lives in Africa and beyond,” said Ben Magara, CEO of Exxaro Resources.
The initial focus in the collaboration will guide the necessary investments and stakeholders needed to find technology-based solutions to the challenges associated with the transition to a low-carbon economy, aligned with country’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).
“Both organisations are committed to driving the transition to a more sustainable energy future while ensuring the country’s electricity supply remains secure and we wanted to bring together our decades of experience in the coal value chain to explore practical, scalable solutions. This initiative forms part of Eskom’s focus both in this country and internationally to identify the latest developments and strategies to reduce carbon emissions and other air pollutants,” said Dan Marokane, Group Chief Executive, Eskom.
Exxaro on Sustainable Impact
Exxaro remains steadfast in advancing its Sustainable Growth and Impact strategy by embedding key ESG priorities into its operations. Exxaro’s sustainable mining practices focus areas include decarbonisation and climate resilience, improving air quality, rehabilitating mined land, protecting biodiversity, and enhancing energy and water efficiency. This also includes commitment to minimising waste through circular economy practices, and by proactively fostering strategic partnerships to amplify our impact. These initiatives reflect Exxaro’s dedication to building a sustainable and inclusive future for our business, communities, and the environment as part of powering better lives in Africa and beyond.
Under one of Exxaro’s five strategic objectives under our Sustainable Growth and Impact strategy, becoming a catalyst for economic growth and environmental stewardship, we recently approved our decarbonisation roadmap, which provides a comprehensive framework, key milestones, initiatives, and low-carbon technologies necessary in our journey to achieve carbon neutrality. We believe that through this roadmap and partnerships such as this one, Exxaro is well positioned to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Eskom Research business unit
The Eskom Research, Testing & Development (RT&D) business unit, which is dedicated to finding technology solutions that can be applied primarily within the company to embrace innovation, namely enhance efficiency and improve operations, improvements related to emissions management, Green House Gas (GHG) abatement, and beyond; will lead this partnership at Eskom. One of the key areas of focus for RT&D is assisting the business in a differentiated approach with multiple pathways to move from high carbon to low-carbon energy sources through identifying technology and processes that enables the economy to be competitive and sustainable while enabling Eskom to be as efficient as possible.
Eskom remains focused on a balanced and diversified energy mix based on existing coal and nuclear and introducing gas for baseload power, as well as renewables, energy storage systems including BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) and pumped hydro, to achieve overall security of supply and to meet South Africa’s growing electricity demand in a sustainable manner.
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Broomspun
Harry Oppenheimer – Harry Oppenheimer led South Africa’s two biggest companies (De Beers and Anglo America) through their most successful years and created more jobs than any other South African businessman in history. Harry Oppenheimer and his wife Bridget were also keen horse breeders. They bred Horse Chestnut, which is arguably the most exceptional race horse ever bred in South Africa. Chestnut was known for winning races by large margins – he won the J&B Met by over 8 lengths.