Junior miners face greater challenges in current economic climate
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The global economic slowdown has had a significant impact on the local junior mining industry, Wesizwe Platinum projects executive Jacob Mothomogolo says, noting that it has resulted in low demand, low recoveries, rising input costs and companies losing market share and value.
Speaking at the Junior Indaba, in Johannesburg, this week, he added that the local mining industry was faced with “huge and integrated complex” challenges, including “socioeconomic demands the miners were constantly faced with ever-rising wage increases and increasing regulatory reforms”.
This, Mothomoglo said, required the industry to take drastic steps to ensure its resilience in a tough market, including job shedding.
He added that, with only 50% of platinum group metals project reserves having been commissioned since 2007, mostly in the junior space, and with overall capital demand for $14.3-billion to bring 185-million ounces of platinum group metals into production before 2030, junior miners were facing “huge competition for project development capital”, globally and in South Africa.
To survive in the current economic climate, Wesizwe had approached the international market for opportunities and price competitiveness. “We are also investigating different processes, mining models and philosophies and reviewing the baseline assumptions of the initial ten years of contract mining,” he noted.
“We will do these exercises every 12 months. We have already completed one of those exercises. Our project values will continually be assessed,” Mothomogolo noted.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Developed to exceed the latest EN 15964 standards for police breathalysers proving that it will remain accurate and reliable for many years to come.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
