While mining distress flags unfurl, the diamond-mining industry is ducking and diving, gold is cutting back, platinum is selling off and most commodities are under the whip – but enough confidence is being shown in zinc to prompt new investment.

As sectors of South Africa’s mining industry buckle under the strain, South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on government to act to resolve issues weighing on mining in South Africa and to save the industry. Read on page 20 of this edition of Mining Weekly of DA Mineral Resources shadow Minister James Lorimer calling on government to remove intrusive regulation, amid extensive job cuts as major metals and minerals prices hit multiyear lows.

Simultaneously, diamond-mining industry financial results from three diamond mining companies reveal an industry that is having to duck and dive in a world with very low macroeconomic sentiment. Read on page 20 of this edition of Mining Weekly of diamond mining company De Beers reporting a 25% decrease in first-half earnings, a 21% drop in sales, trimmed-down production and a tightening of overheads. On page 21, read of the industry’s high inventory levels and continued liquidity concerns, paired with global macroeconomic uncertainties, placing ongoing pressure on rough and polished diamond prices and denting the realised price of commercial diamonds recovered at Gem Diamonds’ Ghaghoo mine, in Botswana. On page 19 of this edition of Mining Weekly, take note of London-listed Petra Diamonds reporting that flat diamond pricing and static sales have weighed on the company’s revenue, which has contracted on the back of a lower average diamond price. The company paints a picture of a rough diamond market experiencing rough conditions and expects the market to continue to face headwinds of limited liquidity in the downstream pipeline, a strong dollar and a slowdown in retail demand in China.

Zinc, however, is on the receiving end of Southern African investment. While Vedanta CEO Tom Albanese notes on page 8 of this edition of Mining Weekly that it is by no means an easy time to be starting a mine in an investment world that is currently commodities averse, the difference with zinc is that it is “now being in fashion because it has been unloved for so long”. A bright spot on the gloomy current mining horizon is that the first blast at the $630-million Gamsberg zinc project took place in the Northern Cape last week, with the ground breaking signalling the start of the development of a 250 000 t/y opencast zinc mine, concentrator plant and associated infrastructure at Vedanta subsidiary Black Mountain Mines at the mining town of Aggeneys, 113 km north-east of Springbok. Vedanta Resources is developing the mine as part of its overall three-year $782-million Southern African Gamsberg-Skorpion integrated zinc project, which includes the development of an integrated roaster at the Skorpion Zinc refinery, in Namibia, to enable it to treat zinc sulphide deposits from Gamsberg mine to produce high-grade zinc, and also extend the life of the Skorpion zinc operation, which had previously been earmarked for closure this year.