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31/05/2013 (On The Air)

safm31may2013

31st May 2013

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Xolani Gwala speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Gwala: South African-developed mineral rights technology is taking the mining world by storm.

Creamer: Mineral rights systems are very important and South Africa has developed its own.  This one by Spatial Dimension of Cape Town is sweeping through the world in fact, it is in Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and even Greenland.  But, where it is not is in South African government.  This is again what Jacob Zuma saying yesterday is that we have got to return to efficiency and certainty within the market. 

We have the Samrad system, which is much criticised and we could have this system, because it is developed in Cape Town.  We have spurned it and have gone for our own tailor-made system.  We know that it freezes and people having to go back to manually applying for their minerals and prospecting rights in parallel to trying to get onto this online system. 

So, when you want investment in mining, as Jacob Zuma was saying yesterday, we have got to be serious.  Zuma is saying that we are serious about it, but if you are serious you must make the access into the mineral world easy.  When someone is sitting in New York, the system doesn’t freeze on them, because then they lose confidence and they go somewhere else.  Here, we have this developed.  I watched it this week and watched them apply for, on a big screen on a wall, for a prospecting right in Zambia. 

I saw them go through the process, I saw them get the right and I saw them pay for the right, in less then ten minutes.  Now, if Zambia can do that, we can do that better.  I think that is what the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan was also saying, that we need to be serious about mining.

Gwala: Definitely, everyone that we were talking to this morning has specifically been talking about mining.

South Africa has been selected as launch pad for a global tech firm’s new surge into the African continent.

Creamer: Again, it is an indication of an Australian firm in technology, Micromine, seeing South Africa as the place to come and set up a base.  They have got the world as their oyster.  They are looking at Africa, when they could have gone into West Africa.  They are targeting West Africa in a big way, but what do they do, they come to South Africa. 

Why?  Because they say this is the place, the best place from which to emerge in to Africa.  Why?  You have got people here that we can recruit, top people, we believe in recruiting local people.  We don’t believe in brining in Australians.  This is a Micromine technology, it helps people develop mines and is again around this efficiency thing and knowing the value of your asset in the ground.  They tell you that they hold your hand and take you all the way, whether you are big or small, right from pre-exploration to mine closure. 

These people can hold your hand with IT that can give you audits and validation.  They are saying that South Africa is the best place.  Again, I think we are under selling ourselves despite our troubles at the moment.  There are a lot of labour problems and that is key within this domestic economy and we have got to sort that out.  We are also battling global problems at the moment. 

We know that the outlook at the moment for mining is poor. But mining is a cyclical business, but it will up before you know it and you have got to be ready during the downturn.  That is why Jacob Zuma was right to say that this is the corner stone of our economy, we need faster growth, we have got to use mining as a springboard.

Gwala: President Jacob Zuma yesterday effectively drew the line on wildcat strikes, implicitly declaring zero tolerance on future industrial action that is outside of the law.

Creamer: Exactly, outside of the law. Jacob Zuma is saying, why do you work outside of the law. You are unions, we have got among the best labour laws in the world.  We have got a fantastic Constitution.  Jacob Zuma said yesterday, I am drawing the line, don’t go outside of the law. 

We know that in any good democracy there are strikes, I don’t mind strikes that a part of a legal process, but I am drawing the line in saying that we can’t tolerate strikes that are illegal.  We are giving you some leeway, he said, we are giving the new union some leeway, they are emerging unions, perhaps they could argue that they were grappling with the new systems, didn’t really know our legal framework as well as they should.  But there is no more excuse. 

In future make sure that you work within the law.  He is implying that if you don’t there will be consequences and that is good for the mining industry.  It is one of the Achilles Heels at the moment – labour.

Gwala: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, he’ll be back with us at the same time next week.

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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