Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP) co-director Alastair Macfarlane said at the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 2018 Mine Safe Technical Conference that modernisation could prolong mining jobs, while localisation and agroindustrialisation could absorb jobs as mines close.

The two-day technical conference was held at the end of last month at the Gallagher Convention Centre.

In his outline of the MMP’s structure and purpose, Macfarlane noted that some of the precinct’s work involved investigating mining-related work streams and opportunities in beneficiation, mining-affected communities, rural development and procurement leverages.

“Our work has expanded into communities to look at local industrialisation in communities around mines.” The MMP hopes to create open dialogues with communities, so that, in instances where the precinct has developed a technology or solution, “we can look within the communities to see whether there’s a possibility of local manufacture, thereby providing employment”.

Similarly, Macfarlane noted that the precinct was also looking to assist with local supply chain development, whether in mine-affected communities or in labour-sending areas, and investigating opportunities for agroindustrialisation.

“There are large amounts of land to which mining companies have surface rights, and we have to make sure that the land is productive.” Speaking to Mining Weekly after his presentation, he noted that agroindustrialisation could provide meaningful employment for residents and that it, along with localisation and supply chain development, could absorb mineworkers as mines reached the end of their lives.

He noted that the MMP was already working alongside the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa on a pilot project in Bekkersdal, south of Randfontein.

With regard to mine safety, he noted that the MMP and the Mine Health and Safety Council had been in open dialogue, with a view to establishing a memorandum of understanding on how best to leverage the parties’ individual research capabilities.

Further, Macfarlane noted that the MMP had incorporated health and safety research into its six focus areas, which looked at developing mining systems that were practical and possible.

He said that, in developing any new technologies, the MMP had emphasised the need to discuss and explore these technologies with the Department of Mineral Resources and organised labour.

“To be able to get to the point of identifying skills development and other projects, we need to engage with organised labour upfront. Labour needs to be intimately involved . . . we also have to look at how to engage with communities so that they understand what the impact of modernisation will be on the mine and on their communities.”

Following his presentation, MacFarlane cited recent announcements regarding retrenchments in the mining industry, adding that, despite the perception that mechanisation would result in job losses, it would actually sustain the sector, which, in turn, would retain several thousand jobs that could have been lost as a result of multiple mine closures.

He added that the MMP was looking at ways of introducing the more than 40 technologies it had researched to materially advance the sector. “Our clients have told us that marginal or incremental improvements aren’t enough, and that they require solutions that produce serious breakthroughs.”