Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo: Test mining will take place this year at a new emerging platinum mining project in Limpopo.

Creamer: This could be very good news for South Africa that a new underground platinum group metals mine could be developed and start as early as next year. In fact, the test mining will begin this year and it is part of a very rich platinum group metals area in Limpopo. It is part of the Mogalakwena complex, which has delivered fortunes of good platinum metals to South Africa and earned us a lot of foreign exchange. Now, the hope is that this will be further extended, because Mogalakwena has only been an opencast mine and this will take it underground. Platinum at the moment is receiving a lot of attention around the world and there is more and more conviction that demand for platinum is going to be very high.

Kamwendo: Modernisation of South Africa’s mining industry is being viewed as an urgent strategic priority.

Creamer: Minerals Council South Africa has organised a showcase of modernisation to try and alert South Africa to the fact that they have fallen behind when it comes to technology regulations, the use of automation and even beneficiation, which is supposed to be our strong point. We are supposed to add value to metals and minerals in the country. They took nine competitors. In fact, we were the tenth and South Africa did not fare well at all. The other countries are advanced when it comes to modernising their mines. So, this is a pressure they want to put on the mining industry now.

Alert them to this and alert them to the fact that those countries that have modernised and have moved forward have attracted investment. We need to also attract investment to South Africa, so that this will be an ongoing thing with mines at the moment. When new mines go up, they will talk modernisation. Do we match what is happening around the world? Particularly not when it comes to the regulatory environment. So, government also has to be involved, and it was good that all the representatives were there when they did the modernisation showcase. There was government representation, the public sector and private sector all working together. So, I think the hope is that we will modernise our mining sector.

Kamwendo: The use of artificial intelligence is being recommended to stimulate mining exploration in South Africa.

Creamer: Artificial Intelligence (AI). Just about everywhere you go now, you hear AI, artificial intelligence. Everybody is talking about artificial intelligence, and we know that South Africa has fallen behind very badly when it comes to exploration. We are also waiting for the government to introduce the cadastre system. A cadastre system tells you where there are possibilities for you to explore and where you can get mining licences and what is available. But what they were pointing out this week is that you need to know what is in those areas. The cadastre will give you a square area, but what is in that are?

What is below the ground there? They’re saying that even before the government comes out of this cadastre, there should be artificial intelligence done to see what metal and mineral deposits are in those demarcated areas, so that when the cadastre does actually come into operation, people know exactly what metals and minerals are in the ground there. They give the example of Zambia where Americans came into Zambia. They had no experience in mining. They used artificial intelligence to go through 300 years of handwritten documents, and they reached a point where they decided that they should drill. They drilled one hole and they hit the jackpot and now we see there is a $2.3-billion investment going into the new mine that will be the biggest new copper mine in Zambia for ages – all because artificial intelligence showed them where to explore.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing, editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly.