EX MENTE: Growing SA Metallurgical Business Steeled for Future

According to the World Economic Forum, the international steel industry accounts for around 8% of total global CO₂ emissions. With most countries and companies around the world looking for opportunities to decarbonise and drastically reduce emissions to achieve net zero targets, steel has been under the spotlight, with much production still happening in coke-based blast furnaces.

Steel is the most common metal in the world, used across almost all industry sectors from general consumer through to heavy industrial. Production is not only high in emissions, but also hungry in energy consumption. While many see problems with this vital industry, some see opportunities. Steel is strong, reliable, and highly recyclable, and the industry employs millions of people around the world. The challenge is generating the current output but without the input of fossil fuels. Some prospects are being closely examined, such as the use of hydrogen and using green electricity in modern arc furnaces, but the ideas that will provide true change will be underpinned by the laws of physics.

Developing these ideas is Ex Mente, a South African pyrometallurgy company with an international presence and a team of the best minds in the business. With experience built in the country’s large mining and steel production industries, Ex Mente has been learning and growing for 22 years.

“I like difficult things and I thrive on challenges,” smiles CEO Johan Zietsman, who holds a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering and supervises postgraduate students at the University of Pretoria.

“Ex Mente is Latin for ‘from the mind’ – it is a very apt description of who we are. We think a lot and we think together, specifically with our clients,” he adds.

FROM THE MIND

Ex Mente is focussed on the scientific principles behind the metallurgical space, and is actively looking to push boundaries to enhance the sector, both from an environmental perspective and a productivity angle. The company boasts some of Africa’s most important minerals companies as its clients and deals daily with platinum, ferrochrome, ferromanganese, and other essential elements. Today, specialist consulting, process engineering, computational modelling, and technology development are in high demand from this business based in Pretoria in South Africa and in Ede in the Netherlands.

“Our primary market is South and southern Africa – it is a wonderful country and we want to make a substantial positive contribution here. Many of our clients are based here and they feel the same. Our secondary market is Europe and we established an office in the Netherlands in 2022. We have been working in Europe for several years; it is in the same time zone, we can get there easily, it is compatible with our culture, and we have good relationships there,” explains Zietsman, talking of recent expansion against a backdrop of tough economic conditions.

“We have been through rapid and sustainable growth for the last four years – even through Covid, we were growing. Our annual growth has been in excess of 30% on average, and that has been nice to see. The team has grown by more than 50% over the past two years.”

But significant growth has come from the desire to expand and change the industries served rather than focusing on our own interests. Pressures to achieve efficiencies but do so in a sustainable way have helped Ex Mente to retain clients and build new relationships as forward-thinkers look for out-of-the-box solutions in the challenges of climate change and sustainability.

“The green steel boom in Europe is what we have been involved with over the past two years. Internationally, the headline topics – CO₂ and the circular economy – are driven by climate change. For us, our biggest involvement across these two areas is through the green steel movement with international producers,” details Zietsman. “In South Africa, we have an electricity crisis, changing raw materials, and the carbon tax – which is currently not being diverted back into industry to contribute where it should. As a result, the projects that we are involved with are the development of new technologies to produce green steel with improved circularity, improved environmental credentials, reduced reliance on electricity, and they are adapted to changing raw materials.” 

The pressure is high, with many countries aiming for a 50% reduction in emissions from steel production by 2050, and the current system is well-established, seeing two billion tons produced globally each year.

“The existing route is highly efficient, and we are working on some of the new steps in the process to enable our clients to cope with changes. If you get it wrong, you can ruin a steel company. It’s a high volume, low margin business and it is not like other commodities where there is leeway to absorb losses. In steel production, the plant would be closed down. The risk is excessive, and we need to reduce that and give clear direction to our clients on where to go next. It’s about new ways to produce hot metal like that from the blast furnace, by smelting of direct-reduced iron ore.”

By adding hydrogen to the process, significant emission reductions can be achieved. But green hydrogen must be used – availability of which is scarce and requires significant capital investment into hydrolysers. Using blue hydrogen – created using fossil fuels and storing CO₂ underground – emissions are reduced but not removed entirely.

“We focus on the science and the internal physics within these processes, and it is remarkable how few people do this,” says Zietsman, advising clients around the world on process advances at very high temperatures.

“It’s all new,” he adds. “New raw materials, reducing low-grade iron ore to iron in the solid state with predominantly hydrogen, and then we have to turn it into molten hot metal, while doing so within your existing plant infrastructure – that is a big challenge. People don’t want to scrap capital equipment and they don’t want to take risks that could paralyse operations.”

Ex Mente removes risk for clients by delivering a truly thorough understanding of how these high temperature processes behave.

“If our clients get it right, they shape the future of low-CO₂ steel production and, if we get it right as a community, the impact is enormous. Together, we face the risks and challenges head on to ensure the number of mistakes made in the future is as small as possible.”

ADDING MEASURABLE VALUE

As a building block of modern life but a driver of climate change (currently), steel is vital in the fight against global warming. The energies of the future, renewable green power that will come from the sun and wind, all require steel as part of the mix. Decarbonising production is where Ex Mente will thrive in the future, and Zietsman says this will come in the form of digital solutions that optimise and enhance performance.

“Sustainability and digital transition is part of why we exist,” he says. “That is what pushes the need for new technology. The very first project we did in 2001 was what would today be called a Fourth Industrial Revolution project – that is not new to us and it is only in the past two or three years that some clients have started approaching us about this. Previously, we had to push it and gaining the adoption was hard. It is no longer just a ‘nice to have’. Raw materials are more complex and that makes it difficult to manage.”

He highlights a recently started project in the ferroalloy space where the client hopes to produce the same level of high-quality output while changing the input to use waste materials in a bid to do more with less.

Outside of SA, in Europe, where 10% of the world’s steel originates, Ex Mente’s new office will help it to access new partnerships and new funding. Through this, significant value will be added to the sector by the company.

“We have worked with several new clients in the past two years, in the USA, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Many of them are related to steel production technology. We are now able to collaborate with other companies in Europe to access European funds. Some of the developments we do are highly technical and very expensive. Our presence in Europe gives us another degree of freedom to get the funding needed to fuel our development work required to serve the industry into the future,” details Zietsman.

“Our core vision is, by the end of 2026, to be in a position to add R1 billion of measurable value to the industry. We don’t frame it in terms of profit or turnover, we want to gear ourselves to be involved with difficult, large magnitude challenges and to make significant contributions. In terms of how realistic that is – that is the figure that one of our clients needs to save due to Eskom tariff increases in one year, on one of their sites,” he adds.

By combining science, a strong team, and digital technology, Ex Mente will be able to deliver services at scale which is something that the industry is desperately calling for.

“We are a team of technical specialists and we sell our knowledge,” says Zietsman, explaining that packaging this knowledge in a way that can be utilised at all times buy onsite personnel is key. “It’s about building all of these very sophisticated scientific and technological ideas into the plants to effect, influence, and improve production day-to-day. That is how we want to see Ex Mente go from a consulting firm to something completely different.”

EMBEDDING INTELLIGENCE

In many industries, the answer to productivity improvement is automation and technology. While there is obviously space for these tools to be exploited, there remains a certain requirement for human input as AI and machines can only thrive on available data. At 1700 degrees Celsius, there is little collection of data and not much can be measured, meaning there is a struggle for input to AI or machine learning systems.

“We need to understand and have insight because, if you can’t measure then you need to have extra capability to operate these processes well. The embedded intelligence and the science that you build into your plant can directly help you to consume less energy and improve yield,” says Zietsman.

“We build digital platforms for clients that are not typically AI or machine learning-based but it is the fundamentals of science, thermochemistry, and the theory upon which these systems rest. They are much stronger indicators of the behaviour of the process than what AI could generate from the data it is given,” he adds. “We can rapidly progress with this model – with our green steel ideas we are literally going into the unknown and AI cannot do that because you need a lot of known data as a foundation. We use the laws of physics as our base which is incredibly useful and immensely challenging. It is not always something that young people are drawn to, but it is certainly something they should consider.”

Attracting people into the industry and growing the skills of the future that will build on today’s ideas around green steel and climate change is a big challenge for the metallurgical industry and the wider community. In South Africa, skills shortages are a high priority for government and Ex Mente has taken a proactive approach, mentoring post graduates to assist in the advancement and development of new concepts. 

“One aspect that is spoken about too little when we discuss sustainability, climate change, and the future, the only way we can face challenges is if we develop, grow, and challenge people so that the next generation can stand up and do these things. This is part of what we are doing at the University of Pretoria,” says Zietsman.

“Society is still so very dependent on what this industry produces – the metallurgical industry is not going away. We can do it so much better through science, practical technology, and strong people working together.”

GREAT FUTURE AHEAD

South Africa emitted 435 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (MtCO₂) emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial purposes in 2021, and many expect key climate targets to be missed as the country battles with an energy supply crisis. But the vision of Ex Mente is long term, and the people in the business understand that success will not be achieved overnight. Importantly, the company’s contribution in the metallurgical and steel sectors will be achieved through partnership and mutualism, and Zietsman – an industry veteran and technical mind, who was part of Iscor (today ArcelorMittal) before starting his own consultancy – is clear on the reasoning for Ex Mente’s existence: “Our industry, our world, our clients – not us,” he says.

“Our values describe who we are, and we are clear on our role – we guide our clients, we share in the value, but the major victories sit with our clients.”

After significant growth in recent years, and several significant milestones over the past two decades, the business is prepared to reach for things bigger than the sum of its parts to achieve goals in an industry with heavy impact.

“If we do the right things, for the right reasons, and we do these things consistently, then success will follow. We have made mistakes along the way, but we certainly have a lot more success than failure.

“We are still learning a lot. Guiding and leading people to do things that are way beyond what you could ever do on your own is vital, and our industry calls for that. It’s not a small industry and it has an enormous influence in the world,” highlights Zietsman.

Looking to the future, the entrepreneur is sure that pyrometallurgy remains an essential and beautiful part of sustaining society, and is excited about the opportunities that are being created as the industry changes.

“The fact that it is difficult and there is a lot of negativity doesn’t mean there is not a great future ahead of us.

“When the challenges arise, we invariably innovate,” he concludes.