Mining companies and China, prices and sustainability, platinum and education

South Africa ranks second as a Chinese mining investment destination, with five projects. Top of the list is the Democratic Republic of Congo, with six projects. Zambia also has five and Zimbabwe four. This is so while China sits on no less than $1,76-trillion in cash reserves, which are growing at the astonishing rate of $100-million an hour.

In its pursuit of raw materials, China’s focus has been on mineral-rich Southern African Development Community countries. South Africans are urged, on page 10 of this edition of Mining Weekly, to look at how they can benefit from opportunities that resource-hungry China’s increasing resources growth presents. What the world has seen in Chinese foreign-direct investment is “just the beginning”, says The Beijing Axis.

Despite China’s voracious appetite for metals and minerals, Cadiz mining analyst Peter Major doubts that the current high commodity prices are sustainable. His view is that the world “just cannot handle such high prices”. He puts the worth of the commodity sector at $6,5-trillion and postulates that the best cure for high prices, are high prices. As they rise, alternatives arise. “We don’t need to do anything, these prices will drive themselves down,” says Major on page 21 of this edition of Mining Weekly.

The world’s second-biggest platinum-miner, Impala Platinum, has funded the construction of a primary school near Rustenburg, which opened its doors last week. Read on page 19 of the role Read, Swatman & Voigt played in the building of the 24-classroom Vuk’uzenzele primary school, which caters for 1 000 learners from a near-mine informal settlement.

Impala is planning to embark on educational programmes at the school. South African platinum mines have a long horizon, which makes it feasible to begin developing people within near-mine communities for the advanced requirements of their operations in the decades ahead.

Please go to www.miningweekly.com and click on ‘Video Clips’ to see Bruce Shapiro expose Canada’s diamond royalty about-turn and also DRDGold’s John Sayers on the failure of gold-mining com-panies to return capital to shareholders.