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All South Africans need to work together to grow and transform mining

15th September 2017

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

     

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Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane makes sure he attends foreign mining conferences but fails to engage stakeholders at home on the realities of his Mining Charter III, which is a great pity.

Unfortunately, he was not challenged at the LatAm Mining Cumbre, in Santiago, but, thankfully, his unilateral approach was met by headwinds at the Africa Downunder conference, in Perth.

South Africans expressing strong differences of opinion to foreign audiences is, in the main, the incorrect approach.

As a rule, when presenting South Africa’s investment case abroad, every effort should be made to present it in a consensual manner.

But it is appropriate to break that rule in the case of Mining Charter III, which is simply beyond the pale, in the warped and wayward way it extracts cash irregularly.

Mining remains core to defining the South African economy and it is not as if South Africa does not have remedies capable of taking mining out of the intensive care unit in which it finds itself.

A growing and transformed mining sector is all about joint decision-making on growth and transformation.

Mining Weekly has yet to hear a single mining CEO who is against growth with transformation.

To be an attractive mining investment destination, South Africa has to be competitive. Already being witnessed are projects to mine platinum in Brazil and elsewhere, which would have been unheard of when South Africa’s policy framework provided the confidence for strident platinum production.

In years gone by, this sort of news would have been completely off the radar: “Eurasia, the platinum, palladium, iridium and rhodium production company, is pleased to announce it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with GoldMint on financial collaboration on all exploration and mining projects.”

Rivals are now relishing planning to eat South Africa’s formerly exclusive platinum lunch, with local Ministerial uncertainty a major culprit.

The Minister has not even taken his more experienced Deputy Minister, Godfrey Oliphant, into his confidence in imposing a set of impossible legal requirements on South African mining.

The Minister cannot go out on a limb and still expect even local mining companies to invest, as African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) executive chairperson Patrice Motsepe emphasised at last week’s presentation of ARM’s financial results.

Companies would be irresponsible to go ahead with investments confidently in the current unstable circumstances.

Fortunately, the African National Congress has called for the Minister to come back to the negotiating table.

His turning a deaf ear to this call is giving observers confidence that his tenure may be shorter than he imagines.

As stated by Chamber of Mines CEO Roger Baxter, the mining industry is of the firm view that Mining Charter III is designed to benefit a select few at the expense of the whole country.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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