The modern world would be much the poorer without mining, which is something to be borne in mind as the industry takes huge strain under the collapse of commodity prices.

As often outlined by Chamber of Mines of South Africa CEO Roger Baxter, mining and the minerals are integral to society and really matter for the growth and development of modern economies.

While minerals like coal, oil, gas and uranium energise the modern world, smartphones could not function without copper, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, ceramics, titanium dioxide and lesser-known tongue-twisters like indium tin oxide.

A car contains close to a ton of iron and steel, 100 kg of aluminium and 19 kg of copper, with the more environment-friendly hybrid requiring double the copper.

A wind turbine uses 335 t of steel, 4.7 t of copper, 13 t of fibreglass, 3 t of aluminium and 1 200 t of reinforced concrete – all having mined ingredients.

To replace a single 3 000 MW coal-fired power station – which is half the size of South Africa’s many six-pack stations –15 000 MW of wind turbine capacity needs to be provided, requiring the equivalent of a 2 MW wind turbine every 240 m between Durban and Cape Town.

The modern compact fluorescent light bulb needs bauxite, lead, copper, limestone, nickel and phosphorous.

Toothpaste contains silica, limestone, aluminium, phosphate, fluoride and titanium, and women’s make-up contains mica and talc.

“If it can’t be grown,” Baxter often points out, “it has to be mined.”

Mining’s human development link began with the ancient Egyptians 4 500 years ago, with mining also supporting ancient China.

In the eighteenth century, coal raised the steam that powered the industrial revolution and the limited liabilities legislation of the UK enabled companies to raise capital for mining globally.

Some of that flowed into our own South Africa and provided the critical mass to allow this country to become Africa’s most industrialised country, accounting for 30% of the continent’s gross domestic product and 40% of its electricity supply.

However, South Africa is only the world’s fifth-largest mining country. China’s mining industry is nine times larger than South Africa’s and produces 12 times more coal a year than South Africa’s 250-million tonnes a year.

During South Africa’s worst electricity blackout on January 26, 2008, some in South Africa foolishly advocated that Eskom cut supply to the mining industry for five days, in the erroneous belief that mining no longer really mattered to the economy.

That recklessly failed to acknowledge that, without mining, there would be no electricity, as coal currently fuels 94% of South Africa’s power needs.

South African miners do not just dig dirt: a company like Sasol generates R165-billion worth of value from 45-million tonnes of coal.

Nearly half of South Africa’s petrol and diesel and most of its chemicals and plastics have mined coal as their source.

Over and above the hundreds of billions of rands that mining contributes to South Africa’s gross domestic product and the million jobs that it supports, mining-linked downstream industries give the country hundreds of billions more rands in extra sales value and tens of thousands of additional jobs.

Also, with a bit of national encouragement, the industry has the ability to lift export revenue well beyond the current mark and create hundreds of thousands of additional jobs.