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Martin Creamer
Martin Creamer is Creamer Media Publishing Editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.
First Word
Inspiring new Mandela Mining Precinct bringing everyone to the table to focus on the crisis facing South African mining
By: Martin Creamer 27th April 2018 In this the centenary year of the birth of the great Nelson Mandela, ‘minds for mines’ are being put to work at the inspiring new Mandela Mining Precinct in Carlow Road, Johannesburg, which is going all out to revitalise and modernise South Africa’s high-potential but struggling mining industry.... →
Promise of Vision 2030 for mining new breath of fresh air
By: Martin Creamer 20th April 2018 The announcement by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) that it is engaged in the development of a Vision 2030 for mining is a positive step in the right direction after years of short-term pussyfooting by a department that had fallen behind those of competitive mining jurisdictions in... →
Ultra-intensive investigation needed to expose intentions of brutal Modikwa killers
By: Martin Creamer 13th April 2018 Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has correctly called on police to pull out all the stops in their investigation of the horrific killing of six mineworkers and the injuring of 44 others on April 2, when the bus in which 50 Modikwa Platinum Mine employees were travelling was brutally... →
Still no word from Mantashe on vital exploration promotion
By: Martin Creamer 6th April 2018 There is still no word from new Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe on the promotion of a vital, but still a totally missing element of South Africa’s mining future – exploration. The minerals sector can be restructured but only sustainably if exploration is included, a point which has been... →
Bewilderment as retention of some Mining Charter III tenets surprises on the downside
By: Martin Creamer 30th March 2018 Confidence that a competitive new Mining Charter will replace the unworkable Mining Charter III is still present in some of the highest echelons of the corporate mining world, despite new Minerals Minister Gwede Mantashe saying that not all of the charter’s generally errant and unworkable third... →
Mining companies stepping firmly into the new world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
By: Martin Creamer 23rd March 2018 Mining companies are taking technology advances seriously. Two have stepped firmly into the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and another two have set targets and made proposals that reflect to the credit of the industry. →
The auto world needs to acknowledge that platinum is the ideal metal to exorcise the demons out of diesel
By: Martin Creamer 16th March 2018 Platinum and diesel engines have been joined at the hip, which has created wonderful demand for the locally mined product over decades - and then all hell broke loose when the Volkswagen emission scandal broke in 2015. Since then, diesel has been progressively demonised, to the point of a German... →
Intense effort needed to foster junior culture that revives and transforms mining
By: Martin Creamer 9th March 2018 Government should heed the six-point plan to revive and transform mining; government and labour should see to the structural change that is needed to keep labour-intensive mining on the go; and the 'harvesting ' of mine shafts shows how difficult it is to mine profitably in deep underground... →
Revival hopes are rising as ‘green shoots’ appear, ‘send me’ pleas sound and ‘I want to lend a hand’ sentiment spreads
By: Martin Creamer 2nd March 2018 South Africa is quickly becoming reborn as an investment destination. Spirits are high, revival hopes are rising, green shoots are appearing and people are asking what they can do to help. The late Hugh Masekela’s ‘Send Me’ melody with which President Cyril Ramaphosa signed off his stunning State... →
Sense of urgency needed to revive South Africa’s mining industry, condemn evil past in strongest terms
By: Martin Creamer 23rd February 2018 A sense of urgency is needed to pull South Africa's mining industry back from the brink, set it on a course to success and for the industry to be scathing about condemning its evil past in the strongest of terms. The country has fallen badly behind other mining jurisdictions and the strong... →
Golden opportunity, urgent logistics call, platinum to the fore
By: Martin Creamer 16th February 2018 South Africa has an opportnity in gold, investment to revitalise rail and port infrastructure is seen as urgent, there is a strong prediction that the fuel cell will outdo electric vehicles →
Energy from old mines, partnering communities, exploration awakening
By: Martin Creamer 9th February 2018 Abandoned mines sites can be used as pumped-storage powr schemes; a partnership approach can improve vital relations between mines and communities; and te exploration awakening is pleasing. →
Mining’s ‘flight of rebirth’ urgent, promotion of exploration essential
By: Martin Creamer 2nd February 2018 South African mining industry is in urgent need of a ‘flight of rebirth’. It is buckled and bent and made up of weakened growth prospects, with none of the cut and thrust of rival mining jurisdictions like Australia and Canada. →
Uneconomic mining hurts host countries, wastes national patrimony, lengthens price gloom
By: Martin Creamer 26th January 2018 Continuing to extract metals and minerals when the prices fetched for them are below break-even is contentious. Mining companies are granted rights by host governments who expect them to use what is a national patrimony optimally. →
Good mining policy can bring growth and transformation to a South African economy in need of positive new direction
By: Martin Creamer 19th January 2018 South African mining could experience the same recovery under way in most other mining jurisdictions relatively quickly because its lagging relates overwhelmingly to injurious policy and not to the absence of inherent physical potential. If South Africa’s political leadership delivers... →
South Africa must find ways of resurrecting its most important industry
By: Martin Creamer 15th December 2017 South Africa is obsessed with trying to prolong its old mining assets without setting out determinedly to replace them with new ones. →
Let’s all hold thumbs that the correct new South African leadership emerges in the weeks ahead
By: Martin Creamer 8th December 2017 I happen to call at the same State-owned building weekly and I became very disturbed at one stage at the state of disrepair of its infrastructure and the complete absence of upkeep. Then, just as I was beginning to assume that the escalators had come to a permanent halt and that clean towels... →
Southern Africa’s citizens must stand up for themselves to make sure that the region does not lose out on the next mining boom
By: Martin Creamer 1st December 2017 The citizens of the Southern African region are at last beginning to stand for themselves. Three decades of bullying is abating in Zimbabwe, resistance is building up against the pathetic performance of the government of South Africa and forces are at work to bring an errant government into line... →
Rally behind Ramaphosa’s inspiring ‘New Deal’ speech
By: Martin Creamer 24th November 2017 Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa made several crucial points in his highly significant ‘New Deal’ speech in Soweto last week. Delivered only week’s away from the important 54th National Conference of the African National Congress, the 'New Deal' speech has all the hallmarks of a blueprint for the... →
Holding thumbs for growth-positive High Court outcomes that will keep credit ratings agencies at bay
By: Martin Creamer 17th November 2017 South Africa is in desperate need of economic growth and the sector that can provide that growth, if unfettered, is mining. Make mining competitive, inclusive and transformative and it will deliver an economic momentum across its many economic linkages and float all boats. →
Illegal mining, illegal strikes take massive jobs toll at Cooke gold mine on West Rand
By: Martin Creamer 10th November 2017 The Cooke lesson must be taken to heart and South Africans should stand together to ensure that there is no recurrence of the needless job destruction that has taken place at the West Rand gold mine, where public statements about the dangers of illegal mining were made repeatedly, but the... →
South Africans slow off the mark on the exploration front, where outsiders valiantly lead the way
By: Martin Creamer 3rd November 2017 South Africans have tried to develop a junior mining exploration culture several times over but have not been able to come anywhere close to the aplomb of other mining jurisdictions that have a far stronger geological appetite. The many junior mining companies listed in Canada, Australia and on... →
Without exploration for new orebodies, South African mining will end its invaluable contribution to the South African economy
By: Martin Creamer 27th October 2017 South Africa needs to pretend it is starting again at the bottom end of the mineral resources value curve and create a vision for exploration. Without exploration, it is just a matter of time before the mining lights go out. →
A century and a half later, major mining opportunities continue to beckon
By: Martin Creamer 20th October 2017 With this year marking the 150th anniversary of South Africa’s diamond business, one would imagine that the country has been completely explored and that the country should be looking to an end being brought to this pioneering industry. But this is not so. In an interview with Mining Weekly, the... →
Groundswell of commitment building up to ensure that mining is allowed to boost the South African economy
By: Martin Creamer 13th October 2017 Last week’s Joburg Indaba proved a robust conference. Emanating from it were divergent opinions about the best way to deal with an errant Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) which has caused a myriad of distractions. Had proper DMR leadership been put in place, the South African economy would... →
Clear up the mine rehab conundrum, allow unused closure funds to roll over, make mine closure certificates worth the paper they’re written on
By: Martin Creamer 6th October 2017 South Africa seems hell-bent on reinventing the wheel when it comes to the funding of mine rehabilitation and mine closure. One would swear South Africa is the world’s only mining jurisdiction and can learn nothing at all from other jurisdictions, some with highly sensitive environments. →
Out-on-a-limb Minerals Minister forced to knuckle under on Mining Charter III utterances
By: Martin Creamer 22nd September 2017 Mining Charter Three has probably been more heavily criticised than any piece of mining legislation. Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, who went out on a limb like no other Mineral Resources Minister before him to gazette the third charter iteration without prior consultation, quickly... →
All South Africans need to work together to grow and transform mining
By: Martin Creamer 15th September 2017 Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane makes sure he attends foreign mining conferences but fails to engage stakeholders at home on the realities of his Mining Charter Three, which is a great pity. Unfortunately, he was not challenged at the LatAm Mining Cumbre in Santiago, but thankfully his... →
Govt should be called to account for turning blind eye to illegal infiltration of operating mines
By: Martin Creamer 8th September 2017 The private sector has done well to secure legal leverage over the errant Mineral Resources Ministry, which has painted itself into a corner by trying to impose the unworkable Mining Charter Three and the ill-feted freeze on the transfer of mineral right ownership. The legal leverage that is... →
South Africa Inc has rare opportunity to seize moment to save battered platinum patrimony
By: Martin Creamer 1st September 2017 South Africa, through diamond company De Beers, invested heavily in the marketing of diamonds. The slogan ‘A Diamond is Forever’, according to Advertising Age, it is the most recognised slogan of the 20th century, with 90% of all Americans knowing it, with De Beers having used it since 1948. But... →
End-to-end modernisation needed to bring mining up to speed
By: Martin Creamer 25th August 2017 Fingers are being crossed that the new Mining Precinct, in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, will safeguard the future of South Africa’s mining industry through developing new people-centred technology and techniques that prepare mines for modern mining methods. Many are hoping that the Mining... →
Sassy mining companies are seizing the new-technology moment to cut costs
By: Martin Creamer 18th August 2017 Mining companies have a great opportunity to implement technology that has matured in the hands of other industries. This maturation is now providing mining with a chance to slash costs, which quick-footed companies are taking up. Increasingly, technical personnel are confiding to Mining Weekly... →
Spare a thought for the people of South Africa, Mr Minister, and move aside as fast as you can
By: Martin Creamer 11th August 2017 It was only a matter of time before calls would be made for the sacking of Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, who is putting South Africa’s defining industry under more threat by the day. As it is mineworkers who are feeling the brunt of job loss, it is fitting that National Union of... →
Mining needs to be put back on an even keel as fast as possible
By: Martin Creamer 4th August 2017 Very telling were the comments of Deputy Minerals Minister Godfrey Oliphant during last week’s radio interview with 702 morning host Xolani Gwala. During the interview, the experienced Deputy Minister made no bones about his discomfort at not being consulted on Mineral Resources Minister... →
Gazette-happy Minerals Minister painting himself into a corner
By: Martin Creamer 28th July 2017 One week Minerals Minister Mosebenzi Zwane signs a written undertaking that neither he nor his Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) will apply or implement his controversial Mining Charter Three gazetting and the next he pulls the carpet from under the underlying purpose of his signed agreement... →
Minerals Ministry, DMR playing with fire, destroying industry, opening way for rampant illegal mining
By: Martin Creamer 21st July 2017 In its current poor state, mining and the companies that depend on it are likely to disappoint the Treasury when it comes to next paying tax. What the Minerals Ministry and its errant Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) have failed to recognise in gazetting Mining Charter Three is that a... →
What the Minerals Ministry should be focusing on to ensure mining’s competitiveness
By: Martin Creamer 14th July 2017 What South Africa’s Mineral Resources Ministry and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has come up with for mining so far is simply unsustainable. It is destructive rather than constructive and simply cannot last. When the penny drops with this administration or the next, a constructive... →
Minerals Ministry, DMR crushing South Africa’s mining sector, depriving current citizens, future generations of economic wellbeing
By: Martin Creamer 7th July 2017 Fourteen years ago, I attended a sod turning ceremony at a manganese project in South Africa’s Northern Cape. The project was made possible by a R1.7-billion investment by foreigners. →
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