JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Chinese mining investors in particular have an important role in the current phase of South Africa’s mining and industrial expansion, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said on Monday.

Addressing the Mining Ministers’ Forum in Tianjin, Shabangu said in the presence of China's Resources Minister Xu Shaoshi and Ministers from Angola, Canada and Nigeria that global investments into mining were needed by South Africa.

She said that South Africa’s vast mineral endowment provided a potential competitive advantage for downstream mineral beneficiation industries.

Economic analysis suggested that the South African resources sector would remain key to the growth and development of the economy.

A multistakeholder task team comprising government, business and organised labour had identified interventions that were needed to ensure enduring growth and transformation of the mining industry.

A beneficiation implementation plan dealt with the diversification of mineral activities towards value addition.

South Africa’s one-stop mineral rights, environmental authorisation and water licence shop was shortening turnaround times for prospecting and mining rights and improving competitiveness of the South African mining industry.

Since the signing of the strategic South Africa-China partnership agreement, Chinese companies had shown a greater appetite to enter the South African mining sector and comply with the country’s laws.

The geology memorandum of understanding signed would serve as a springboard to access mining in other jurisdictions.

South Africa’s mineral exports to China have grown by a compounded 50% a year in the last four years, which had prompted the government to budget $100-billion for investment in energy and transport infrastructure.

The National Planning Commission was set to release its medium-term programme of infrastructural development on November 11.

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