The artisanal and small-scale mining industry in South Africa has the potential to stimulate entrepreneurship, improve livelihoods and advance integrated rural social and economic development, says Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) small-scale mining director Pheaga Gad Kwata.

He points out that the sector provides between 13-million and 20-million jobs worldwide and that a further 80-million to 100-million people depend on the sector for their livelihoods.

Kwata says that, in Africa alone, about 3.7- million people are active in small-scale and artisanal mining operations, with about 30-million directly reliant on the sector for their livelihoods.

He highlights that the number of people reliant on the sector in Africa is expected to triple to 90-million by 2020.

“There are currently in South Africa 52 small-scale coal mining companies producing in total about 22-million tons of coal a year,” he points out.

Additionally, Kwata states he is of the view that a competent planning organisation and planning body needs to be created to assist in developing the sector further.

“Such a body will provide proper training and support for mine operators to start effective exploration, and building and operating profitable mines. The body will also build investor confidence and drive investment to generate the start-up capital required for these enterprises,” he avers.

Kwata notes that accessing finance and the lack of basic business skills sets, such as book-keeping and marketing, are impeding the viability of the sector in South Africa.

In 2002, the Small-Scale Mining Directorate programme was established to further progress the work of government’s 1994 National Small-Scale Mining Development Framework, which consisted of a regional committee and a national steering committee of service providers.

The regional committee was tasked with identifying potential small-scale mining projects that had not yet started and those operating illegally, as well as assessing the needs of small-scale miners.

The programme provided several small-scale miners with resources to establish and sustain their operations.

However, Mining Weekly reported in 2003 that, despite the then Department of Minerals and Energy – now the DMR – making about R15.1-million available for the development of small-scale mining operations, these funds assisted in establishing only 20 small-scale mining projects in the country.