JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – At a high-powered Mining Summit in the Drakensberg, the South African government locked in a show of unprecedented unity with business and labour to set the country's underperforming but still well-endowed mining industry on a new growth path, collectively backing a strategy that positions mining for sustainable growth, job creation and meaningful transformation.

Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said that the summit had "thoroughly debated" and dealt with many challenging issues in order to unleash a new vigour that could go a long way towards embedding a spirit of sustainable economic development within the country's resources fabric. The proceedings were closed to the media to allow for robust interchange.

"We are still a sunrise industry. We still have such a lot of commodities, and we are tapping into a 2030 mining-industry horizon. We are saying, come to South Africa and we will be ready and competitive and provide a long-term mining business horizon," Shabangu commented to Mining Weekly Online.

"I am confident we can make investment attractive without necessarily having to pass any legislation because most are administrative issues and we have to unblock those issues.

"We are positive and we intend to make sure that more investment is attracted into our industry. We will be having another international road show to really show investors that we are keen to transform, but also that we are open to any criticisms, which we are prepared to address at all times," the Minister added to Mining Weekly Online.

A Chamber of Mines spokesperson told Mining Weekly Online that the top leadership of South Africa's mining industry had agreed on a wide range of issues aimed at promoting the sustainable growth and meaningful transformation.

Shabangu described the summit as a significant milestone in ensuring that the industry repositioned itself as the most meaningful contributor to South Africa's growth and socio-economic development.

The government, business and labour delegations were led by Shabangu and her department's DG, Sandile Nogxina; Chamber of Mines president Sipho Nkosi and Chamber CEO Mzolisi Diliza; National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) president Senzeni Zokwana and NUM general secretary Frans Baleni; workers union Solidarity president Steve Scott; South African Mining Development Association (Samda) president Bridgette Radebe and Samda chairperson Nchaka Moloi, and United Association of South Africa labour union COO Leon Grobler. Several Members of Parliament from the relevant Parliamentary Committees and youth representatives attended.

"There are many issues that have been agreed on and some others that will demand further discussion, but our deliberations took place in a constructive spirit of tripartite collaboration.

"We are positive that we have agreed on a significant number of issues which will enhance growth, the sector's global competitiveness, create decent jobs and transform the industry in a manner that meets the expectations of the industry's stakeholders, investors and our country's citizens.

"Equally, it's encouraging that all parties are committed to conclude agreements on the remaining issues which need agreement by or before the end of June 2010," Shabangu said.

She welcomed the support of stakeholders at the summit for a State mining company, emphasising that the work being done to establish the company would continue diligently.

The company in question is the State-owned African Exploration Mining & Finance Corporation that is headed by CEO Sizwe Madondo, who is active in particularly coal exploration and development.

Following the global recession, the leadership of the industry had announced at the beginning of 2010 that the mining industry growth, development and employment task team (Migdett) – representing all industry stakeholders – would embark on a process to ensure that the industry was well placed to take advantage of the inevitable economic upswing.

"We can't afford to lose out on the next upturn," Shabangu commented to Mining Weekly Online.

The summit was the culmination of two months of intensive engagement during which stakeholders worked around the clock to identify key issues affecting the sector's global competitiveness as well as transformation of the industry, recognising that these two aspects are inseparable and mutually reinforcing.

Competitiveness, the summit agreed, was "absolutely critical" to ensuring that the industry remained a significant contributor to broader socioeconomic development, economic growth, and to mining remaining a "sunrise industry".

Because the attainment of the requisite levels of competitiveness required further consideration of various issues that facilitate competitiveness, the summit agreed to the establishment of task teams to address key identified issues.

These task teams would be required to revert with specified recommendations and ideas back to the Migdett plenary before the end of June.

The summit agreed that a more detailed action plan would be developed on infrastructure. The need to develop a mechanism for integrated long-term infrastructural planning for the mining industry was emphasised and proposals would focus on key infrastructural areas affecting mining including rail, water, ports and electricity.

It was reconfirmed that stakeholders were committed to the objectives of the regulatory framework but agreed to investigate how to achieve regulatory best practice, to accelerate the turnaround of application times and to improve the quality of applications.

There would be a joint promotion of innovation, productivity and cost, the sharing of international best practice, the support and promotion of local research and development in areas that generate competitiveness for the minerals cluster such as collaborative research in mining and beneficiation.

There would be support and promotion of local research and development institutions, as well as the use of local analytical facilities.

Negative capital, labour and management impacts on productivity would be thoroughly investigated.

In the area of sustainable development, health and safety would be synchronised with the work of the Mine Health and Safety Council.

Ways to encourage investment in exploration, which was key to sustainability, would be investigated.

Effort would be made to exploit South Africa's resources optimally in terms of the objectives of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.

Legacy issues, as well as the current and future impact of mining on the environment, would be confronted.

Attention would be given to the macroeconomic environment and its potential to attract local and international investment.

Macroeconomic factors that have a negative impact on the mining sector be investigated, along with tailoring of taxation and finance to encourage investment into exploration and mining.

Stakeholders committed their support to growing beneficiation in South Africa and agreed to engage on the imminent government strategy paper on beneficiation.

Skills development was acknowledged as a key driver of competitiveness and the summit committed itself to an investigation into skills facilitation, skills development and skills retention.

The summit recognised that one of the key shortcomings of the Mining Charter was the lack of definitions and clarity that had led to different interpretations of what was expected.

There wasrecognition of the need to ensure that future black economic-empowerment (BEE) transactions would be adequately facilitated to enhance the achievement of the 26% ownership target. The importance of ownership for workers and communities was highlighted. There was agreement that transactions should include provision for an element of dividend flow to BEE partners.

While adult basic education remained critical, it was agreed that special attention also be paid to the development of scarce and critical skills.

It was agreed that employment equity targets for higher levels of management should be a matter of specific focus and that the issue of  white women being classified as historically disadvantaged South Africans in employment equity numbers be addressed.

Where there were difficulties in meeting employment equity and gender targets, parties should meet to discuss ways of achieving these goals. It was also agreed that people with disabilities and the youth needed to be employed.

On mine community development, it was agreed that clearer guidelines for community engagement by companies needed to be developed to enhance community participation in local economic development initiatives.

On housing and living conditions, it was agreed that single-room accommodation should be phased in as a priority.

BEE qualifying procurement expenditure needed to be properly defined, and further focus was needed to ensure that BEE companies were given preferential supplier status.

Task teams would avoid duplicating existing structures and would integrate the mining industry's competitiveness and transformation needs into national programmes and fill in gaps where issues were not covered elsewhere.

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