Despite having been mined intensively for a hundred and plenty years, South Africa still has vast mineral resources. As Ian Robinson points out in his doctoral thesis on the evolution of South African mining, South Africa continues to rank first in chrome, gold, manganese and platinum reserves; second in titanium, vanadium and zirconium reserves; and in the top ten in antimony, coal, fluorspar, iron-ore, lead, nickel, phosphate, uranium, vermiculite and zinc reserves. But, as Eunomix points out in its latest Africa policy monitor, the mining boom has dissolved into what looks like a new commodity bear of low prices and on top of this is policy uncertainty, mineral right opacity, labour unrest, energy shortages and rising costs holding down mining growth. The upshot is that, despite being mineral rich, South Africa is currently mining poor.