Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Xolani Gwala speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Gwala: Mineworkers – like sisters in the popular dance song – are ‘doin’ it for themselves’. They are establishing their very own FET college.

Creamer: We have had this very low profile by the Mineworkers Investment Trust (MIT).  That was, of course, established 18-years ago by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which has got 300 000 members.  There was R3-million worth of seed money was put into the mining investment company and over the years this MIT has now gathered for itself R368-million.

It has been doing a lot of things in the field of education, but one of the most exciting now is that mineworkers are pulling themselves up from their own bootstraps.  They have two campuses both under the name of the Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre, one in Midrand and one in Yeoville. 

They got partial further education and training (FET) status last year and this year they will get full accreditation as an FET college.  What they want to do is to allow their own members to come through free of charge.  Anyone who is a NUM member can come through this FET college so that they can enhance their value to their employer as employees.  It is quite an exciting thing for mineworkers themselves to do. 

That is not the only thing, they have also got the JB Marks Education Trust Fund.  They have given out about 5 000 bursaries and they’ve had quite a few graduates going into mining, energy and construction.  Also, they’ve got the Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA), all beneficiaries of this MIT, which has kept quite a low profile. 

We can see that when mineworkers get retrenched, the MDA tries to create entrepreneurship to get more jobs around the place and one of the projects they are doing in Mpumalanga involves marula oil, which they export into the US.  One wouldn’t imagine that it comes from the mineworker base, but this is what is happening.

Gwala: This one is quite interesting. South African law provides for mining companies to close mines, mothball shafts and generally downsize when times are tough.  Explain this to me.

Creamer: We’ve got this huge row over Amplats, which says its closing two mines, mothballing four shafts, selling a mine and putting 14 000 jobs at risk, although the job side is saying they will place 4 600 of these in the group and also offer others employment of a non-mining kind. 

But, be that as it may, there is a law and it is Section 102 of the MPRDA, which we know is the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, and also Section 52.  They provide for downsizing.  A mining right holder is entitled to apply for the change to his mining work programme (MWP) when there are downturns in the price of the mineral or factors, which make mining in a certain way or at a certain pace unfeasible. 

We saw that you cannot just mine flat out when the market is not taking the product.  Norilsk, the Russians, tried to do that with their nickel mine and ended up with this huge stockpile of palladium, which just knocked the price of palladium.  It is only unravelling itself now.  You know, business demands that there are times in the cyclical business where you might have a MWP that you’ve arranged with the government that goes over 30 to 40 years and you might have a social labour plan, but you can’t always work it at the pace that you said you would. 

Maybe overall you will do that but there is certain times when you’ve got to pull in your horns and the law actually allows for it.  We saw in September 2011 Central Rand Gold, listed in Johannesburg and London, they mined beneath us here.  They had flooding risks and they had not mined for six months. 

The Minister went over, with all the media cameras, and she delivered termination of the mining licence to them.  Of course, they just ran across to the courts and had an urgent application.  The Minister then agreed to a temporary suspension of her cancellation.  They then took it further to the High Court for review and the Minister never even opposed it.  So this is the only precedent we’ve had and where the Minister, really backed off.  

We can see that there is wisdom in the Act, that the Minister, when she gets this application to downscale, she has also got to act reasonably in terms of Section 102.  I think the companies, and we see many of them not only Amplats, have pulled in their horns and curtailed their activities, but it’s only Anglo American Platinum that has caused such a row.

Gwala: Eskom will start building a wind farm in April.

Creamer: Eskom got that money for Medupi, the World Bank was involved with that loan.  One of its pleas was that Eskom becomes less coal weighted and gets into renewable energy.  We see Eskom doing that now setting up a first wind farm.  Construction will begin in April, 300 km north of Cape Town. 

They are also talking about that concentrated solar power project, also part of this engagement it has with the World Bank for finance.  Some of the funding is at a very good rate.  We see the Clean Technology Fund, which is overseen by the World Bank, that means that you can get 40-years of loan at an interest that is a fraction of the percent, like 0,25 %. 

So, some of the loans coming through encouraging renewable energy. Eskom doing its part, putting up a wind farm, 300 km north of Cape Town, and also planning another 100 MW. Moderately sized at this point and it is also against the background of the government, the Department of Energy, now working on R47-billion worth of renewable energy. 

That is 1 400 MW, 28 independent power producers have got a commitment from Eskom that Eskom will buy that power.  You can see that Eskom is playing the game of renewable energy.

Even tough 90% of our electricity is still coming from coal, you’ve got to allow for a bridging of the gap, between when we start coming off coal, which is still going to be a long time, towards getting this renewable energy that doesn’t effect the climate as much as they say coal does.

Gwala: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, he’ll be back with us at the same time next week.