It does the economies of countries serious harm when government departments go off at administrative tangents, as the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) is doing currently.
This is a serious deviation from what was the case under previous DMR leadership, which promoted collective action from government, business and labour.
Alignment of all stakeholders towards a common vision is without doubt necessary if South Africa is to secure the future of the industry.
There is no doubt that South African mining is in serious need of modernisation, which the private sector regularly emphasises.
If the current DMR administration had foresight, it would encourage modernisation of mining and not leave it to the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry to incentivise.
A wide range of mining industry researchers and individual companies have highlighted that gold mining has a short horizon unless new mining methods are introduced.
Many individual companies are at advanced stages of developing better ways of doing things, even in the cramped narrow-reef, hard-rock environment.
Speaking at the 120 years of service celebration of the School of Mining Engineering of the University of the Witwatersrand last month, Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland was the latest mining executive to sound the warning that modernisation is really mining’s means of survival.
While gold mining remains relevant and valuable, Holland made the point that its structure has evolved to an extent that gold mines of the future have to be set up, structured and managed differently to remain sustainable.
Beyond gold, Africa’s metals and minerals endowment is staggeringly high. Remarkably, Africa hosts up to 95% of the world’s known platinum reserves, 90% of its chromite, 80% of phosphates, 60% of gem diamond reserves, 50%-plus of cobalt, 28% of vanadium, 25% of manganese and 23% of titanium – and often the quality is good and the orebodies close to surface.
So why does this country’s DMR continue to turn inwards and cut itself off from sources that can combine to provide the economic growth this country so desperately needs?
The DMR should be outlining the scope for improvement and encouraging minerals practitioners to deliver superior value for all stakeholders.
The mining industry is one requiring reinvention within best practice regulatory environments, not the worst, where South Africa is heading, the Fraser Institute survey shows.
South Africans anxious to foster vital economic growth in this country find it impossible to get it through to the DMR that, without an unambiguous, clear policy and a supportive regulatory framework, this country’s wonderful minerals endowment will remain in the ground unmined.
Let’s have fair and efficient administrative processes, investment incentives and a fair taxation regime so that the country can go toe to toe with the world’s other mining jurisdictions.