Gamagara secures a 1.4 Mtpa long-term rail allocation to the Eastern Cape ports

Quintel has agreed a multi-year rail allocation of 1.4 million tonnes a year for its Gamagara manganese operation in the Northern Cape, an increase of 27% on the previous contracted volume. Ore is railed 860 kilometres to the ports of Ngqura and Port Elizabeth for export.

The agreement follows three years of joint investment in the corridor. Quintel funded a private siding and rapid-loading facility at the mine that reduced train turnaround from 14 hours to 5, financed the refurbishment of 240 wagons under a long-term lease-back structure, and co-staffs a joint operations centre with the rail operator.

In 2025 the operation railed 99% of the tonnage it produced, and rail rather than the orebody has been the binding constraint on Gamagara output since Quintel acquired the mine in 2013.

The allocation underwrites the fourth underground production section approved for commissioning in the second half of 2026, which takes underground mining to 78% of total output and allows the open pit to enter final rehabilitation from 2028.

“In bulk commodities the mine plan is a hypothesis and the rail schedule is the answer,” said Rajiv Menon, Chief Commercial Officer. “We stopped treating logistics as somebody else’s responsibility in 2022 and put capital into the corridor rather than complaints. This allocation is the return on that.”