PRETORIA (miningweekly.com) – The South African government has announced the establishment of a task team to come up with responses to the current economic crisis that the mining industry faced.

The task team, which would consist of representatives from the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), the Chamber of Mines and trade unions, would come up with a framework to fortify the industry against economic collapse within 20 days, a government official stated on Monday.

DME DG Sandile Nogxina told journalists that the local economy could not be insulated from the global crisis.

With commodity prices plunging in recent months, many mining companies have announced project closures, delays or cutbacks. In the South African mining industry, an estimated 9 000 jobs might be lost.

Trade union Solidarity spokesperson Dirk Hermann said the union had already received notice off 9 163 possible retrenchments and that the task team would work on a positive process to put a stop to further job losses.

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