More than 100 exploration projects are currently under way in Africa, particularly in the commodities of copper, diamonds and gold, Chamber of Mines (CoM) president Mike Teke noted at the inaugural Junior Mining Indaba, which took place in Johannesburg last month.

However, he expressed concerns over the lack of African exploration and junior mining companies involved in these exploration activities on the continent, noting that Australia and Canada currently dominated the African exploration space.

The proliferation of exploration currently under way in Africa offered significant opportunities for South African junior miners and exploration companies, Teke averred, stating that the country’s wealth of mining talent placed it in a unique position to take advantage, not only of its own significant mineral deposits, but also of those on the rest of the continent as well.

He pointed to the significant iron-ore and manganese discoveries in the Northern Cape, as well as coal finds in Mpumalanga and Limpopo’s Waterberg, as evidence of South Africa’s exploration capabilities.

Parastatals such as Eskom and Transnet would play a particularly important role in the growth of South Africa’s junior mining sector, Teke said.

He suggested that, through the development of offtake agreements with junior coal miners, Eskom could provide the financial backing junior coal miners needed to hold onto and develop their prospecting rights.

Meanwhile, Transnet would play a critical logistical role in creating the infrastructure needed for junior miners to supply Eskom, as well as provide export opportunities through access to Transnet’s port terminals.

Teke further highlighted the important role iron-ore and coal would play in global urbanisation, noting that the commodities were vital to the development of modern cities and electricity generation. He pointed out that more than half the world’s population now lived in urbanised areas, which were expected to increase significantly in the next 15 years and, therefore, the need for iron-ore and coal would increase as well.

However, Teke expressed concerns over the “fragmented” nature of South Africa’s junior miners, who often did not have the capital neces-sary to develop a promising mineral tenement into a mine and, therefore, sell the rights to mining houses with larger balance sheets.

He suggested that junior miners consolidate their operations to help ease the financial burden and offered the assistance of the CoM to help facilitate the growth of South Africa’s junior mining industry.