The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) is committed to supporting youth upliftment programmes aimed at improving young people’s knowledge of South Africa’s minerals and their development, DMR deputy director-general Joel Raphela told delegates at the 2016 Youth in Mining, Procurement and Transformation Summit, in Johannesburg, last month.

“We continue to reach the youth through the departmental learner week programmes, where we create mining awareness by organising mine visits around the country.

“We also provide learnerships and internships for learners and graduates as part of bridging the work experience gap needed in the employment market,” Raphela commented.

He pointed out that the DMR also recently appointed 38 learner inspectors, 42% of whom were women, after they had successfully completed a two-year training programme.

This programme was initiated by the DMR, in collaboration with the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA), Sibanye Gold and AngloGold Ashanti.
Raphela said that unemployed graduates from previously disadvantaged groups were recruited for this programme and provided with practical experience in the field of occupational hygiene, surveying, mining, and electrical and mechanical engineering.

He also pointed out that State-owned mineral and metallurgical innovation company Mintek was also making “a significant contribution” in this area through the implementation of initiatives aimed at training and developing young people to be leaders and experts in different areas of the entire mineral beneficiation value chain.

In 2015, Mintek provided practical training for a total of 148 students, in partnership with the MQA and the Department of Science and Technology. Thirty-six of these students have been placed in foundries across the country, where they are gaining practical skills for melting metals and casting them into aluminium or cast iron products.

Moreover, Raphela said Mintek had also been actively playing a role in helping young people, who may not have higher education qualifications, find sustainable mechanisms of generating income, while also creating jobs for others in jewellery making, glass bead manufacturing and pottery.

Additionally, he stated that urban mining presented significant opportunities for young people to use urban waste to manufacture saleable products, without necessarily having a higher education qualification.

“The glass bead manufacturing process is a great example of this,” Raphela noted, adding that Mintek provided training in the crushing of glass bottle waste and turning the crushed glass into beads that were then used to make products, such as household decoration items and costume jewellery.

Further, he commented that Mintek had assisted the provincial government of the Northern Cape by setting up two training and beneficiation centres in Upington and Prieska, which provided practical training for making jewellery from semiprecious stones, particularly the Tiger’s eye that is mined in the province.

Raphela remarked that participants in the programme were also assisted to develop skills for grading semiprecious gemstones using “very simple techniques” that were easily acquired, to ensure they could manufacture products that were of good quality for the market.

He also reminded delegates that in 2015 during the inaugural Diamond Indaba organised by the State Diamond Trader, the South African Young Diamond Beneficiators Guild (SAYDB) was launched.

The SAYDB is a collective of predominantly black-owned South African small and emerging diamond manufacturers who have seen it necessary to “change the future narrative” of the South African diamond beneficiation sector.