A complete step change in the current mining business model in South Africa is required for the industry to survive in future, a Deloitte in Conversation discussion concluded. Read on page 14 of this edition of Mining Weekly of commentators saying that innovation is necessary to ensure sustainable growth as commodity prices lower, mining conditions toughen, input costs rise and society and governments expect more. Step change rather than incremental change is required with mining companies adopting an entirely new design para- digm that leverages new information, mining and energy technologies to help them increase their value. Commentators believe it is possible to achieve radical performance improvement breakthroughs, that are not possible on an incremental basis, by integrating mining, energy and information technologies, such as simulation modelling, robotics and energy storage, for example, into mine and process design in a way that reduces energy and capital intensity while increasing mining intensity. Mining companies were urged to prepare for the realities of the new operations and to enter into alliances, as the pooling of resources improves the odds of identifying innovative breakthroughs capable of benefiting all industry players.

At the Swedish mining initiative conference in Pretoria, the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems director Declan Vogt said mines needed to run like factories to become more profitable in the future. Read on page 24 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Vogt emphasising that mechanisation in mining should be systematic and noting that mechanisation had failed where a systematic element was missing. Vogt emphasised that careful thought had to go into mine design and operations to reduce the impact of seismicity, which grew in intensity with depth. With mineworkers at the face only a third of the time, precious metals mines were under profit pressure, which made modernisation essential. People had to be removed from working areas for safety reasons, dilution had to be reduced and product value needed to be increased through greater efficiency.

The number of mineworkers employed in gold mining and platinum mining in South Africa is expected to decline by about 8% a year in the next two years mainly through natural attrition and mineworker recruitment company Teba Limited is not expecting to do any recruiting for the next year to 18 months. Read on page 9 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Teba CEO Dr Graham Herbert expressing fear of a potential strike in the gold-mining sector next year as a result of the perception among mineworkers that their platinum counterparts have done very well out of their five-months strike on the platinum belt. This is creating concern that gold mineworkers may go out on strike next year in an attempt to benefit in the same way as they perceive platinum workers to have benefited from prolonged strike action.