Ciara Rice

Manganese Metal Company (MMC) has commenced commissioning South Africa’s first high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) facility at its Mbombela refinery in Mpumalanga. This is a significant step for the country which has long been the world's largest supplier of manganese ore. MMC has operated in Mbombela since 1974 as the world's largest non-Chinese producer of selenium-free electrolytic manganese metal (EMM). It sources ore from the Kalahari Manganese Field in the Northern Cape. The company has added HPMSM production through a brownfield expansion to its existing refinery. MMC is wholly-owned by South African companies.

BYD may be using lithium iron manganese phosphate (LMFP) cells for its new Blade 2.0 battery platform, unveiled earlier in March, though it has yet to officially declare which chemistry will be used.  A key advantage of the new platform is support for “flash charging” which BYD claims can charge the battery from 10% to 70% in just five minutes when connected to its new 1,500kW charging system.  BYD’s patent activity related to manganese-doped phosphate systems alongside reported improvements in energy density, and reference to a 3.8V operating voltage all point towards BYD using LMFP in the platform.  If BYD does use LMFP for Blade 2.0, Benchmark calculates that this could increase 2026 battery-grade manganese demand by 7%.