Emerging miners need to start thinking out of the box to start breaking through South Africa’s tough operating market, with panellists at a roundtable convened by multidisciplinary engineering and project management consulting firm GIBB agreeing it is time to step up.

While South Africa’s mining sector is building new partnerships and finding innovative solutions that will position it to transcend current challenges, Lucient Engineering & Construction co-CEO Masego Mokiti says players should not remain “chained” to vanilla solutions and start becoming “creative”.

There are exciting opportunities for “South Africa Mining Inc” across Africa and globally, with the country equipped with mining knowledge that amounts to a key national competence to build a national profile worldwide.

“Africa is bubbling with opportunity and South Africa Mining Inc is well positioned, [with] the capacity and capability to lead the charge,” he says, highlighting how South African mining companies are leading big projects throughout the world and how the country is home to some of the best globally recognised institutes in the world

But, with difficult, complex solutions required to exploit the industry opportunities and scale the high barriers to entry, including deep-level mining complexities and safety issues, nonvanilla transactions and solutions are needed for investors to come in, Mokiti adds.

“South Africa Mining Inc has the expertise and the experience. We need to think outside the box. Gone are the days of the vanilla solutions. If you think you are going to get the stock standard transaction or mining operations where things are shallow or the funding solution is a simple one, those days are gone.”

GIBB Mining MD Alan Wingrove says investor confidence in South Africa is waning amid political and policy uncertainty, and a lack of political will to address issues such as Eskom’s debt and load-shedding does not make it an easy space to play in.

“Investors have options [in terms of] where to deploy their capital and weigh up risks, and, if we do not stack up, they will take their f unding elsewhere.”

However, Wingrove says there is still reason for optimism in the South African mining industry, as long as all stakeholders – established miners, government, communities and independent power producers – work together with the interests of the industry and the country at heart.

Despite serious challenges, the mining industry is far less polarised than it has been in the past and there is a growing alignment between industry stakeholders, including government, mining houses, communities, emerging miners and engineering and logistics providers.

This is leading to clearer policy from government, community engagement by miners, public–private collaboration and a stronger global vision.

However, it is time to act, he says, proposing that the mining industry think big and work together on ambitious projects.

Omang Group COO Bungane Kakana adds that there are opportunities for the local mining sector to build an international network and enhanced logistics relationships, and adopt a beneficiation focus.