It is not inappropriate to review the way things are done at the start of any new year but, when it comes to mining in 2016, review and improvement are absolute necessities.

Where does this troubled industry need to head?

Given the issues currently facing the mining sector under the depressed commodity prices, increased costs and the need for operational safety, it is the view of Navin Singh, the mining and mineral resources manager at South Africa’s State-run Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, that modernisation via mechanisation, automation and ultimately autonomous operations is an inevitable path that needs to be followed.

Should the current crisis in mining be seized upon as an opportunity to move to a better new level?
Read on page 12 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the view that the current crisis in South Africa’s mining industry should be grasped as an opportunity to introduce material change through an effective joint organising body that gets things done within specified timelines.

“We’re in a rut and need to pull ourselves out of it together,” says former President of South Africa and former National Union of Mineworkers luminary Kgalema Motlanthe, who expresses full agreement with modernisation and believes that skills training, new equipment and innovation are critical to the competitive future of mining.

Collective South African mining, which suffered an aggregated after-tax loss of R13-billion in the first half of last year, is likely to continue the loss trend into 2016, as an entity smaller than it was in 1994. It is the worst-performing sector in the economy and improving productivity and cutting costs are going to be the name of the mining game going forward.

In platinum, output per worker has declined by 50%, the real cost of labour in platinum has increased by more than 200% and a far more effective problem-solving relationship with government is necessary to ensure that South Africa leaves the bottom half of the Fraser Institute’s rankings.

The country also needs to deal with its massive unemployment problem and one of the ways that mining is helping to do that is through its backing of City Year, which screens young volunteers of all races for demonstrated commitment to community service, as can be read on page 6 of this edition of Mining Weekly.