Abusiness plan for the African Minerals Skills Initiative (AMSI) will be finalised soon, which will allow the organisation behind the initiative to implement a few initial skills programmes in pilot countries only a few months after the initiative was launched at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA’s) eighth African Development Forum, in Ethiopia, in October last year.

The AMSI, while still in its infancy, is in the outreach and learning phase, which entails consulting and communicating with African governments, universities and training institutions and will enable the AMSI to identify the gaps in Africa’s mineral skills development.

However, for the AMSI to flourish, the founding partners (gold miner AngloGold Ashanti and the UNECA supported by the Australian government’s development agency AusAID) will begin to structure position discipline, planning and timeframes around the initiative, to take it from the conceptual phase to successful execution.

The AMSI, which will target universities and colleges, region- ally and nationally, aims to reduce Africa’s shortages in skills and human resources to enable the continent to sufficiently support, manage and leverage minerals development and growth opportunities, in line with the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), which was adopted by African Union heads of State at the organisation’s 2009 summit.

The shortage of minerals skills is not unique to Africa, as there is also a chronic shortage of several skills globally, AngloGold Ashanti Africa executive VP Richard Duffy tells Mining Weekly.

“However, the mining sector in Africa is booming and it needs skills, but the continent’s educational institutions are currently not in a position to meet the growing demand for such a broad range of skills,” he says.

Skills are most lacking in the technical areas of the minerals sector. In Africa specifically, there is a shortage of vocational skills by artisans such as welders and electricians. Apart from this, administrative, financial and strategic planning skills are also needed, Duffy explains.

Owing to this lack of skills, the AMSI will focus on broad- ening skills development in Africa in relation to the minerals sector, with a holistic view to skills and institution building for the minerals industry, supporting the locally owned delivery of skills and opportunities through selected African mining schools.

“To meet the needs of gov- ernments, whose role is to regulate the mining industry; civil society, which needs to offer an independent view of the sector; and the private sector, which needs to grow and improve, a drastic increase in the number of Africans with minerals skills is needed,” he highlights.

The AMSI is intended to support the realisation of the AMV, which is the central collective expression by African States of what needs to be achieved with respect to governance of the African mining sector and the work to be undertaken at the soon-to-be-developed African Mineral Development Centre (AMDC), says Duffy.

The AMDC is being developed to be the means through which to drive the implementation of the AMV, he notes, adding that it will be used to coordinate the implementation of the AMV and the action plan associated with it. The centre will identify any gaps and areas of need within the member States and network expertise from various sources to tackle these gaps.

The AMDC will coordinate policy research to develop policy strategies to realise the AMV, develop and implement continuous advocacy and disseminate information about the vision. The centre will also monitor and evaluate activities, suggest corrective action in terms of the AMV and provide think-tank capacity for the vision.

The AMSI will be aligned with the cluster that deals with human and institutional capacity development within the AMV.

Traditionally, mineral skills have been defined quite narrowly and generally, that is, as they pertain to engineering and geology. However, as we move into the future, the skills required to deal effectively with an increasingly complex world extend far beyond only engineering and geology.

“This is why it is vital to adopt a broader and more holistic view of the skills needed to effectively grow and administer the minerals industry in Africa. These include strategic planning, law, finance, fiscal policy, the environment, community affairs and human rights,” says Duffy.

The AMSI aims not only to focus on developing skills in and for the private sector, but also to develop skills in and for host governments and communities to enable them to more efficiently administer their own natural resources and their own resources sectors to make these more competitive and likely to deliver a better outcome for all, he explains.

“As part of AngloGold Ashanti’s regional engage- ment strategy, the company has chosen to align with the AMV, as it believes that the AMV articulates a clear vision for the continent and also provides for the role that mining and minerals can play in deliv- ering that vision,” says Duffy.

AngloGold Ashanti has also committed an initial $1-million to the AMSI, which is earmarked for integrating the AMSI into the AMDC. The funding will also ensure that the AMSI is able to develop and flourish going forward.

Duffy believes that the grant will enable the AMSI to deliver early successes but he also hopes that it will attract other partners and potential donors, mining industry part- ners and agencies.

AusAID has also committed A$5-million over the next two years towards the AMSI’s integration into the AMDC.