Create critical youth jobs. Empower communities. Transform SA.
Join trailblazing businesses like Anglo American Platinum, South 32 and Goldfields who are changing the game by integrating YES into their ESG strategies and social and labour plans (SLPs).
Say YES today and gain B-BBEE levels.
The Youth Employment Service (YES), a business-led youth employment programme, is affecting broad-based change across sectors, provinces, and the country. YES addresses the country’s youth unemployment crisis by empowering businesses to create jobs for our unemployed youth. We’re youth-focused and business-led. In just four years, YES has collaborated with over 2,200 businesses and created 112,334 job opportunities with no government funding, pouring an estimated R6 billion worth of youth salaries into communities and the economy.
Businesses can choose to place youth within their own structures or within a YES host partner through the turnkey solution.
With 20 vetted host partners across the country, YES offers an effective way for companies to uplift communities in high-impact sectors like healthcare, education, and early childhood development, or future-facing sectors like digital, ICT, and green economies. YES plays a vital role by providing work experiences in community-based NPOs and small businesses, enabling youth to reinvest their earnings into local economies. This feeds into poverty eradication and upliftment of communities beyond the mines these towns surround.
ESG strategies and reporting are crucial to your business’ success, and YES provides an opportunity to develop youth jobs that correspond with these goals, making a difference in the lives of South African youth and communities.
This model integrates seamlessly with the Local Economic Development (LED) and Human Resource Development elements of the SLP.
Businesses, in collaboration with YES, can create economic success, foster a fairer society, and act as change agents, all while reaching their ESG goals.
Uplift communities. Capacitate underresourced sectors. Discover hidden gems.
Contact: Tel: 087 330 0084
Email: corporatesupport@yes4youth.co.za
www.yes4youth.co.za
Songatech was established in 2013 by a group of engineers because of the gap in the market for local owned and managed companies in South Africa and Africa for the supply and services of mineral processing products and services. The company is currently owned and managed by experienced engineers who understand the challenges of the Mining Industry. As such, the company has remained relevant to its vision of being the preferred supplier of high quality products and services. The company has over the years realised its mission of supplying high quality products and services to the Mining Industry in an effort to increase wealth and to triple customer bottomline.
The global economy is on the brink of a recess where there are very few green field projects thus creating fewer opportunities and limited potential for growth and expansion. The Brown Field Projects which are existing are under immense pressure to make profits and growth. As a consequence the cost of operation has become excessively high, affecting price of procured services and products. This constantly creates a situation of continuous requests for low cost / low price products which compromise the product quality. To combat this impact, we have had to be very agile and innovative in order to remain supplying products and services of the highest quality to our clients thereby ensuring that their operations stay afloat. How do you plan to overcome these challenges?
Songatech is built on the basis of low-cost operations through innovative methods of manufacturing and production of high quality products and services. We have hired the best employees in various fields of technical expertise such as Engineering, Manufacturing, SHEQ, Supply Chain Management and Business Administration.
We are a very orientated company in the areas of research and development and social economic development. We are cautious of global economics and political trends that affect trading stability and fiscal policies which in turn influence markets and trading trends. Where our customers are affected, we initiate such initiatives within a short space/period of time to nullify adverse effects and cushion the situation.
I started Songatech due to the lack of locally owned companies in the mining industry, with a specific focus on mineral processing products and services. The dispensation amalgamated and created a hostile environment, thus creating lack of economic development for local companies in the said industry. The resultant has been for Africa to fail to realise economic development at the expense of Europe, Asia and America. Songatech has a potential to grow to a large corporate multibillion organisation which will create a huge impact on the African Continent. The company has recently put up a 100m rand factory and is in the process of putting up a 500m rand factory. We are definitely looking for new partnerships around the globe to enable exponential growth and expansion. The company has a non-discriminatory policy and is looking forward to being a global market player. The government of South Africa has already adopted us through their industrial funding mechanisms in an effort to grow the organisation and create much needed employment in the current constraint and slow growing economy.
I want to impact people’s lives by creation of lateral wealth to ensure a sustainable universe of love and peace for people
coming from various walks of life, thus fulfilling the ideology of global citizen, started by high profile and influential people around the globe. Furthermore, to participate on the emancipation of a better African economy and realisation of Ubuntu for everyone around the globe.
The company has gone through various funding mechanisms over the years, including amongst others boot strapping, family and friends, private institution, government funds and grants.
I am a go getter by nature, through the grooming of life and economic participation by my grandmother who was a farmer that used to trade vegetation and livestock, my parents who were employed as educators by the Department of Education in South Africa. I am very intuitive and persuasive, having studied, qualified and achieved professionalism in the fields of engineering, business management and administration, quality control and assurance, international trade, thus holding
qualifications of metallurgical engineering degree, business management honours, business administration honours, sales & marketing, international trading terms, quality assurance, legal liability, Master of Business Administration. All enabling me as an individual to run the business effectively, efficiently, profitably, sustainably, creatively, innovatively, successfully and compliant to laws. My personal motto is 100% success, which is very much aligned with the company’s motto (Putting Technology Together). The Company, through its motto remains very relevant and echos a leading part on the 4th Industrial Revolution, which seeks to change or improve business operations and systems.
The organisation is owned and managed by people from historical disadvantaged population groups with limited access to opportunities and economic development. As a consequence of the preceding statement, the company has created a culture to celebrate every opportunity regardless of size, quantity/quality and geographical location. Our employees and host communities are at the core/key of our reward system, in an effort to empower, invest, redress and create a better economy and future for all that share in the universe. Furthermore, we have and we will continue to endeavour on programmes to empower and create value for our stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, customers, strategic employment partners, JV partners, financing institutions, host communities, current and future investors and the global market.
Songatech (Pty) Ltd
Address: 6 Flamink road, Alrode, Alberton South Ext 5, 1451
Email: admin@songatech.co.za
Website: www.songatech.co.za
Tel: 010 474 1272
Cell: 083 597 3427
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Welcome to the first edition of Sector, the mining magazine with a difference!
During this, our 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and a world in the grip of climate change, the mining industry is in a state of change and transition not seen since the steam-driven industrial revolution of almost 200 years ago and the next industrial revolution that followed the introduction of electricity. As a mining magazine with a difference, it is our mission to reflect this latest change and transition in the industry and to look ahead at the opportunities and challenges that await. We trust that you will join us on this exciting journey of innovation and change.
It is against this background that in this very first edition of Sector we bring you thought-provoking articles ranging from digitalisation in mining to the decarbonising green transition, the great copper comeback to feed a hungry electric vehicle (EV) industry, and to the ever-growing role women are fulfilling in mining.
As companies transition to smart procurement after a period of many challenges in the supply chain environment, we find that South African mining companies are progressing well in this respect. In another article we probe the credentials of lithium as a critical battery metal widely used in electric vehicles (EVs) among other things, with demand spiralling. We also look at where South Africa stands in respect of rare earth minerals – another critical component of the drive to electrification. Another topic that we tackle is the shortage of sought-after technical mining skills in the context of all of this change.
And lastly, but by far not least, we look at the current position of junior and emerging miners, how deep-sea floor bed mining is being blocked due to environmental concerns, and we bring you an-depth interview on the state of South African mining with Roger Baxter who stepped down as CEO of the Minerals Council South Africa this year. Also, be sure not to miss our regular section under the banner of Headgear which brings you news snippets and developments from the world of mining.
I trust that you, our readers and advertisers alike, will enjoy these articles and find value in them. So, on that note, forward with the transition and the exciting era of the 4IR!
The EditorInnovative chemistry for sustainable mining solutions.
A GLOBAL LEADER IN THE FORMULATION, MANUFACTURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF CONCRETE ADMIXTURES.
» Backfill
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The company’s team of highly- skilled technicians are fully trained in the repair & maintenance of variety of internationally branded machines.
In particular we offer expert services in the repair of components for New Holland Flameproof Tractors as well as Clark & Spicer.
MINING SOLUTIONS
PROCESSING
PLANT SOLUTIONS
CUSTOM BUILD SOLUTIONS
HENCON EVY
In the mining industry (gold, platinum, diamonds, chrome, coal, etc.) vacuumation is used to recover precious material from spillages around conveyor belts, trenches, shaft bottoms, sumps, ore passes and feed back into production. Further, these units are also used for sweeping & vamping, fines recovery (Madala sites), clearing of settling dams and confined areas. Vacuumation is integrated with tunnel borers, shaft sinking cutters and continuous miners for the purpose of efficiently transferring material.
These units are custom designed and robust built to withstand the harsh conditions that the mining industry has to offer.
Products:
• Skid mounted
• Rail mounted
• Rubber wheeled
• Low profile cassette
• Centralised vacuum system
• Gravity discharge collectors
• Teardrop collector
• Continuous discharge collectors
Vacuumation is used to recover production losses due to inefficiencies found in plants. This refers to conveyor belt spillages, production spillages, sump and pit spillage control, dust buildup on horizontal surfaces, general housekeeping, losses by road transport and impact due to weather conditions. Vacuum sweeping of plant roads and cemented surfaces. The valuable material is recovered and reintroduced back into production.
The process of transferring material using vacuumation is spillage- and dust-free in contrast to other commonly used methods.
Products:
• Stationary
• Mobile
• Truck-mounted
• Centralised vacuum system
• Gravity discharge collectors
• Continuous discharge collectors
• High efficiency cyclones
• Reverse-pulse filter/collector
Transferring of material in processing plants. Moisture removal during material transfer. Conveyor belt vacuum nozzle on return idler. Custom designed vacuum solutions to client needs.
Products:
• Belt vacuum nozzle
• Transfer system
• Road sweeping trucks
• Custom solutions
“Valuable material is lost in processing. Let vacuumation recapture these losses and return them back into production.”
M84 Geotech is a South African company which was established in 2014 in a mining town of Mokopane in Limpopo province. The company is a geohazards mitigation and rope access company specializing in rockfall protection, rockfall barriers, rock scaling, slope stabilization and slope monitors installations for open pit mines.
The beginning was not as clear as it is now because all we wanted was just to trade with the mine to make a living. We just took any opportunity which came along at the time until we settled as a geotechnical contractor for open pit mines.
For us to stand a chance of being a successful business, we had to change our way of doing things and the shift from being a middleman to being the main man. As a supplier we were just a middleman with not much control on our costs and profits margins. The decision was made that we are going to be a specialist and be valuable to
the mine. We took 2 guys to train for rope access and sourced other two experienced rope technicians to make up our first team as geohazards mitigation and rope access company. In 2018 we got our first working at height project at Mogalakwena mine to do rock scaling on a high wall and since then we have been building ourselves up as the next best alternative and partner when it comes to rockfall protection, rockfall barriers, slope stabilization and rock scaling for open pits mines.
As a company we pride ourselves in having 100% completion rate on every project we have done and also keeping a 100% safety record on-site. This is a big deal for us because we do high risk and high priority projects and that’s why we say, “Safety is Our Priority.”
The systems we use to keep open pit operations safe from rockfall hazards and slope failure are one of the best in the market and with us as a contractor you are guaranteed a professional service and safest installation. The use of rope access techniques makes it possible for
us to install the systems with minimum interruption to production. We can access high areas using the safest methods while keeping your miners and equipment safe from possible rockfall hazards. We are an accredited member of the IWH which means we follow the industry standards when executing our work and as a company we are also trained as an installer of Geobrugg systems which is a global leader in high tensile steel wire mesh.
Now that we have found a niche, our goal is to build our brand to be associated with what we do. We want to be a leader in the field of geohazards mitigation and rockfall protection systems in the mining sector and other related fields. We want to partner with the mining companies to protect their miners and equipment from rockfall hazards in open pit operations as well as underground mining.
M84 Geotech is the go-to contractor when it comes to slope stabilization, rockfall protection, rockfall barriers, rock scaling, devegetation on high walls and slope monitoring installation. We are well experienced when it comes to managing high pressure and high-risk projects with high level of quality and safety.
As a project-oriented company, we have learned a thing or two on delivering projects successfully with the triple constraint of project management well managed. Some of the projects we have competed successfully include: •
Rock scaling involves moving loose rocks on open pit mine high walls to avoid them free falling to the foot of the slope. We have moved boulders on high walls to protect miners and equipment. Rope access techniques and blasting are used to remove boulders and rocks on high walls.
If not controlled, vegetation on open pit high walls can make it difficult for the geotech team
to monitor slopes. Using rope access techniques, vegetation can be removed or trimmed to keep high wall clear of distractions.
Prisms are installed on high walls to monitor any movement on the slope. No production interference is needed because we do the work while suspended on ropes.
Depending on the needs or scope from the client, we have few systems which we use to protect open pit mines against rockfall hazards. The systems include drape mesh or net, pinned system, rockfall attenuator and rockfall barriers. Our team will provide the relevant solution according to your needs and conditions of your site. We are one of the trusted companies when it comes to installation of high wall support systems.
•
Whether on the surface or on high wall, we have the expertise to drill and installing anchors.
Tel: 015 023 1400 072 2038 405
Email: info@m84geotech.co.za
Website: www.m84geotech.co.za
Instagram: m84_geotech.co.za
LinkedIn: M84 Geotech
Address:
Mokopane: 11 Sussex Street, Industrial, Mokopane, 0601
Polokwane: 4 Rhodesdrift Street, Suite 3
Rhodesdrift Office Park, Bendor
Polokwane, 0699
072 2038 405
info@m84geotech.co.za
MOKOPANE BRANCH:
11 Sussex Street, Industrial Mokopane, Mokopane 0601
POLOKWANE BRANCH:
4 RhodesDrift Street, Suite 3 RhodesDrift Office Park, Bendor Polokwane
One of the things which makes us stand out among our competitors is that we do not cut corners when it comes to our installation. The reason being that we want to make sure that each step of the installation is followed as per the manufacture’s instruction to guarantee the strength and safety of the solution. We are in the business of eliminating or minimizing rockfall hazards in the mining and civil industries and our priority is to keep our clients at easy by providing them with solutions which will guarantee safety for their miners and equipment. The high tensile steel we use is one of its kind and we work hand in hand with the manufacture to provide the right systems as per the clients’ requirement and conditions on the site. Whether you want to keep your high walls safe from free falling rocks or want to support your slope, we have the solution for you.
The are other contractors who do what we do but there is none like M84 Geotech. We are not just another geotechnical contractor but we are a solution driven company with an excellent record in installation of geohazards solutions, rock scaling, slope monitors and safety standards. As a company our priority is not just about making money but the safety of the people who are exposed to rockfall hazards in open pit mines. So, when you choose to partner with us you are choosing:
• A specialist. We are the best at what we do but we treat each project like it’s our first so that we do not lose the learning spirit.
• Trained. As a company we have been trained at Geobrugg which is the leading manufacture of high tensile steel in the world. We have the theory and practical knowledge of the systems we provide. Our technicians are not only experienced but trained to keep your high walls safe.
• Safety Record. At M84 Geotech, safety is our priority and we prioritize it in every project we do. Our motto is that we do not do it until we find the safest way to do. That’s how we manage to keep a 100% safety record on-site.
• Project Skills. We have gained some valuable knowledge and skills from the projects we have successfully completed in the past and that helps us in managing difficult projects.
• Compliance & Competence. We are fully compliant when it comes to safety standards for site compliance such as safety files and the required trainings. We have competence in compiling risk assessments for each site and doing site declarations.
Writing in Business Day, Clarence Tshitereke, communications director for Africa’s Critical Minerals Summit, says as the world transitions from coal and
hydrocarbons to green energy solutions, critical minerals have taken on a new salience. The demand for these minerals is compounded by it only being available in small quantities. Availability and access to critical minerals have come to underpin countries’ national security. Through strategic policy positioning the
SA government must lead its critical minerals sector to seize opportunities of the clean energy revolution, requiring that it urgently sets out a vision to grow and strategically position its critical minerals sector. This is critical because SA remains pre-eminently a mining nation with rich geological reserves,
established expertise in extracting minerals, and a reliable track record as a supplier of minerals.
Critical minerals are metals that are central to the sustainability of hi-tech sectors and devices, for personal and commercial use. Most industrialised countries do not have such critical mineral endowments and are therefore dependent on imports.
A general concern is that countries with critical minerals may use control of such resources as leverage on other issues. To mitigate their vulnerabilities from potential supply disruptions, developed countries have formulated national critical mineral strategies, focusing primarily on reducing national vulnerability to disruption to ensure sustainability of their advanced technologies and industrial bases. Due to these realities SA urgently needs a national critical minerals strategy to enhance international trade and co-operation in domestic exploration investments regarding critical minerals.
Nyasha Nyaungwa of Reuters reports that Japan recently signed an agreement with Namibia to jointly explore for rare earth minerals as part of its broader plan to develop supply chains for cobalt and other minerals used in making electric vehicle batteries. The Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) will collaborate with Namibia’s stateowned mining firm Epangelo, a Namibia mines and energy ministry official said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony in Windhoek.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s minister for economy, trade and industry was visiting five countries with significant
deposits of rare earths, including Namibia, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo to try to build an African supply chain of critical minerals. Japan, like other advanced economies, is seeking to be less reliant on China, which has dominated supplies of battery minerals.
In a recent article in the Mail & Guardian, Sikho Luthango, a Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung programme manager, writes that new exploration and mining projects will require mining licences but it is becoming increasingly difficult to open new mines across the world, including in South Africa, without community buy-in. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe announced in January an exploration campaign to open mine sites in Limpopo, North West and Northern Cape, which have been identified as a “new mining belt” for transitional minerals. Transitional minerals are key to the energy, mobility and digital transition and include platinum group minerals (PGMs), lithium, cobalt and copper.
South Africa is endowed with PGMs and manganese. Many Industrialised states have identified these minerals as “critical” and a new rush for cooperation and business with many mineral-rich states is underway especially in light of the 2015 climate change Paris Agreement.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to open new mines across the world, including in South Africa, without community buy-in. This is largely because it is no longer enough to convince people of the social benefits of mining such as jobs and “development”. Instead, people are
increasingly weighing potential social benefits with the negative environmental impacts of mining, particularly in the context of climate change and a just transition.
It becomes even more difficult for companies to justify mining when there have been no material benefits for communities. This has major implications for minerals critical for many industrial states’ energy and mobility transitions. One can argue that the “social licence to operate” — as a means to manage social tensions and contestations against mining — no longer captures the reality on the ground. Instead, the Sustainable Licence to Operate (SDLO) better captures these shifts. There is also an increasing awareness of people’s rights as it relates to the environment, writes Luthango.
A Reuters report published by Business Report, says industry data shows that South Africa’s mining output has fallen further below pre-pandemic levels due to persistent electricity outages and rail disruptions, threatening dividend payouts to investors. South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of platinum and chrome and a leading producer of gold and diamonds. But the industry has been shrinking for years as ore grades decline and output was disrupted in 2020 when Covid-19 lockdowns impacted operations.
Now severe power cuts since the end of 2022 are affecting output, while state-owned freight rail firm Transnet is struggling to haul minerals to port due to cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure. As a result, mine output and sales for the 12 months to May 2023 were down 4.6% and 4.2%, respectively, compared to the same period a year earlier, new data
from the Minerals Council of South Africa showed. Output in May was down 7.8% from pre-pandemic levels, the council’s chief economist Henk Langenhoven said. “It’s been very hard to get back to 2019 production levels.
We’re really struggling,” Langenhoven said. “Although we sort of recovered at the beginning of 2021, we’ve faltered since then.” South Africa produces 70-75% of mined platinum supply, for example, and lower production in the country has helped spur a surge in the price of the metal. Diversified miner Sibanye-Stillwater has said South Africa’s platinum group metal (PGM) output could decline by as much as 20% this year as erratic power supplies hit processing capacity.
In a report in Miningmx.com David McKay writes Glencore had no interest in separately listing its coal business should a plan to combine it with Teck’s steelmaking coal business (EVR) fail. In June, Glencore said it had offered to buy EVR whilst also keeping a broader offer to buy Teck on the table. The latter is thought to be a non-starter as Teck’s controlling shareholder Norman Keevil doesn’t support it, but discussions continue on the sale of EVR. If acquired,
Glencore would first reduce debt and about a year later separately list it. Glencore is almost unique among diversified mining companies in having decided to keep thermal coal mines. While Anglo American and Rio Tinto have exited coal mining, Glencore opted to run down the resources – a strategy that still attracts sizeable opposition. At its last annual general meeting, 30% of shareholders did not support its climate plan. Gary Nagle, CEO, Glencore said that in discussions with shareholders there was significant
support for spinning out coal if combined with Teck because in that instance the overall business would be stronger with a wider geographic spread and higher quality assets. Asked for his views of prospects for coal, Nagle said there was not any new capital allocations for new high quality steam coal mines while demand remained “very good” with new customers developed in Europe. “We have seen 85 million tons (of demand) in Europe last year and it will continue to import coal,” he said.
Nagle added: “It still is the cheapest form of baseload power especially for developing nations.”
According to a report in Construction World, BME, a member of the Omnia group, is leading the charge in creating a future where the mining sector offers attractive and rewarding career paths for women. By empowering women and providing them with abundant
opportunities, BME is contributing to equality and progression in the sector. “Mining has seen significant progress in recent years thanks to the remarkable efforts and resilience of women in this sector,” said BME Managing Director Ralf Hennecke. “Their dedication, skills and determination have paved the way for meaningful change and transformation.”
According to the Minerals Council of South Africa, the number of women employed in the mining industry has risen from around 11,400 in 2002 to almost 72,200 in 2023. Women make up 15% of the country’s mining labour force of about 475,000 people. On South Africa’s National Women’s Day on 9 August, the company saluted these trailblazers – who inspire further advancements in gender equality within the industry, said Hennecke. There are highly-skilled and qualified women throughout the business, he said, including senior levels of operation and management – with roles ranging from technical and engineering to law and safety. While the day is part of South Africa’s heritage, BME applies these principles across all its global territories. Among the women in senior roles are Dr Rakhi Pathak, BME’s Senior Product Manager
for AN Products, Equipment and Services (Australia) and Nelisile Thanjekwayo, BME’s Head of Legal.
Each had their own inspirational message to offer women working in the sector.
A Miningmx.com report by David McKay recently broke the news that Glencore was to buy 100% of the MARA Project, a copper and gold brownfields prospect in Argentina.
South Africa’s Gold Fields bid for the project last year. The Swiss miner and commodities trader will pay $475m in cash to buy 56.25% in MARA representing shares it doesn’t already own. The seller, Pan American, bought the asset as part of the purchase of Yamana Gold last year for which Gold Fields bid $6.7bn. In addition to the cash payment, Glencore has also granted Pan American a 0.75% net smelter return as part of the deal consideration. The project was first formed through the integration of the Minera Alumbrera plant and mining infrastructure and Agua Rica project in a joint venture between Yamana, Glencore and Newmont Corp., in 2020.
Glencore bought Newmont’s 18.75% stake in October last year taking its shareholding to 43.75%. Pan American completed the takeover of Yamana in March. The project has proven and probable mineral reserves of 5.4 million tons of copper and 7.4 million ounces of gold. Mineral reserves will support mining for 27 years, according to estimates.
Glencore said the MARA project ranked as “one of the lowest capital intensive copper projects in the world today” owing to existing and well maintained
infrastructure including the Alumbrera processing plant.
Melanie Burton reports in Business Day that Rio Tinto was looking at potential bolt-on lithium acquisitions. Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm is quoted as saying that the global miner is focused on small, bolt-on acquisitions to shape its portfolio and is looking at a number of potential lithium acquisitions but added the sector remains quite hot. The boss of the world’s biggest iron ore producer has said that he wants Rio Tinto to focus on being the world’s best operator rather than conducting huge buyouts that would change the nature of the company and divert the focus of the
group. The Australian miner has already announced several small partnerships and deals this year, including the purchase of a 57.74% stake in the Agua de la Falda copper project in Chile. Earlier in July, Rio Tinto agreed to buy a 15% stake in Australia’s Sovereign Metals for A$40.4m ($27.04m) to help develop a rutile and graphite project in Malawi.
Rio was looking at a number of possible lithium interests, Stausholm said, but the market for energy transition metals like copper and lithium was “pretty hot”. “I wouldn’t mind having lithium production in Canada,” he said. Rio wants to raise its lithium exposure, and Quebec, home to Rio’s green aluminium operations, is a hotspot for new hard rock lithium deposits, with battery chemicals makers setting up shop in the region ready to supply the US electric vehicle market.
Procurement in the mining industry is an essential force in adding or destroying value for mining companies, with consequential impacts on all industry stakeholders. Procurement in the South African mining industry experienced a number of highly adverse impacts over the past few years. First there was the restrictive proposed 2018 Mining Charter, later successfully contested by the Minerals Council SA in the courts. That was followed by the devastations of the
Covid-19 pandemic, the global supply chain crisis, and then the Russia-Ukraine war, among other factors.
Many of these developments not only created supply chain pressures, but also exposed serious weaknesses. Emerging from these setbacks has brought new challenges, new opportunities and new rewards. The key is getting it right.
The global mining industry continues to be a large contributor to global value
chains, and mining procurement spend is predicted to increase substantially in the years ahead. However, much uncertainty still prevails as international supply chains are shifting and new risks emerge, while new developments bring new challenges such as those related to increased digitisation within the 4IR context, for example. Moving mining into the green economy is another.
For mining companies to get procurement right in this new age of change, is therefore
a major challenge. But if it is done correctly and effectively, procurement is a powerful tool for driving value in the mining industry by effectively managing quality, reducing costs, expediting schedules and saving time, mitigating risk, and ensuring important environmental, social, and governance (ESG) best practice and compliance across the supply chain.
While the past few years may have been challenging, at the same time, all these pressures and impacts caused innovation and transformation to become key. Many businesses are now counting on smart procurement – much of it in a 4IR digital transformation context - to provide stability and growth. This applies also to South Africa, and particularly to its mining industry. Naturally, all of this brings up the question: what are the key focus areas procurement professionals are looking at going forward?
In February last year, the Minerals Council South Africa and business services firm PwC jointly released a report called, The state of digital transformation in the South African mining industry. The report aimed to provide an understanding of how the mining industry visualises the impact of 4IR on its people, processes and technologies and how mining businesses will respond and transform.
When identifying key insights into 4IR in the mining industry around the question of where the biggest benefits will come from, the respondents in the survey, being
23 executives across 19 Minerals Council member companies, mostly believed that production, engineering and asset management related investments would unlock the most value. Supply chain and logistics seemed to be an underestimated area in mining as it related to driving costs and efficiencies. But it was also found that the companies that were digitally more mature and advanced, were actively investing in emerging technologies in the supply chain function, such as blockchain, IoT and AI to unlock value.
Of course, South Africa has specific challenges that also need to be considered. As Roger Baxter, at the time still CEO of the Minerals Council, cautioned, the local mining industry needed 4IR, and Covid-19 necessitated accelerated application of 4IR technologies, these should be a people-centric, 4IR enabled approach to modernisation of the sector.
“With the high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality, a pure technologyfocused approach will not be socially acceptable,” said Baxter.
Two years ago, The Hacket Group®, a leading global intellectual property-based strategic consultancy and enterprise benchmarking firm headquartered in Miami in the United States, compiled an insightful report, the 2021 Procurement Key Issues. The authors of the report, Laura Gibbons and Nicolas Walden, noted that the preceding volatile year when Covid-19 hit the planet, had pushed
spend-cost reduction to provide stability to the enterprise firmly back to the top of the procurement agenda.
They found that reducing supply risk and investing in third-party risk management emerged as the procurement function’s second most important objective in 2021. The authors also found that procurement must also support enterprise stabilisation and recovery strategies, for example, securing new and innovative sources of supply and early warnings of potential supply risk.
Among the other key issues that this report revealed, were the need for:
• modernising procurement application platforms;
• improving analytical and reporting capabilities;
• aligning skills and talent with changing business needs;
• accelerating the digital transformation of procurement;
• increasing spend influence that leads to reduced purchasing costs, improved quality and better strategic outcomes like product innovation;
• procurement entities having strong business relationships to allow them to act as strategic advisors to the business;
• making a corporate social responsibility impact through sustainable procurement;
• and improving procurement agility.
The authors also suggested that by 2023, when looking back, procurement officers
and managers should have accomplished all of these critical actions. They should have developed a strong master data programme and supporting element and also have developed capabilities that respond to business needs and enable the procurement function to influence spend across the enterprise.
A report compiled by Axis Group Global Procurement & Supply, who have supported mining projects and operations for over 20 years, provides insights on how procurement and supply can be a strategic value driver for mining companies.
Axis points out the massive size of the global mining industry with a market value of some US$2 trillion, representing a significant share of global GDP, its role as a major player in international trade, capital flows and technology, and the
significant influence it has across regions and industries. In 2019, the total output of the mining industry was US$5.9 trillion, nearly 7% of total global GDP.
In 2021, the global mining market size was US$ 1.84 trillion, having recovered from around US$1.4 trillion in 2020 after being affected by Covid-19. According to Axis, estimates put the total market size at around US$2.06 trillion at the end of 2022. The top 100 mining companies had a combined market capitalisation of US$1.72 trillion as of January 2023. Many mining projects are underway globally, with mining-related equipment having a market size of nearly US$ 133 billion in 2021. This was forecast to grow to US$ 185 billion by 2030.
Against such a background, global mining procurement is a big lever that drives value for mining companies and for their many stakeholders, and consequently global mining spend is a big force. The report holds that the scale
of mining procurement spend is often a significant engine for economic activity and technology development, among others, with widespread impacts.
Axis says the world’s top 100 mining companies spent around US$100 billion on capex projects in 2021, with the top 40 mining companies having increased their capex spend from US#71 billion in 2021 to an estimated US$ 82 billion in 2022. Overall, the mining industry’s ongoing procurement spend amounts to around US$200 billion annually.
Axis expects this number to grow as the world further transitions past the challenges brought on by the pandemic and other recent events. These disruptive events caused a fall in capex projects, instability in procuring essential materials and supplies, and a scarcity of key transition metals such as copper. But Axis believes recovery followed as markets reopened.
The global exploration budget of solid minerals has increased again to pre-Covid levels and is expected to grow more in 2023 and beyond, mainly due to the necessity of finding new copper and other materials as reserves are depleting. According to Axis other factors include the rising need of finding more energy transition metals such as lithium, while the demand for copper is expected to rise by three times the current demand by 2040. The demand for cobalt is expected to increase by 20 times during the same period. Countries rich in these transition metals such as the African nations and Australia have seen an increase in exploration budgets and investments - and therefore mining procurement spend will continue to grow, says Axis.
Other factors that come into play include the potential of mining spend having both positive impacts and negative consequences. Therefore, procurement must incorporate an array of competing interests, e.g. cost reduction vs better quality, or local vs global, among others. Depending on where and when it is spent, it can both create as well as destroy value in mining projects. The efficiency and effectiveness of procurement may considerably raise or lower capex and opex expenses during the lifetime of a project or operations.
There is a significant potential in mining having a positive impact on society at large, such as the creation of jobs directly or indirectly in local communities. However, there is also the potential for mining spend to have negative impacts on these communities as well, such as through the effects on the local environment if proper efforts are not made to deliver a sustainable project. Also, the trade-off between local and global procurement must be carefully balanced. Axis points out that while mining companies act and compete globally, their operations are always ‘local’. This means that there is
the need to balance social factors and community interest with economic considerations such as cost reduction. According to the report, effective global procurement in the mining industry is not a simple endeavour and there are various factors to get right throughout the process. Many procurement ideas and approaches that still continue are dated and were developed in a previous era, for example, before globalisation reached its current levels, before ESG became a strategic imperative, and before new global supply markets rose to prominence.
Striking a proper balance in local vs global sourcing is crucial, as while localisation needs to be protected, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of global supply chains need to be leveraged as well. Hiring the right people, keeping them motivated, and retaining them is essential to ensure operations are supported by the right talent. Proper investment in developing the right capabilities and choosing the best partners must be made.
Operating models need to be planned, designed and readjusted to achieve the best results. Mining companies must have the right ‘inward’ orientation, such as having good strategy, goals, spend data, and process. But must also have
the right ‘outward’ orientation and gather sufficient market intelligence in order to appreciate the right global supply markets and key strategic global categories of importance. Getting all of the above right will help to determine who the winners and losers will be in the mining industry. What is clear, says Axix in the report, is that in the coming decade, procurement and supply should be a top priority for mining industry procurement managers and teams given the risks and challenges in global supply chains.
“The global mining industry will remain a large contributor to global value chains, and mining procurement spend will only increase in the coming years. As such, we need to understand the impact and consequences of procurement spend in this dynamic industry. When done effectively, procurement is a powerful lever for driving value in the mining industry that can reduce cost, manage quality, expedite schedules, mitigate risk, and ensure important ESG compliance across the supply chain. Good leadership, strategy and implementation will lead the way,” says Axis.
– Staff WriterATTYS PROJECTS (PTY) LTD is a 100% black owned company. It’s an emerging Mining and Construction company which envisages being the leading company in the mining and construction industry. The unstable South African economy has shaken the very fabric of the economy contributing to the high unemployment especially among youth. The Atty’s projects seek to correct this anomaly. The formation of this corporation ushers a new era of systematic and intelligent maximum utility of resources and skills to attain predetermined goals.
ATTYS PROJECTS (PTY) LTD will be structured with detailed analysis, planning, organising, leading, and controlling. Our corporation seeks to empower youth in particular by creating sustainable opportunities and set record standards in the process. The corporation would formulate key performance standards such as productivity standards and staff development standards. This will result in the emergence of developed youth around our communities and will be achieved through partnerships we want to enter into.
• Our number one priority is safety and customer care
In a world grappling with environmental challenges, Ovum Corporation stands as a beacon of hope and progress. Each project undertaken echoes its values of collaboration, innovation, and sustainability.
In the heart of South Africa, an engineering powerhouse is reshaping the landscape of sustainable infrastructure. Ovum Corporation, a civil engineering consultancy, has been crafting a legacy of innovation, collaboration, and excellence since its inception in June 2020.
At the core of Ovum Corporation's philosophy is a commitment to transforming ideas into realities that uplift mankind Deriving its name from the essence of birth and genesis, symbolizing the nurturing of ideas that sustain humanity With a holistic approach that draws inspiration from nature and leverages cutting-edge technology, Ovum Corporation is rewriting the blueprint for modern engineering.
The journey of Ovum Corporation is a narrative of innovation intertwined with collaboration. Guided by the principles of green building and sustainable technologies, the company collaborates with architects, scientists, educators, and visionaries who share their passion for change Ovum Corporation's vision was ignited by the green building movement witnessed in Singapore, which left an indelible mark on the founders
This spark of inspiration led to a commitment to revitalize South Africa's infrastructure with sustainable, energyefficient solutions that bridge the gap between urban development and environmental conservation.
Ovum Corporation's narrative goes beyond projects; it's a story of research, exploration, and a commitment to a greener world. The company delves into non-standard structural materials, green roofs, and wildlife bridges, exemplifying its dedication to engineering excellence Collaborations with electronics engineers pave the way for smart device systems that monitor building energy usage, driving progress towards more sustainable living.
M2 Bridges Rehabilitation ProjectEVERY PROJECT WE WORK ON IS UNIQUE, AND WE TAKE GREAT PRIDE IN BRINGING OUR CLIENTS' VISION TO LIFE
These projects are just a few examples of the diverse range of work that Ovum Corporation does. We are committed to providing our clients with exceptional service, and our team of experienced engineers ensures that each project is completed to the highest standard
The Dhaka Elevated Expressway is a mega bridge project that is divided into three tranche sections of work. Ovum is subcontracted as the appointed Independent Bridge Engineer for this mega-bridge project in Dhaka, Bangladesh The project includes some 40km of new elevated bridge structure cutting a North-South line through the heart of Dhaka. The majority of the bridges in the 40km of elevated viaduct are constructed from I-beams and T-beams, which are erected using a launching girder frame.
Regarding the project Nicholas Featherston, the owner of Ovum Corporation stated, "We are proud to be a part of this project, which will have a significant impact on the transportation infrastructure of Dhaka and will significantly alleviate the current traffic problems in the city Our team is dedicated to ensuring that these bridge structures are designed and built to the highest standards."
The Northern Platinum Mining project is another project that Ovum Corporation is currently working on. We have been appointed to do the preliminary design of the new HMV (hydrogen compliant) workshops, New Tyre
Bay, Cable Repair workshops, Barloworld and Epiroc Stores, Auxillary Workshops, and new Crane Maintenance Buildings.
Another project we are involved with is the Detailed and Basic Engineering Design of the Materials Handling component for a new SASOL coal mine in Trichardt, Secunda.
The project includes some 15km of conveyors, trestles and transfer structures, including a Rotary Breaker and ROM Tip area. Ovum are excited and privileged to be involved in this mega-mining project!
With governments committing to decarbonising their economies, much attention has been focused on lithium as a critical battery metal widely used in electric vehicles (EVs) among other things. It has turned this once nondescript member of the alkali family into something of a mining rockstar, with demand escalating, prices rising, and major investments being channelled into lithium projects.
It is projected that by 2040 global demand will be 40 times higher than now. For more perspective: as much as 8kg of lithium can be used in a single EV battery.
Inevitably this has put the spotlight on this supposed super metal, with questions arising about its environmental
impact. For South Africa this poses the question, does the country have significant enough sources of this metal to become a meaningful part of the lithium rush, or should it seek some other role? And is lithium’s sudden rock star status sustainable over the longer run?
Already back in 1987, a study by two researchers at the University of Leeds showed that lithium-bearing pegmatite – the hard rock which is one of three types of lithium deposit – was widely found across the African continent. Back then, however, climate change, decarbonisation, and things like the development of an electric vehicle industry, were not yet priorities, or even spoken about. So, lithium’s rise to glory was only to come much later, once most governments had developed net-zero strategies to decarbonise their
economies, with ambitious EV targets moving centre stage.
As demand for battery-operated EVs will increase, so too will demand for metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, aluminium and manganese. There are three types of lithium ion batteries that are expected to drive the EV sector, namely Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminium Oxide (NCA), Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese Oxide (NCM) and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP).
As that early study showed, the African continent has significant natural lithium resources, which may provide extensive new opportunities for many African countries. Most of these resources, however, are found in West and Southern Africa.
In Southern Africa the most significant deposits are found in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while South Africa also has some lithium, but not that much.
However, global supply chains of lithium for batteries are currently predominantly concentrated in South America, Australia and China, with processing and manufacturing of the battery compounds and components taking place mostly in China, Japan and South Korea.
For its part, Africa has not yet developed any significant capacity for lithium mineral processing, or for further refining of lithium chemicals, or for the manufacture of battery components, with most if not all of its lithium being exported and value being added outside of Africa, with the end products – EV batteries – being imported back into the continent.
Zimbabwe is leading the way in Southern Africa. It has a number of large lithium pegmatites, including one of Africa’s only currently active lithium mine at Bikita, while exploration has taken place at several other localities in recent years. After Zimbabwe, Namibia is the only other African country that has exported lithium mineral concentrate in recent years, but it is not engaged in the further battery supply chain. The most advanced lithium project in Namibia is
at Karibib. The DRC is only engaged in the exploration stage of the supply chain. However, it does have some of Africa’s largest lithium pegmatites.
So far South Africa has engaged mostly in limited exploration for lithium. Some pegmatite deposits are known, but little or no lithium extraction or mineral processing has occurred, with one exception. Marula Mining’s Blesberg project in the Northern Cape, is sitting on stockpiles of between 250 000 t and 400 000 t that are now being reprocessed. In January Marula Mining announced that its Blesberg Lithium & Tantalum Mine was ready to start initial deliveries of 1,000 tons of high-grade lithium ore. This battery metals mining and development company is focused on
exploring several high-value mining projects across Africa. The company started reprocessing existing stockpiles at Blesberg in November 2022 to produce a high-grade lithium ore with commercial grades of between 4% and 5.5% Li20.
If successful, this could possibly lead to the establishment of a long-term, hard rock conventional open pit lithium mining operation. The company said it was ready to start deliveries under the US$5 million Lithium Prepayment Facility that was secured by it in October last year.
Blesberg’s existing stockpiles are said to be on top of the pegmatite from which lithium could in future be extracted, so the residues from reprocessing are being
moved to a new stockpile site to allow for future mining of the current site.
However, recent research has shown that the country may be better suited to engage in the refining and processing stage in the supply chain. In this regard some projects are already established to develop manufacturing of some battery chemicals with the potential for this to eventually extend to lithium chemicals.
South Africa is also active in the manufacturing of battery cell components and the Energy Storage Innovation Laboratory (ESIL) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has a pilot plant for battery production. ESIL is also working with a number of external partners on the development of battery technology, with fuel cells being considered as one of the most plausible choices for alternative energy because of the abundance of elemental hydrogen available.
As one of the world’s leading mineral-rich countries, South Africa possesses minerals and metals that will play a pivotal role in future technologies. With a declining demand for catalytic converters in the future, South Africa’s platinum industry could establish new opportunities in
hydrogen fuel cell technology for EVs. And while lithium will be a key component, of which South Africa has relatively little, the country has an abundance of other metals used to produce batteries, such as iron, manganese and nickel. Platinum, of which it has huge reserves, could also find new roles in the various emerging new green technologies.
So, just what is Lithium all about? It has been called a super metal, the world’s “new oil”, or “white gold” – the rockstar of the new in-vogue metals. Its praises have been sung around the world as the key ingredient enabling the global transition to green transport in the form of electric and hybrid vehicles with rechargeable batteries. Its price has soared these past years as a star in the commodities boom that has allowed mining companies to post record profits.
Lithium carbonate is one of the two key compounds used for the manufacture of batteries that underpin the mass transition to EVs. But due to all the hype, perhaps less known are its many other
uses that range from being used in the manufacture of aircraft to ceramics, glass, electrodes, lubricants, pyrotechnics, as an additive to aluminium smelters, in silicon nano-welding, in air purification, in specialist optics, in nuclear physics, and even as a medicine in the treatment of bipolar disorder. It’s easy to see where its rockstar status comes from.
Lithium is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the world’s lightest known metal and lightest solid element which comes as a soft, silverywhite alkali meta. It is highly reactive and flammable and must be stored in very specific ways. The nucleus of the lithium atom is close to being unstable since the two stable lithium isotopes found in nature have among the lowest binding energies per nucleon of all stable nuclides.
It does not occur freely in nature, but is usually found only in ionic compounds, such as pegmatitic minerals. It is soluble as an ion and is therefore also found in ocean water. Lithium metal is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride. And for reasons still unknown, trace amounts of lithium are also present in biological systems. It is generally mined from brine in salt flats or from hard rock.
Lithium’s history goes very far back –indeed, all the way to the Big Bang when it was synthesized. However, lithium together with beryllium and boron is markedly less abundant in the universe than other elements because of the comparatively low stellar temperatures required to destroy lithium. But its more modern history goes back some two centuries to when the Brazilian naturalist and statesman, Jozé Bonifácio de Andralda e Silva, first discovered petalite on the Swedish isle of Utö around 1800. But it was only in 1817 that Johan August
Arfwedson, who worked in the laboratory of a chemist, discovered the presence of a new element that formed compounds similar to those of sodium and potassium while analysing petalite ore. Arfwedson named this alkaline material ‘lithion/ lithina’, taken from the Greek word lithos, meaning ‘stone’.
Lithium is not without controversy, and some are beginning to question its role and qualities, alleging that the mining and processing of lithium are turning out to be far more environmentally harmful than the previously highly controversial fracking ever proved to be.
Some critics say the lithium extraction process from salt flat brine - one of two major sources - uses an extreme amount of water which it poisons while it also harms the soil and causes air contamination. When lithium is extracted in salt flats some 500,000 gallons of water is pumped down drilled holes to bring one metric ton of mineral-rich brine to the surface. It is argued by critics that lithium is known to cause surface water contamination, potable water contamination, unsustainable water table reduction, wildlife habitat degradation, respiratory problems, and ecosystem degradation. Lithium extraction also produces substantial harmful by-products such as large amounts of magnesium and lime waste.
In China, the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine – where lithium is mined from hard rock - was closed after waste leakages poisoned fish in the Lichu River in 2009 and 2013. When the mine reopened in 2016, Tibetans staged protests when mine waste again caused thousands of dead fish to wash up on the banks of the river with dead cow carcasses found floating downstream.
At other Chinese mines similar incidents occurred due to the rapid increase in lithium mining activity, including operations run by China’s BYD, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium-ion batteries. Behind this turn of events was China’s decision to dramatically step up the production of lithium mining, lithium batteries and electric and hybrid vehicles - all part of its move in 2015 towards Green Development which forms part of China’s 13th Five Year Plan.
Many of China’s lithium mines still use old, traditional methods for extracting lithium both from brine and hard rock, while there are newer, safer and cleaner –but arguably more expensive - extraction technologies available.
On the other side of the world, South America is home to more than half the world’s reserves of lithium which lie beneath the salt flats of the Lithium Triangle, an area that covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. But it is also one of the driest places on earth, and uit is being claimed that lithium mining activities here have consumed
65% of the region’s water. China is among the top five countries having the most lithium resources. Apart from increasing its own domestic lithium mining production, it has also been buying stakes in mining operations in Australia and South America where most of the world’s lithium reserves are found. In Australia and North America, as in South Africa, lithium is mined from rock using chemicals to extract it into a useful form, processes that often are also accused of causing pollution.
Is all the hype about lithium over the top? Will its bubble burst sooner or later like many before it? Already vanadium and cobalt are challenging lithium and are being called the new super metals. Both of these are already mined in South Africa in sustainable quantities. Since 2002 South Africa became the world’s second largest host of vanadium after China moved to the number one slot following the discovery of new deposits. And cobalt has long been mined here as a by-product of copper and nickel. So, South Africa is certainly in many ways a contender to participate profitably in the booming global EV and battery business, with or without lithium.
For now, the last word has not yet been spoken on whether lithium is truly the new rockstar of metals, or whether its good qualities are overshadowed by the environmental harm it is causing. If the development of lithium-rich EV batteries is a key element of creating green economies, then it simply won’t do for lithium to cause so much environmental damage at the same time. Something will have to give.
- Written by Stef Terblanche
We are excited to share our latest achievement in the realm of research and innovation. At the recently concluded EDHE Lekgotla 2023, hosted by the University of the Western Cape from September 6th to 8th, 2023, Kubu Science and Technology Institute (KSTI) showcased our commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and driving positive change within the education sector.
The Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) Lekgotla, hosted by the University of the Western Cape, served as a prominent platform for the exchange of ideas and insights among thought leaders, educators, and industry professionals.
This year, our institute had the privilege of conducting commissioned research in the critical area of Student Women Entrepreneurship.
KSTI’s participation at EDHE Lekgotla 2023 revolved around our commissioned research project on Student Women Entrepreneurship. We are immensely proud to have been entrusted with this vital mission, which aligns perfectly with our mission of empowering students with the knowledge and skills to succeed in an everchanging world.
Our dedicated team of researchers delved deep into the intricacies of student entrepreneurship, examining
the challenges, opportunities, and best practices in fostering a culture of innovation and business acumen among our youth. The insights we have gained from this research are invaluable and will undoubtedly inform future policy decisions and educational strategies.
During the event, our very own CEO, Professor Eunice Seekoe, had the distinct honour of facilitating the book launch of the Sakhumnotho Foundation’s “Global Entrepreneurship Toolkit.” further exemplifying our institute’s leadership and expertise in the field of entrepreneurship and education.
We invite all members of our community to stay engaged with our institute as we continue to
drive innovation, research, and education in the field of Student Entrepreneurship.
Don’t miss the opportunity to harness the power of research to drive your organization’s success. Whether you’re a forward-thinking business, a government agency with a mandate for evidencebased policy, or an individual seeking in-depth insights, KSTI is your trusted partner in the pursuit of knowledge.
Contact us today to discuss your organisations research needs and discover how Kubu can help you unlock new horizons through research. Together, we’ll turn your questions into answers and your challenges into opportunities. For more information about our commissioned research, collaboration opportunities, and other exciting developments at KSTI, please enquire at info@ksti. co.za or call 076 150 6762 and follow us on social media.
KSTI had the honour of participating
and showcasing our commitment to education, innovation, and excellence at the PHASA 2023 conference held in Qgeberha, Eastern Cape.
The Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) conference, held from September 10th to 13th, 2023, brought together leaders, researchers, and professionals from various fields in the public health sector. As part of this esteemed event, KSTI secured a prominent exhibition stall, where we proudly displayed our diverse range of offerings and introduced our new short courses.
Our stall was a hub of activity and excitement throughout the conference, with delegates eager to learn about our institution and its unique approach to education. Our team, engaged with visitors, showcasing the depth and breadth of our course offerings. At the heart of our showcase were our innovative short courses.
From Public Health and Nursing to Education, Agriculture, IT & Engineering, Research as well as Performing Arts, KSTI displayed a comprehensive array of short courses designed to meet the evolving needs of the job market,
empower individuals with practical skills and knowledge and equip students with the tools needed to excel in their chosen fields.
During our time in Qgeberha, we enjoyed a brief visit with the SWEEP chapter of Nelson Mandela University (NMU) Centre for Entrepreneurship. This visit allowed us to engage with vibrant studentpreneurs and witness first-hand the remarkable work being done.
If you missed us at PHASA 2023, don’t worry! Join KSTI today and unlock your potential. Visit our website www.kubuinstitute.co.za to explore our course offerings, meet our team, and discover how we can help you achieve your dreams.
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Whether motivated by the ongoing 4th industrial revolution (4IR) or whether responding to the global crisis created by Covid-19, or both, South African mining companies are embracing digital transformation and are adapting to the use of new technologies that enhance efficiency while lowering risk and costs.
More than a year on from the pandemic, this has become more an imperative than a choice.
Providing key insights into the state of digital transformation in the South African mining industry, is the second two-yearly report commissioned by the Minerals Council South Africa from global business services firm PwC.
“Digital transformation is an imperative for mining – a non-negotiable if you like – as it serves as the seamless thread through all of the mining value chain processes, and enhances safety and health, security, production, and workforce and leadership capability. The implementation of these processes needs to be executed with care and responsibility,” writes former Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter in the foreword of the report.
The first study by PwC in 2020 that resulted in the first report, provided useful insights with many mining companies referencing it to either start or accelerate their digitalisation and 4IR preparedness programmes. At the time, the onset of Covid-19 also played a role in the industry embracing digitalisation and 4IR technologies. As a result, the Minerals Council mandated PWC’s Smart Mining Team, and the Mandela Mining Precinct’s Real-Time Information Management Systems programme, to conduct this study every two years, hence the second study having taken place in 2022 with a report released this year.
Essentially, digitalisation refers to the use of new digital technologies to change a business model, enable the optimisation of processes, and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities. Since 2020 and the onset of Covid-19, 4IR-driven transformation gained greater prominence because of its potential to help businesses overcome multiple challenges brought about by the global coronavirus pandemic. This transformation was further driven by the subsequent global supply chain crisis and other global developments.
Another study conducted was conducted around the same time by software development company Oxalys South Africa in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and Smart Procurement, titled ‘Post Covid-19: Procurement Key Priorities and Challenges in the Digital Era in South Africa’. It found that many South African organisations had a poor understanding of what digital procurement actually entails, some confusing it with simple applications like Excel spreadsheets and others associating it with implementing complex and costly ERP solutions.
In the mining industry the paradigm was already shifting. The 2020 mining digital transformation report found that South Africa’s mining industry was increasingly making use of innovative and cuttingedge technologies to run more efficient operations, to manage risk, to improve health and safety, reduce the cost of maintenance and extraction, as well as bringing about a skills uplift.
At the time, Baxter commented that, “adoption of innovations emerging out of the 4IR did not go into lockdown during the
Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the application of 4IR technologies helping Minerals Council members and others to manage the pandemic more effectively.”
“South African mining needs 4IR. We need to be globally competitive on costs and on environmental, social and governance issues. Over the last decade, multi-factor productivity in South Africa has fallen by 7.6%. Mining cost inflation was 2-3% higher annually than general inflation, leading to two thirds of our output being on the upper half of the global mining cost curve. Mining output declined by 10% and minerals sales contracted by 11%,” said Baxter.
In South Africa’s mining industry, the transformation focus is on a people-centric 4IR enabled approach to modernisation of the sector. High levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality rule out a pure technology-focused approach. Hence the first transformation report produced by PwC did not only focus on technological issues, but also on issues related to culture and the upskilling and/or reskilling of the workforce.
At the time, Andries Rossouw, PwC Africa Energy Utilities and Resources Leader, added that South Africa’s mining industry was set to undergo significant transformation over the next decade. With the digital world presenting so much opportunity and disruption, mining companies will need to be more agile when thinking about how to align technology with their business needs, as well as making the right choices on partnership and implementation, said Rossouw. In his view, mining companies that genuinely understood technology and leveraged it strategically, would be the winners.
“Digital is a pivotal game-changer in the mining industry,” said Pieter Theron, PwC Partner Advisory Services and Head of
Industry. “It is disrupting mining operations and business models and, in some instances, changing the entire fabric of the mining industry.”
“New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), smart sensors, big data analytics, 3D printing, and machine learning will all boost productivity in the mining industry. In the process, mining companies will need to look at ways to upskill their workforces to work in this new world as it will require new skills in order to unlock the benefits of digital transformation,” said Theron.
In the first report, the authors said they had identified 10 emerging trends they believed were consistent with other international studies and could be used by mining executives and other decision makers “to navigate their digital transformation journey”. Briefly, the ten key insights were:
1. The CEO drives the digital agenda.
2. Champions and innovators are emerging.
3. Investments are growing.
4. The main reasons for investing in digital.
5. Where will the benefits come from?
6. Industrial IoT gets the biggest share of the wallet.
7. The workforce is changing.
8. Organisational culture is keeping up with the times.
9. Challenges to overcome.
10. It is all about the data.
11.
This first report and its findings laid the basis for the second report released this year. Whereas the 2020 study focused purely on digital transformation and 4IR readiness, the 2022 study was expanded to include ESG aspects into the study to help bring the industry in line with what is expected of companies in a changing world.
The target respondents for the survey were predominantly CEOs, and/or nominated senior leaders from their companies, while organised labour representatives were also interviewed. The anonymised results of the study aimed to capture a broad range of opinions to extrapolate the implications and impacts of digital transformation on South African mining and ESG.
The more than 30 insights identified in the study, were extrapolated and again summarised into ten key insights that addressed the categories of Vision, Priorities and Strategy; Workforce; Business Sustainability; ESG Imperatives; and Stakeholder Collaborations.
“A striking difference from the previous study is how prolific and integrated all of these issues have become. We can no longer speak or think about these issues in silos - they are integrated, holistically connected, and comprise systems of systems,” said Baxter in the foreword of the 2022 study. The ten key insights of the 2022 study are:
1. 1. Mining CEOs and their Executives are being deliberate.
2. Technology is being applied where it has the greatest measurable benefit.
3. The hunt for value requires cooperation and compromise.
4. Digital tools don’t just measure, they contribute.
5. The imperatives for sustainability, and the crown jewels.
6. We are up to the challenge and have the tools to win.
7. Mining is about people – and we need to fight globally for talent.
8. ESG – critical for business survival or tick-box?
9. Regulations shape ESG (for better or worse).
10. ESG drives long-term value.
“Modern Integration requires new approaches – new ways of thinking – out-of-the-box engineering, and hence demand new skills to be enacted. The Executives expect more up-to- date expertise from their technical teams, ICT departments, ESG Functions such as Risk, Governance, Environmental, and Social,” said Baxter. “What applied and worked 10 years ago no longer suffices to meet the goals of modern mining. The factors of uncertainty, complexity and plurality need to be management differently, and so mining is learning from other industries.”
“The opportunity to leverage digital better for the purposes of ESG exists – this notion is supported by organised labour – and our CEOs intuitively know (and expect) that dataflow and information-sharing will occur for the ESG functions by means of the digital systems. They, and their technical teams, are exploring the mechanics, which are the standards and reference architectures, of how this will be improved and materialised,” he said.
According to the latest study, since 2021, mining CEOs have focused on innovation
rather than top-down initiative-based approaches. The industry is now seeing digital and 4IR as de facto parts of mining, instead of having to prove its value through top-down initiatives. According to this survey, 100% of respondents are on the digital journey – including leveraging technology for ESG programmes. CEOs own the strategic perspective, seeing digital and 4IR as enablers of achieving strategic and digital ambitions, and setting the pace, direction, and expectations around digital initiatives.
The study found that the CEO is the strategic steward – delivering on commitments made to shareholders and communities. They are seeking to define work in the new digital world across the mining value chain –finding, mining, treating and trading. Carbon neutrality, renewable mines, improved resource use, and data-driven business strategies all involve digital elements. There has been a persistent focus on measurable value creation – mining is after all about tracking the benefits on the bottom line.
Equal participation in the digital transformation journey for all in operations came up as a strong leadership theme in the 2022/23 study. This is key to getting buy-in across the enterprise. Trust in the leadership team is essential to the success and adoption of these tools. In 2023 the entire management team is involved in the digital programme. Using a 4IR lens, the executive and senior management teams focus on reducing and preventing duplication, expanding and achieving the roadmap, and embedding an environment for prediction and analysis and real time insights.
Mining executives are exploring and finding their own niche and nuanced portfolios for ESG and digital transformation (DX) projects, the study found. A common theme though is that these need to be fit-for-
purpose. There is some experimentation, but not a ‘see what sticks’ philosophy. In fact, it was found that some executives indicated that they’ve gone so far as to revamp their business case and benefits realisation tools/systems to be far more specific and accurate.
From a global perspective, mining is lagging in the digital space compared to other industries. Mining’s digital transformation is a major priority, but miners admit that more can be done to make mining more digital.
Miners have significantly shifted the goalposts for their digital programmes since 2021. Where 13% of miners in 2020/1 had no digital programme to speak of, today 100% of the miners surveyed focus on digital and see it as a critical tool for business sustainability. The latest study found a change from ‘digital only’ projects to ‘every project embeds digital’ – in other words it’s now embedded as one of the tools used to demonstrate the value of projects. None of the miners surveyed classified themselves as new entrants to the world of digital.
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The empowerment of women, youth and disabled persons should be achieved in all aspects of works. Vezinhlanhla has more woman on board to strengthen the capacity of the business.
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It is sometimes referred to as the ‘eternal metal’. It has been around as long as history has been recorded. It has been a driver of different industrial revolutions or eras of technological advancement. In South Africa its allure stretched back to long before the arrival of European settlers when local Khoi tribes of Namaqualand had discovered it.
Then in 1685, having heard of its existence, Governor Simon van der Stel set of with pomp and fanfare in a wagon train from Cape Town in search of its promised riches in the distant wilderness of Namaqualand. Along the way he partied with members of a local Khoi tribe on his birthday, and almost got killed by a wild animal before finding a mountain filled with this precious metal – the site of a much later thriving mining industry. The far northwestern harbour town of Port Nolloth also owes much of its existence to the metal.
Now, with the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) in full swing and the transition to a green economy in which things electrical dominate, it is making a spectacular comeback. The metal in question is of course the humble commodity known as copper. The poor man’s gold but industry’s super hero.
It’s been considered to be both a blessing and a curse over the ages. Without copper the world probably would not have had electricity or electric lights. Yet at the same time countries like Zambia that produced much of the world’s copper but remained one of the poorest countries, saw it as a resource curse. Referring to the many problems the abundance of the metal in the country’s Copper Belt had brought, independent Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda, remarked that “Zambia was paying the price for having been born with a copper spoon in our mouths.”
Now with 4IR’s technological explosion, the transition to clean energy, and the demand for batteries as everything goes electric, copper is back in great demand. It has been estimated that due to the enormous drive towards electrification, the global energy sector’s share of total copper consumption will increase to 40 % in the next two decades. It’s clear: as the world weans itself off its fossil fuels addiction, the new industrial drug will be copper.
That is, along with a few other metals like lithium. But copper is the big one. Last year, S&P Global Market Intelligence forecast that annual global copper demand will nearly double
from 25 million to roughly 50 million metric tonnes by 2035. Compare this to 22 million tonnes of last year and the 25 million tonnes of 2021. Rival consulting firm McKinsey puts the expected increase in annual copper demand at 36.6 megatons by 2031, with supply forecast to be around 30.1 mega tonnes (from the current 22 mega tonnes), creating a 6.5 mega tonnes deficit at the start of the next decade. In December 2022, Glencore forecast a 50 mega tonnes supply shortage by 2030. Either way, that represents a massive increase challenged by a major supply deficit.
Some industry forecasts are warning the shortfall could manifest as early as 2025. In October last year the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) anticipated
global copper mine production to grow by 3.9% in 2022 and 5.3% this year, but since then has had to revise its forecast down to 3% for both years.
So where is all the copper going to come from, especially given that many of the world’s copper mines from the last boom cycle of industrial demand have since gone out of operation or downscaled due to other problems and issues? Good question.
Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson told Bloomberg in an interview that there simply wouldn’t be enough copper supply to meet the new demand. He explained that even despite the rising high price of copper at present, the major headache was the amount of time it would take to develop or expand new and old mines
to meet the new demand – a process the International Energy Agency (IEA) says takes 17 years on average.
Again, there’s that paradox of being both blessing and curse. On the one hand copper will drive the current electrification transition as a key ingredient; on the other hand, its looming scarcity could actually slow down the transition.
For now, however, many of the world’s major miners are not sitting still waiting for the copper scenario to fully play out. They know a good thing coming when they see one.
Mining majors like BHP, Glencore, Rio Tinto, China’s Zijin Mining Group, Kamoa-Kakula in the DRC, First Quantum Minerals in Zambia, among many others, have all launched expansions of existing mines, new joint ventures, or new mines of their own, as everyone is getting in on the copper-for-electrification action.
Copper is currently trading at around US$8,418.00 per metric ton, having peaked at around US$ 9,322 in 2021, but still up by double from around US$4,868 in 2016. Experts expect the price to rise even more. That could escalate quite dramatically if there is a big future shortfall.
Justin Lin of the Australian financial services firm Global X Management Limited, points out that geopolitics is a major contributing factor to the shortfall in global copper supply. Of the 20 million tonnes of copper produced in 2020, more than half were from nations categorised as “Unstable” or “Extremely Unstable”. Since December 2022, Peru, the second largest copper producer in the world, has been rocked
by political turmoil. The nation has experienced daily rioting, meaning supply chains across the country have been crunched, says Lin.
In January, experts estimated roughly 30% of Peru’s production was at risk. Multiple world-leading mines such as Glencore’s Antapaccay and MMG’s Las Bamba – combining for 2.5% of global copper output - were either shut down or restricted by protestor roadblocks. In the same week, copper prices rallied more than 20% on fears of supply constraint as China also looked to re-open. While the concerns in Peru have begun to subside, the disruptive effects of even a single nation’s upheaval cannot be overstated, and geopolitics remain an ongoing risk for global copper supplies in the future, says Lin.
There may be more problems ahead though. The copper production disruptions in South and Central America are exacerbated by low copper inventories in the United States and Europe. Goldman Sachs expects that if Chinese demand keeps rising as it did in February, we could run out of visible copper inventory by the third quarter of this year. Low inventories of course increase the possibility of a price surge in the event of significant drawdowns.
The supply deficit and resultant price increases could worsen as major economies like China, the United States and Europe ramp up their development of renewable energy and production of electric vehicles (EVs). In the United States, the Biden administration recently granted $2.8 billion for EV battery manufacturing while Europe has also registered an increased demand for copper as part of its accelerated shift to renewables as it reduces its dependency on Russian gas.
According to GlobalData Plc, a data analytics and consulting company headquartered in London, there are more than 696 copper mines worldwide, of which 127 are situated in South Africa. According to Statista, South Africa’s copper production in 2018 fell to 48,100 metric tonnes, its lowest production output in a decade.
Historically, copper mining in South Africa was largely concentrated in the
Northern Cape around the towns of Okiep and Springbok, but much of this mining shut down in the early 2000s when the former Gold Fields of South Africa finally closed its Okiep mine. However, mining in the region is preparing for a new lease of life as the Australian and JSE-listed miner, Orion, has been carrying out extensive exploration here with a view to reopening the former Prieska and Okiep Copper Mines.
Another company, Big Tree Copper, started production in the Okiep region last year as a small-scale copper project treating dump material. This operation
was also being expanded this year with the construction of a full-blown SX-EW recovery plant with a projected production level of 160 tonnes per month of copper cathode within its first three months of operation. In April the JSE announced the listing on the Alternative Exchange (AltX Board) of Copper 360 Limited. Copper 360 Limited was formed in November last year following a reverse take-over of Big Tree Copper, and copper mining company SHiP Copper. The company, with its focus on producing premium copper that will yield high cash margin is based in the Northern Cape.
The company’s Mining Right covering 19,000 hectares to the north of the town of Springbok holds 12 copper mines (some with developed infrastructure) and 60 copper prospects with advanced geological datasets. It is estimated that the Life-of-Mine across the various operations is over 100 years.
Jan Nelson, chief executive of Copper 360 said: “Coming to the market means we give South Africans exposure to the only pure copper exposure available to them with further major growth. It opens up a capital market for us and allows us a network to further develop strategic partnerships. It also raises our profile.”
Using a cluster mining model developed by company chair, Shirley Hayes –where several mines feed into one process facility – Copper 360 says it will create a new “Copper Country”. With a centralised process facility, smaller orebodies become economically viable, and have the potential to add up to greater benefits for copper mining in the region.
Some of the major other copper mines already operating in South Africa, include Palabora Copper (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Palabora Mining Company. Its copper mining operation located in Limpopo consists of a surface and underground that produced an estimated 22.01 thousand tonnes of copper in 2022. The mine is expected to operate until 2034. The company also operates a smelter and refinery complex in the town of Phalaborwa.
Another major copper mine is one owned by Sedibelo Platinum Mines in the Pilanesberg in North West. It produced an estimated 0.7 thousand tonnes of copper in 2022. Then there is Anglo American’s Mogalakwena Mine located in Limpopo which produced
an estimated 8.24 thousand tonnes of copper in 2022. This mine is expected to remain active until around 2050. Rustenburg Complex is another copper mine operation located in North West and owned by Sibanye Stillwater. This mine produced an estimated 1.08 thousand tonnes of copper in 2022 and is also expected to operate until around 2050.
In June this year, global business services firm PwC released a statement saying that mining revenue held steady at US$711bn in 2022, in what it described as “another year of strong financial performance, but rising costs and economic uncertainty that squeezed EBITDA margins from 32% to 29%”.
In its 20th edition, PwC’s 2023 Mine publication stated: “The era of reinvention, an annual review of the top 40 mining companies globally, examined trends in the mining industry. In this report, PwC found market capitalisation of the top 40 miners tripled from US$400bn in 2003 to US$1.2trn in 2022.
The findings of this year’s report capture major themes and developments impacting the industry, especially the impact of the energy transition, which will shape the industry over the coming two decades. Miners will have to navigate the increasing role governments — and new players like automobile companies — are playing in the sector, while simultaneously ensuring they are well-positioned for the clean energy transition — which requires access to resources. Given ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, the rapid shift to clean-energy technologies and the importance of both these issues to national security and economic stability, governments around the world have taken swift
action over the last 12 months to secure critical mineral supply and, in doing so, changed the playing field significantly. This includes swift action to form alliances, craft policies and laws, and fund initiatives that will help stabilise the supplies of critical minerals.
Paul Bendall, Global Mining Leader, Mining & Metals, PwC Australia, said: “Mining is playing a fundamental role in underpinning the global transition to clean energy, but the path ahead is rocky. A net zero world requires more mined critical minerals, not less, and the flow of industry dealmaking clearly reflects this. But the increasing rise of geopolitics as an influencing factor in global mining may complicate operations in an increasingly complex world with new actors.”
The PwC report said that critical minerals dominated deal activity in 2022 as miners raced to capitalise on the global transition towards clean energy, driven by two forces. First, the role many of these minerals play in the clean energy transition technologies, such as batteries, electric vehicles, and solar and wind generation. Second, the role
of critical minerals in national defence, technologies and weaponry.
In 2022, gold, copper, lithium, and cobalt exploration grew significantly. With increased demand, and limited supply for critical minerals, continued exploration investment for these minerals will be essential to the energy transition.
Andries Rossouw, PwC Africa Mining Leader, said: “Looking forward, the next 20 years have the potential to be as positive for the industry as the last 20 years. Demand for critical minerals — which fuel a growing boom in sustainability requirements like electric vehicles — requires miners to reinvent and reimagine how they will best support their clients and stakeholders globally. The high-demand era of critical minerals is now. It’s full of opportunity; but for those miners who do not reimagine and reinvent their operations by finding the right value-chain partners, they will likely miss out on the opportunity.”
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When Roger Baxter announced late last year that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO of the Minerals Council South Africa when his contract ended in April, the industry knew it was losing a true veteran and giant of South African mining. Luckily it will only be temporary as he has promised that “I will be back”.
After 30 years “working really hard in the mining sector” Roger said he felt it was time for change and for him to take a break. “It’s also time for new leadership at the Minerals Council to help take the industry to the next level and for me to start a new chapter.” And that new leadership taking over from Roger, the Council announced in May, would be none other than Mzila Mthenjane, the Executive Head for Stakeholder Affairs at Exxaro Resources and a man with more than 30 years of experience in the South African mining industry and financial services.
But before Roger could slip away, we asked him for his views on some of the most pressing issues in the industry, its current status, and the future outlook of the industry. Here’s what Roger told us:
Q: How would you summarise the current state of mining in South Africa? What are the major challenges and successes?
RB: Although the industry has produced strong financial support for the economy, bailing out the fiscus from a Covid-19-related slowdown and disruption, there are concerns about production. In the previous MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement, it was shown mining contributed R92 billion of the R120 billion in extra taxes received in the 2021 fiscal year. Production had recovered 11.2% from the low base in 2020. However, the 20-year index of mining production showed that sector production had not recovered since the 2000/2006 peak and was struggling to maintain 2015 levels. The bulk of investment in the sector is going into stay-inbusiness capital rather than new projects, which raises red flags for sustainable long-term production of minerals.
Q: In the global context, where do you see South African mining being positioned? Are we still a vital player of consequence, or are we increasingly being relegated to the margins?
RB: South Africa remains a leading source of minerals. It is the largest supplier of platinum group metals, chrome and manganese. It is a major supplier of high-quality iron ore, coal, gold, vanadium and other minerals.
Q: What are the key constraints on South African mining at present?
RB: As is well-known, rail and port logistics are problematic. Rail constraints caused by theft of cable with Transnet saying 1,500km of
cable was stolen over five years, vandalism, and more than 100 idled locomotives that were bought in the tainted deals in the state-capture era, are costing the country dearly. The Minerals Council estimated its bulk mineral members lost revenue of R35 billion in 2021 when deliveries are measured against targets. This includes R17 billion in iron ore, R16 billion in coal and about R2 billion in chrome. In none of the years since 2016 have exports exceeded 15 million tonnes per month, except for 2019. High-level talks are continuing with Transnet - ports and rail - to resolve the operational, security and fixed investment backlog issues.
By last year, electricity from Eskom had increased sixfold in price in the preceding 14 years, while supplies are constrained. Crime is a major concern. Deteriorating security, with illegal mining and theft of mine infrastructure like cables and
steelwork, diesel, and products, have led to the industry spending R2.5 billion a year to secure their operations. Delays in processing more than 3,000 mining and prospecting right applications as well as mineral right transfers by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) were also holding up estimated investment of R30 billion.
Q: Is there anything that sets South African mining apart from mining in other parts of the world, something that is unique that we can offer or on which we can build the future of mining in this country?
RB: South Africa is host to the world’s largest known deposits of platinum group metals (PGMs), which are used in anti-pollution devices in petrol and diesel engines, and which are critical minerals to electrolyse water to make hydrogen for hydrogen
fuel cells, which also use PGMs. South Africa is the world’s largest source of chrome and manganese, which are used in stainless steel and steel manufacturing. South Africa is one of the largest sources of primary vanadium, which is used in steel manufacturing and to make vanadium redox batteries, which are large stores of electricity that suit industrial applications as well as power plants. The Northern Cape is enormously prospective for base metals, including zinc and copper, and which is relatively unexplored and largely unexploited. South Africa has some of the best attributes for solar and wind-powered electricity generation, opening the way to green production and processing of minerals, as well as to develop a green hydrogen economy.
Q: What is the relationship like between the mining sector in general and government – are identified problems being adequately addressed and sorted out?
RB: The Minerals Council and its members are in regular contact with the leadership of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) as well as other government ministries to address energy, logistics and crime. The relationships are open, honest and delivering results - for example in the energy crisis response unveiled by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 25 July last year. Much of what was announced was a result of the intense talks between the government and business organisations, which included the Minerals Council which has seconded an energy expert to the Presidency to find solutions.
Q: It was previously reported that you blame the deterioration in
Transnet’s rail performance for massive losses incurred by local mining, for example R16 billion lost by the coal mining sector, R17 billion in respect of iron ore. You have obviously been engaging with Transnet and government on thiswhat has been the outcome so far?
RB: Transnet is operating under the constraints of crime and decisions made by previous management. The Minerals Council and its members are in close and regular consultations with Transnet, specifically along commodity export corridors to find solutions and to offer assistance. One example of this is the more than R100 million invested in security by coal companies on the coal rail corridor, leading to a reduction in security incidents. This model could be replicated on the chrome, manganese, and iron ore lines. Talks were being conducted to address security concerns on these corridors. The Minerals Council assisted Transnet in motivating the government to relax strict government purchasing and localisation conditions to secure spares for locomotives, wagons, port and rail infrastructure.
Q: Some time ago the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy indicated that there was a substantial backlog of mining rights, prospecting rights, mining permits, Section 11 change of ownership transfers, and licence renewals. Based on a survey of Minerals Council members representing over 170 mining company right applications conducted in December 2020, mining companies had projects worth about R20 billion that were prevented from being developed due to slow government processes including delays in the approval of permits and mining right
transfers, and the issuing of wateruse licences and environmental permits. What is the latest on this?
RB: The Minerals Council has been in close engagement with the new DMRE DG Jacob Mbele about its concerns with the mineral rights applications backlog as well as the need for a new transparent, efficient, corruptionfree, off-the-shelf, online cadastral system to better manage mineral right applications as well as encourage new investment in exploration and the development of a junior mining sector. South African exploration spend is at about 1% of global spend and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has said he wants this to rise to five percent. The best way to achieve this is to have a functional, transparent cadastral system to replace the ineffective SAMRAD system as a matter of urgency. (Editor: Minister Mantashe promised at this year’s Mining Indaba that such a system would be in place before the end of the year.)
Q: What does the future hold for exploration in South Africa –constraints and opportunities?
RB: There is appetite from local and foreign companies to explore for minerals in South Africa. However, the inefficient system of logging prospecting rights and the long time to grant them are working against South Africa. As mentioned, the Minerals Council advocates the use of an efficient, transparent, off-the-shelf cadastral system –one of which was developed in Cape Town and is used globally by numerous countries including those in Africa - to encourage prospecting and exploration for minerals. A tax incentive scheme, like Canada’s flow-through shares, would stimulate investment in companies undertaking
risk and expensive exploration. The Minerals Council advocates the introduction of such a scheme.
Q: With reference to Eskom and the electricity crisis, is the mining sector capitalising successfully on government’s reforms or relaxation of regulatory requirements in this sphere as announced by President Ramaphosa?
RB: The Minerals Council’s members and the private sector together have more than 9GW of renewable energy projects worth more than R160 billion that can be built in the next five years.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s throwing open the embedded energy generation market has provided an unprecedented opportunity for South Africa’s mining industry to not only reduce reliance on Eskom’s expensive and variable electricity supply but also rapidly advance
their decarbonisation plans. Mining companies are moving towards sustainable, renewable sources of energy to reduce their carbon footprint, reduce their exposure to South Africa’s carbon taxes, and to ensure the minerals they produce are globally acceptable and do not attract import penalties.
There have been fundamental changes to South Africa’s energy sector that will help them achieve these strategic goals and the broad mining industry’s objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with its international peer group. President Ramaphosa’s detailed announcement on 25 July last year to address South Africa’s energy crisis included removing the 100MW cap on licence-free embedded electricity generation for the private sector. The broad suite of interventions he unveiled amount to the most significant reform to South
Africa’s energy sector in decades and it has been rapidly embraced by the mining sector, which consumes about 15% of Eskom’s electricity. If smelters are included, this number doubles to 30%.
Q: What is the current status of digital transformation in the mining sector in South Africa?
RB: Modernisation and technology in mining is equally critical for junior and emerging miners and larger mining groups to ensure a safe and healthy work environment, while reducing costs, improving efficiencies and ultimately global competitiveness to unlock South Africa’s mineral wealth.
The emergence of new technologies has ushered in a wave of global change that is driven by fourth industrial revolution (4IR) innovations and thinking. The
Minerals Council South Africa is at the forefront of work to promote and reinvigorate the country’s moribund exploration, emerging and junior mining sector. By deploying technology and modern mining methods, the cost and efficiencies of extracting ore bodies are improved, increasing the potential for the development of previously uneconomic deposits and new discoveries and creating jobs and wealth for South Africa.
Q: Where do workers and their unions stand in relation to digital transformation and automation in mining? How is it impacting them and what is being done to retrain/ re-employ affected workers?
RB: The Minerals Council South Africa commends the Mandela Mining Precinct, the largest Public-Private Partnership of its kind, for ensuring that all stakeholders participate in its research and development planning for a modernised mining industry by including five unions for inputs at a strategic and policy level. They are integral to the work done to modernise South Africa’s mines and make them safer, more productive places of work. It ensures that all industry stakeholders have a say in mining modernisation.
Q: How are we doing in terms of gender parity or the advancement of women in mining? What has been achieved, and what are the remaining key challenges?
African mining industry wellrepresented via the support of the Minerals Council South Africa. Many mining companies in South Africa have already done much work in this regard, but there’s still much more to be done. The road map developed by the Minerals Council’s WiM team will assist mining companies in doing just that. And as we celebrate Women’s Month in August, the Minerals Council is pleased to announce the introduction of our Women in Mining Newsletter.
Q: What is the latest situation regarding health and safety on our mines? Are our mining safety figures improving? Where are we heading?
RB: The Minerals Council and its members refocussed attention on safety towards the end of 2021 after two years of unacceptable regression in fatalities from the record low of 51 deaths in 2019. While there have been encouraging signs of progress in key areas of safety, like falls of ground and trackless mobile machinery, with record performances in the first half of the year, there is still a long way to go to realise the ambition of Zero Harm. The Minerals Council
and its members are fully committed to mining safety. It is working closely with all stakeholders in the government, organised labour and service providers to realise its goal of Zero Harm.
Q: Finally, would you say the future looks bright for SA mining, and why or why not?
RB: The mining industry faces many of the same challenges the rest of the country does, with deteriorating security, logistics bottlenecks, expensive, erratic power, failing municipalities, which feeds into community unrest and exploitation by criminal elements wishing to extort contracts from mines, and a large, dissatisfied population where four out of ten adults are unemployed in the expanded definition of joblessness. The Minerals Council is actively consulting the government, engaging labour, communities, the security cluster and state-owned entities to offer assistance and to provide expertise to resolve the problems. The problems are well understood by all parties and the solutions to these problems are available. They need to be urgently implemented.
RB: The cause of women in mining gained global momentum in March last year when the first ever Global Women in Mining (WiM) Summit was hosted on a virtual platform by International Women in Mining (IWiM), with women of the South
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When asked to give some background on how she joined the team at DustA-Side, Fortune Naledi relayed the following tale of entrepreneurship and focusing on values of business continuation; “I joined Dust A Side Coal in 2019 April, when there was an opportunity for a Managing Director, I also became a shareholder when I got appointed. In addition, I am the founder and CEO of GNF1 an engineering and construction business within the Mpumalanga region.”
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Focusing on the positives in the uncertain landscape that is business in South Africa we asked Fortune what goals she set for herself for her tenure at Dust-A-Side; “My biggest success in my term as Director for the organisation will be to make Dust-A-Side Coal the employer of choice and to service our clients with the world class service they have become accustomed to and still better our turnaround time, quality, and safety consciousness of our teams on site to ensure that we reach Zero Harm together with the mining houses that we are servicing. In addition, it is my biggest responsibility to ensure we conduct business with environmentally friendly products for the best interest of the future of the next generation and inspire them to conduct business ethically which is what South Africa needs at the moment.”
“What has been some of Dust-A-Side’s most recent successes and highlights under your management?”
The leading lady at Dust-A-Side Coal based in Mpumalanga, servicing the Mpumalanga Coal Mining region. Fortune runs the business as the Managing Director and involves herself at all stages of the business to ensure cohesive business development practices from marketing to site operations.
“Thriving through the covid pandemic in the way that we did has been an inspiring success in that we have continued to grow the business sustainably and successfully serve our clients. In addition, we hosted the tripartite meeting in 2020 which was a great success, herein we had an opportunity to introduce the Dust-A-Sise Coal franchise which is proudly 51% black woman owned and local to the Mpumalanga region. Very close to my heart, we have awarded more than 30 study bursaries to the value of R2 000 000.00 to date to deserving leaners all around South Africa.”
“What is your leadership style? What important leadership lessons have you learnt in your career thus far?”
“I am definitely the Coach Leader, allowing people to do their job in the way they know how, takes priority in my day-to-day responsibilities. My role is to coach, lead, support, evaluate, and assist in setting SMART Goals for the team. I have learnt that involving and interacting with the team in my strategic planning meetings does not only make them aware of the business, but I also get their buy in and support in terms of achieving my future goals and sustaining the business.”
When asked to give some background on how she joined the team at Dust-ASide Rienie Manis spoke of finding opportunity through being relentless in her entrepreneurship journey; “I am the founder and CEO of Kathu Adonai Trading, a transport business within the Northern Cape region. Seeking to establish myself as an entrepreneur, I found an opportunity and submitted a successful proposal in 2015. Since then, I continue to deliver transport services to Dust-ASide. This association with Dust-A-Side afforded me the opportunity to enhance my entrepreneurial skills and increase my footprint in the transport sector. This association with Dust-A-Side started 2015 and led to a franchise partnership in 2018.”
“What goals have you set for your tenure at Dust-A-Side?”
“I want to use my association with Dust-A-Side to grow integration and establish Dust-A-Side Kalahari as a market leader in the Northern Cape. To secure sustainability of operations, strategic consideration must be given to increasing roadway management and product provision footprint in the Northern Cape. The goal is to refine our service delivery and customize our proposals to the industry, in a way that proves our road management and dust suppression systems as a means to reduce dust, optimise production operations, and result in cost savings.”
“What has been some of Dust-A-Side’s most recent successes and highlights under your management?”
“I take pride in being part of a team that launched the successful establishment of Dust-A-Side Kalahari as a franchise. Dust-A-Side Kalahari has run various successful dust suppression projects which has resulted in securing business with various mines within the Northern Cape region, not only because of our range of products and services but due to our vision and mission to add value to our clients. I maintain that continuous marketing and interaction is the way to secure future mutually beneficial businesses in the dust suppression market.”
“What important leadership advice can you offer to young people and women, based on the lessons have you learnt in your career thus far?”
“We as woman are in a prime position to make a difference with our presence and contributions to society, and we are blessed as our country laws has included us to participate and be a part of the economy. Don’t give up and continue your journey. Rome was not built in one day; businesses take time to grow. Time is a learning school, be patient and kind to yourself and others on your journey, build others up, don’t break others down.”
Dust-A-Side Coal (Mpumalanga and Kwa−Zulu Natal)
88 Steenkamp Street, Del Judor 2, Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, 1035 Phone: +27 (0) 13 692 7872
Dust-A-Side Kalahari (Northern Cape)
Unit 7, Kameeldoring Business Extension 4095, Kathu, Northern Cape, 8446 Phone: +27 (0)71 332 9641
Dust-A-Side Kalahari is based in the Northern Cape region of South Africa. Rienie runs the business as the Marketing Director, and she is responsible for business development and marketing of the Dust-A-Side Kalahari business in the region. She has undertaken to refine service delivery and business development in marketing and commercial practices while ensuring sustainability of operations within the region. .
Anyone who attended this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town, will have been left in no doubt about the seriousness of the mining industry’s focus on transitioning to a green economy and clean energy. Much of the week-long event focused on this.
Energy discussions took centre stage
with then outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and outgoing Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter driving the discussions in this regard. In addition to the loadshedding crisis plaguing the South African economy, which is impacting the mining sector, dialogue centred around the security of critical minerals needed to fuel the green transition. Nickel, cobalt and
copper were positioned as those most in dire need of supply. The consequent role Africa could play in helping meet demand became a critical talking point.
But the theme of clean energy extended into larger decarbonisation strategy outlines at the Indaba, and in particular how hydrogen could be utilised effectively within this field.
While much pressure and criticism have in recent times been focused on South Africa’s coal-fired power stations fed by a coal mining industry that is desperately searching for a new lease on life, opportunities created by the Russian war in Ukraine have thrown it something of a lifeline. But coal aside, few observers would have surmised a few years ago that the South African mining industry - one not previously associated with green practices - may surprisingly yet turn out to be a leader in the shift to efficient, clean energy.
This was, however, a conclusion drawn from research done last year by Ernst & Young South Africa (EY). Thew research found that three things of significance
have been happening in South Africa in this regard: one is the growing pressure on and new initiatives by the South African mining industry to decarbonise and engage in climate-smart mining; the second is the growing pressure on South Africa’s coal mining industry to wind down or significantly adapt operations and switch to cleaner technologies; and the third was the government’s announcement to ease the regulatory and licencing process of self-generation electricity projects and increasing the generation threshold to 100MW.
The latter is important when considering that the mining industry itself has been a major consumer of Eskom’s coal-based electricity. Local mining companies have already started establishing numerous such projects. Self-generation projects have the potential to contribute significantly towards reducing the cost of electricity and the industry’s carbon footprint, among other things.
At present there is hardly a major mining operator in South Africa, if any, who is not currently engaged in green projects or switching to practices conducive to the transition to clean energy and a green economy.
In essence the EY research pointed to a green energy future for South African mining companies, said research contributors EY Africa Corporate Finance Leader Sandra du Toit and EY Africa Energy and Natural Resources Leader Wickus Botha. In their view the revised schedule of the Electricity Regulation Act brought much promise as it allowed mining companies to generate their own power.
According to the two EY researchers, a coordinated effort by the energy sectors
could see the country reach net zero even as coal-generated power remains an integral part of South Africa’s energy mix. The National Development Plan anticipates leveraging sustainable practices that could provide reliable and efficient energy services at affordable pricing by 2030, they say. Repurposing vast tracks of empty lands bordering mining operations could result in new energy mines to power the continent and reduce their dependence on Eskom and associated energy costs, they believe.
On the question whether South African mining can lead the way to a green energy future, the EY’s research suggests that at a global policy level, the commitment to reach carbon neutrality is growing - and that South Africa mining, an industry not previously associated with green practices, may turn out to be a surprise leader in the shift to efficient energy.
The National Development Plan envisages that, by 2030, South Africa will have an energy sector that provides reliable and efficient energy service at competitive rates; is socially equitable through expanded access to energy at affordable tariffs; and is environmentally sustainable through reduced emissions and pollution.
The 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019) anticipates that South Africa’s emissions are expected to peak, plateau and, from 2025, decline. It also recognises that the energy sector contributes close to 80% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, of which 50% are from electricity generation and liquid fuel production alone.
The more exciting development, the researchers say, is how mining companies
across the globe are now thinking about the other natural resources that they have at their disposal.
Further demonstrating the level of commitment to a green transition in South Africa, in September last year the Energy Council of South Africa, Minerals Council South Africa, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA) and Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG) jointly proposed improvements to the Carbon Tax proposals of the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB).
“As the multi-representative bodies of organised business in South Africa, we are committed to a thriving and sustainable energy sector in South Africa and a just and equitable transition. We are supportive of carbon pricing, including the carbon tax and the development of tools and mechanisms that promote a just transition. We commend the South African government’s commitment to decarbonise and sustainably grow low-carbon sectors of the economy,” they said in a joint statement.
“Our members are firmly committed to reducing carbon emissions and hence believe that the carbon tax should be
implemented at a pace and rate aligned to a developing economy that takes into account the challenges in South Africa including low economic growth, energy security and high unemployment. We believe there are key areas that can be improved on in the TLAB carbon tax proposals in order to avert identified unintended consequences.”
Among the improvements they recommended were a revised carbon tax rate proposal; retaining the current enacted allowances to 2030 and introduce other supporting policies and measures to encourage decarbonisation and growth of low-carbon sectors; a revision of implementation timelines; a bottom-up analysis for hard-to-abate and vulnerable sectors; a study on carbon tax pass-through; and enabling a just transition.
“As a collective, we believe that a carefully designed and well-implemented carbon price serves as a key mechanism towards driving positive behavioural change in combating climate change and realising South Africa’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC),” they added in their statement.
“We are sharing these recommendations to avoid just transition impacts earlier than planned and to avoid unintended
and adverse consequences to an already fragile economy.
Business’s priority is to positively fulfil our role for a decarbonised and sustainable South African economy. We are committed to an energy transition that is just and equitable for the country and look forward to partnering with the South African government to realise this journey.”
But it’s not only mining’s own practices and operations that are being decarbonised – it has a far greater contribution to make. In an article on the Investec website written by Joanne-Lee Marshall, the World Bank is quoted as pointing out that as the energy transition gathers pace, the production of certain critical minerals in the manufacture of everything from solar panels to wind turbines and electric vehicles is forecast to rise by up to 500% by 2050.
With 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, including many of the minerals necessary for renewable energy and green technology, Africa could be a key beneficiary of this new “gold rush”, says the article.
At the Mining Indaba, De Ruyter, in a conversation with Baxter in a wellattended event, heaped praise on the mining sector in general and on Seriti Green, the 91% black-owned and black-controlled Seriti Coal associate, in particular.
Seriti Green has been building a 900 MW wind farm in Mpumalanga province, the heartland of coal-fired electricity in South Africa. However, much of this wind farm will be used by the coal mines of the Seriti group as part of a decarbonisation initiative.
When Japan signed an agreement with Namibia in August to jointly explore for rare earth minerals, it once again focused attention on the current scramble for critical metals –of which rare earth minerals are one group. Countries are seeking new supply chains to lessen their dependence on China for critical metals used in new green technologies such as electric vehicle batteries.
The global scramble is a bit of a late wake-up as the factors driving the current situation have been around for at least a decade, even more. But better late than never.
To cater for Japan’s growing needs in this regard, Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s minister for economy, trade and industry, recently visited several African countries with significant deposits of rare earths and/or other critical metals used in new technologies, including Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Madagascar and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Conspicuously absent from this list of countries was South Africa, despite having significant deposits of rare earths and other critical metals used in green technologies. So just where does South Africa fit into the global rare earths supply chain landscape?
The short answer is that South Africa has very substantial deposits of high graded quality of these rare earth elements (REEs), but the full extent of the local deposits is not yet fully known as mapping continues and extraction remains difficult and expensive. Further clouding the picture is China’s global dominance in this field, one of the critical factors playing into the current scramble for suppliers.
There are 17 of these rare earth elements. They are scandium (Sc-21) and yttrium (Y-39), as well as the fifteen lanthanide series elements, namely lanthanum (La-57), cerium (Ce-58), praseodymium (Pr-59), neodymium (Nd-60), promethium (Pm-61), samarium (Sm-62), europium (Eu-63), gadolinium (Gd-64), terbium (Tb-65), dysprosium (Dy-66), holmium (Ho-67), erbium (Er-68), thulium (Tm-69), ytterbium (Yb-70), and lutetium (Lu-71).
These 17 elements are classified as critical metals by the United Nations and are essential in varying degrees to produce pretty much all of today’s high-tech products. They are used in everything from sophisticated military weaponry and jet engines to electric car motors, wind turbines, solar panels, satellites, cellular phones, batteries, and medical equipment, among many others.
Exciting new developments are taking place in the field of REEs, any number of which has the potential to place South Africa at the supply forefront. The problem with rare earths extraction until now has been that, far from being all that rare, there are significant deposits around the globe. However, they are not very concentrated which makes mining them very expensive. But now a number of other possible sources are being discovered by researchers. For instance, Sweden, South Africa and Australia are at the forefront of efforts to transform piles of mine waste and by-products into rare earths.
In South Africa a far-reaching study has been conducted by the Clean Coal Technology research group at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, as part of the Department of Science and
Innovation/National Research Foundationfunded South African Research Chairs Initiative. The study has highlighted coal and discard as a potential viable source of rare-earth elements. The results of this study on the mineralogy and distribution of rare-earth elements in the high-ash coals of South Africa’s Waterberg coalfield could feed into the new concept of logging coal seams that takes into account the rare earth elemental composition of coal, rather than only thermal coal’s energy characteristics as related to its use in electricity generation.
Such developments have become necessary due to both Chinese domination of REE supplies and the rapid depletion of traditional rare earths ore deposits. As a result, governments, miners and researchers have stepped up investigating alternative or non-traditional sources of these minerals, including from acid mine drainage, coal ash, and other mine waste – materials that are substantially available in South Africa.
Such initiatives recently received a boost from the US Department of Energy which announced that as part of the United State’s Inflation Reduction Act, it was making $16-million available to the University of North Dakota and West Virginia University to complete design studies on processing plants that will extract and separate rare-earth elements and other critical minerals from acid mine drainage, coal ash, and other mine waste. The US has reason to be concerned, but more about this in a moment.
One major REE project in South Africa is the Rainbow Rare Earths pilot project at Phalaborwa which has generated significant interest. The pilot plant will
extract rare earths from gypsum stacks and was scheduled to start operating in the second quarter this year, after which it will run for three to four months, CEO George Bennett told investors in an online briefing in January. That was to be followed by a bankable feasibility study to be completed by the end of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024.
Two other prominent projects being developed locally are at Steenkampskraal Monazite Mine in the Western Cape and the Zandkopsdrift carbonatite mine in the Northern Cape. Other identified sites and projects include the Glenover carbonatite deposit, pegmatite at Mookgophong (Naboomspruit), Namaqua Sands tailings for monazite, and Richards Bay Minerals tailings for monazite.
one of the highest-grade REE deposits in the world.
The value of currently known REE reserves at the mine is more than R20 billion. Much of the work and the investment to bring the mine into production has already been done.
The Zandkopsdrift project contains about 950,000 tons of total rare earth oxides (TREO) and covers an area of approximately 60,000ha also in Namaqualand north of Cape Town. It hopes to eventually produce 20,000 tons of REEs per year. The mine says the highest value heavy rare earth oxides, namely europium, terbium and dysprosium, are contained at elevated levels at Zandkopsdrift.
research efforts are directed towards the development of novel methods and new reagents to overcome these difficulties. PyEarthTM is a novel process currently under development at Mintek, that is aimed at achieving efficient extraction of rare earths from the mineralogically complex iron-rich, rare-earth-bearing ores”.
Laboratory tests on samples from deposits originating from Southern Africa have proved that the extraction of rare earths from iron-rich, rare-earth-bearing ores using this process is technically feasible, robust, and viable. Mintek scientists believe South Africa can easily rank among the top five REE producers in the world. It just needs to be extracted and processed.
Despite the strategic and financial importance of this mining sector for South Africa, it remains much of an unknown entity locally, even within the larger mining community.
According to Steenkampskraal management, the mine contains fifteen REEs, including those that are used to make electric vehicles and wind turbines. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate includes 15,630 tons of neodymium, 4,459 tons of praseodymium, 867 tons of dysprosium and 182 tons of terbium. The combined grade of these four important rare earths is 3.49%, which is higher than the total rare earth grades in most rare earth deposits, making Steenkampskraal
On the processing side, Mintek, which is South Africa’s national mineral research and technology organisation specialising in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy and related areas, has also been active for a number of years to increase South Africa’s relevance and competitiveness in this field.
Pointing to the many complexities, problems and costs of mining and processing REEs, Mintek says, “Globally,
Given the critical importance of these rare earth elements in all new generation green technology and some other established, key technologies, it is all the more surprising to what extent the US had been sleeping while China was busy consolidating its dominance of the world REE market –its own available reserves and mining operations, stockpiles, separating and processing capacity, and dominance of the global supply chain.
This was aptly demonstrated in 2019 when former US president Donald Trump urgently instructed the Pentagon to use the defence budget to find other sources of minerals – including REEs - that are crucial for maintaining much of the world’s current technological advances.
He wasn’t joking or playing politics, as at
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the time the US was dependent on China for 80% of these minerals that it needs for its critical industries. That points to a critical vulnerability for the US given its ongoing tensions with China and the latter’s ambitions of global dominance.
Further illustrating the role such REEs play in rapidly shifting geopolitics, was the fact that immediately upon the US armed forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, China entered into discussions with the Taliban over this country’s substantial treasure trove of REE deposits. This, despite the fact that China at the time already held much more than a third of the world’s known reserves of REEs and produced more than 60% of the world’s raw REE, even if at the time it was down from its peak of 98% a few years ago.
Oddly enough, some decades ago the US was the leading REE producer, but then neglected this key resource and allowed China, who had recognised the strategic importance, to race to the top. By 2020, China’s production of REEs stood at well over 132,000 metric tons while the US produced just over a paltry 20,000 tons after reopening California’s Mountain Pass mine in 2018, currently its only operational rare earths mine.
But the US and the rest of the world’s reliance on China is even bigger because China also dominates the entire global rare earths supply chain. Extracting the raw rare earth ore is one thing and is just the upstream part of the supply chain. The difficult and truly costly other part is in separating and processing rare earth oxides, metals, and midstreamderived alloys, for which China has set up the necessary advanced metallurgical infrastructure.
It is for these processes that the US and other countries send their raw REEs to China, and it will take many years for them to catch up to China with both mining
and processing. It is commonly accepted, as Brent Jellicoe, a highly qualified expert on this subject, pointed out in a presentation to the National Science and Technology Forum on the relevance of REEs for South Africa in 2019, that the separation of the individual elements is the most fundamental part of the overall supply chain.
As it is both technically challenging and expensive to build and operate, China is currently the only country that has developed this complete value adding chain. This leaves the rest of the world at China’s mercy.
Because of their specific geochemical properties, these rare earth elements are typically widely dispersed and are not often found concentrated enough in economically exploitable ore deposits. Although the presence of different REEs vary significantly in their host minerals, they are nonetheless usually found mostly all together in REE-bearing minerals.
According to Jellicoe, REEs occur in over 250 different minerals, of which 95% occur in the minerals bastnaesite (LREE-rich), monazite (LREE-rich), and xenotime. But, as Jellicoe points out, it is not possible to selectively target just one specific element of the REE group for mining – all must be mined together and then be separated through various metallurgical procedures.
China has in the past used its dominance as a strategic weapon when it cut off supplies to Japan following a diplomatic dispute in 2010, disrupting Japanese automobile production. No wonder Japan is hard at work securing an alternative supply chain with countries like Namibia.
Nonetheless, during the Trump administration’s trade war with China, the latter imposed a tariff of 25% on the 50,000 tonnes of rare earth concentrate the US
extracts and sends to China for processing each year. China also used its dominance to manipulate prices to be sky high for several years.
And in recent years China hinted at restricting rare earth sales to the US in retaliation to the ongoing trade war and over the US sale of missiles to Taiwan which China claims as its own territory. But the rules of the game have changed, creating a big opportunity for South Africa.
Very recently, China became for the first time a net importer of REEs, due to its massively growing trade in electric vehicles where it competes with the US among others. Subsequently Africa has been identified by both China and the US as an alternative source of REEs with Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Burundi, having been identified as alternative sources where high-graded, large enough deposits of rare earth minerals will make mining exploitation economically feasible. Among these, South Africa currently has the biggest potential.
security, transformation issues, and a just transition to green energy and a green economy. The challenge missing from this list, is a shortage of technical skills.
Successfully managing and overcoming all of these challenges, plus at the same time ramping up mining operations across the sector with exploration, expansions and new mines in order to exploit the immense opportunities of the green transition, requires a highly skilled work and managerial force. Skills that are in short supply.
South Africa has the potential, but as Fortune Mojapelo, CEO at Bushveld Minerals, reminded us at the Mining Indaba earlier this year, “the question is, how do we unlock this incredible potential really, really quickly so that we don’t miss out on this massive opportunity?” Mojapelo believes that to supply the minerals needed to meet future demand for electric vehicles, for example, around 400 new mines will be needed in the next decade. And they will need people with skills.
It’s common knowledge that mining in South Africa faces many challenges and as a result, it is said, the industry is nowhere near reaching its full potential or successfully exploiting all the new opportunities opening up as the world transitions to a green economy.
Among the many challenges are energy reliability, supply chain issues, environmental impacts, massive increases in demand especially for various green technology minerals, illegal mining activities, the freight rail logistics crisis, worker health and safety issues, operational
The skills shortage is not only a South African problem. Around the globe mining companies are facing the same skills problem as the industry is being transformed to meet the demand for raw materials for the worldwide energy transition. This is further exacerbated by mining companies taking drastic measures to reduce their carbon footprints. In this
environment, mining labour is fast evolving towards specialised technical skillsets balanced with traditional experience and knowledge. Not an easy order to fill.
In 2020, mining executives participating in a World Economic Forum survey overwhelmingly singled out technical skills as their biggest need. And in 2023, a new report from PwC revealed that 41% of mining CEOs polled were concerned that a technical skills shortage over the next decade would threaten the industry’s economic viability as it faced the biggest changes it was undergoing in many decades.
For its part, the Minerals Council South Africa has a skills development team that it says plays an important role in representing members’ interests in this critical area. The team also engages with government on the development and implementation of related legislation and policy. The Minerals Council says it plays a vital role in advocating and lobbying the creation of an environment that enables the mining industry to develop skilled employees for advancement and deployment.
The Minerals Council explains this in a context of many challenges associated with developing the skills needed for mining. Among others, a legacy of poor educational opportunities, a complex tertiary education and training landscape, and a poor basic education system have resulted in many employees having little or low levels of skills development, it says. The national shortage of skills in all economic sectors accentuates the challenges associated with the retention of staff and increases the demands for training and development in the mining sector. The skills development
environment is also riddled with policy, regulatory and legislative requirements, says the Council. Navigating these requirements and challenges can be resource-intensive and exhaustive to individual organisations.
Consequently, the skills development team at the Minerals Council specialises in soliciting and consolidating stakeholder views, and lobbying, advocating and influencing these views to realise a skills development solution that is in the interests of all stakeholders. The Minerals Council is involved in all levels of skills development from adult education and training to operators, miners, artisans, technicians, professionals and managers. The Minerals Council partners with other business organisations and is represented in various advisory, education and training bodies in this regard.
Over the past five years, the local mining sector has supported more than 13,000 students by providing them with full bursaries to study at various tertiary institutions. During the same period,
more than 6,000 students and graduates participated in mining industry workplace experiential learning programmes, and were provided with learnerships and internships in workplaces, training and development in higher education that necessitated an investment of R1.5 billion. The Minerals Council says it is committed training and developing a further 24,000 learners over the next five years.
In a study undertaken by PwC on behalf of the Minerals Council, it was found that in the current transition to green energy and technology, digital transformation older mines may struggle with digital transformation while new mines are designed with digital in mind, but that there was a lack of qualified resources and some resistance to change from the workforce. This is where retraining and reskilling enter the picture.
It was found that among the key initiatives that miners were focusing on, were integrated mine planning, logistics automation, digitally optimised supply
chains, integrated source-to-pay and finance functions, and supporting this, HR standardisation, digital training and skills development.
However, in South Africa numerous skills development complexities create more challenges, and require alignment with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) issues, work skills plans, and social labour plan commitments.
One way of meeting these challenges is for mines to partner with training providers that can provide the necessary skills, promote ESG principles, and provide training that incorporates the transition to new technology. Such specialist training providers offer tailored programmes to address the challenges of the industry and the needs of the mining company.
In addition, it can help equip mine executives, managers and workers with skills to improve safety, labour relations, regulatory compliance, and productivity among other things. Such providers could be crucial in preparing and helping miners to transition to the green energy era through upskilling programmes that will assist workers in adopting and working with these new technologies.
An additional benefit of the technical skills transition is that it could well help with the recruitment and closing of gender gaps in the mining industry at a time when the International Labour Organization says that only about 14% of mining jobs are currently being held by women. Similarly, the technical skills transition can also be focused on helping to alleviate youth unemployment in the country, and several projects in this
regard have already been established. To meet the demand for the newly required skill sets, retraining and reskilling existing workers will be key. This issue is causing some concern among existing mine employees as pointed out in another PwC study, the Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022. This survey found that 38% of workers said that they’re concerned about not getting sufficient training in digital and technology skills from their employer.
However, it won’t be only a case of retraining and reskilling existing workers. There’s also a growing need to attract new talent and a variety of different skill sets from other sectors to drive innovation and move mining towards a more sustainable future. Among mining’s biggest challenges is finding people who understand mining and the different
problems it faces, and how technology can help overcome that. Mining also has to work on changing its image from a dangerous and ‘dirty’ industry to being a modern, environmentally-friendly and generally more appealing industry.
Among the skills it needs to attract are people who are tech-savvy with experience in high-capital situations; people from software, computer hardware or data science backgrounds; while metallurgists, mine geologists, engineers, surveyors and geotechnical engineers will still have to be found as mining-specific roles will remain in demand and will also be pivotal in helping upskill and teach those with non-mining specific skills.
According to a report by McKinsey & Company in February, a well-managed, motivated, and trained workforce has been a core driver for productivity and safety in mining; but an unprecedented skills shortage in the mining industry is elevating talent to the top of miners’ agendas.
The report states that three cross-industry trends are converging to trigger far-reaching changes within the mining workforce. The first is that the nature of work itself is evolving, with an increasing focus on automation, algorithms, and a growing need to be digital savvy—resulting in an estimated one in 16 (more than 100 million) workers globally needing to find a different occupation by 2030. The second is that workers’ preferences are shifting while in the third trend, ways of working are evolving. Simultaneously, global energy uncertainty alongside price and demand rises in commodities that enable electrification (such as lithium, iron ore, and copper), as well as heightened expectations in terms of environmental,
social, and governance (ESG), are ramping up pressure for mining employees to perform and deliver more. This creates significant implications for the mining industry’s talent and workforce.
The report says that talent is increasingly being elevated from a simple enabler to a true value driver. Importantly for miners, they can enhance performance through comparatively low investment in talent and within shorter timeframes than can be achieved by seeking to alter the physical attributes of an asset: for example, a gifted metallurgist, effective mine planner, or talented commodity hedging analyst can have significant impact on a mining company’s value relatively quickly, says McKinsey.
But there are big challenges. Mining companies are experiencing a talent
squeeze. According to McKinsey 71% of mining leaders finding that talent shortage is holding them back from delivering on production targets and strategic objectives. The report says furthermore that 86% of mining executives say it is harder to recruit and retain the talent they need versus two years ago, particularly in specialized fields such as mine planning, process engineering, and digital (data science and automation). McKinsey says it expects this trend to continue.
Finally, mining is not currently an aspirational industry for young technical talent to join: there has been around a 63% drop in mining engineering enrolment in Australia since 2014 and a 39% drop in mining graduations in the United States since 2016. Similar trends are found in South Africa.
– Written by Stef Terblanche
Abattle is brewing between environmentalists and miners over mining the deep seabeds for the vast quantities of high concentrations of transition metals found in the polymetallic nodules stored below the oceans. Caught in the middle is the United Nations-backed regulator and issuer of licences, the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
The argument between the two goes like this: the environmentalists say we still know too little about the potential harm that could be done to the deep ocean environment with its vast and hitherto mostly untouched and sensitive ecosystem. Miners on the other hand, led by a Canadian company that hopes to start mining next year, argue that climate change is the bigger threat and that these metals are needed for the electrification drive and the transition to clean energy. They argue that a compromise is needed.
Ambitious internationally negotiated climate targets that include the transition to clean energy, have triggered a growing interest in the mineral deposits found on the seabed deep below the oceans, with minerals such as zinc, lithium, copper, nickel, aluminium, manganese, and cobalt contained in abundant quantities in the polymetallic nodules found down there. These are all metals needed for transitionary technologies such as solar panels, electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, and smartphones. Demand for these metals is set to skyrocket, with the World Bank estimating that production of these minerals will have to increase by almost 500% by 2050 to meet the growing demand. For example, both copper and lithium are already in short supply.
As a result, mining companies have started developing technology to mine the deep-ocean seabeds, which they believe will be critical for the clean energy transition. Deep-sea mining involved a process of retrieving mineral deposits from the ocean floor below 200 metres, referred to as the deep seabed.
It is estimated that this covers more than two-thirds of the total seafloor area of the world. The evolving technology includes deep-dive submersible vehicles with big suction pipes bringing these metal-bearing nodules roughly the size of potatoes to the surface where they are sorted, before unwanted sediment is flushed back into the sea.
But the environmental scientists and conservationists are cautioning that we still know too little to predict the impacts accurately. At this point, over 75% of the seafloor remains unmapped, while less than 1% of the deep ocean has been explored. That leaves us knowing little or nothing about an enormous part of the world’s oceans.
Some of the concerns are based on the
assumption that the noise from deep-sea mining activities could disrupt marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, that depend on sound as their primary means of underwater communication and sensing. Mining activities could wreak havoc in these marine communities.
But some of the biggest concerns are based around the fact that the deep ocean absorbs and stores more than 90% of the excess heat and close to 40% of the carbon dioxide generated by human activity that is driving climate change. Any disturbance of and release of even a tiny fraction of the carbon thus stored beneath the sea, could produce a disastrous worsening of climate change, the scientists argue.
All in all, environmental scientists and activists believe deep seabed mining would have a destructive effect on fragile and untouched deep-sea ecosystems and biodiversity, which could have knock-on adverse effects on fisheries, livelihoods and food security, and could also compromise ocean carbon, metal and nutrient cycles. Given humanity’s past environmental sins and the current
battle against devastating climate change, this is not a comfortable prognosis.
However, as mentioned, mining companies see the need for mining these metals as just important for accelerating the transition to clean energy and slowing down climate change. And although there are believed to be enough mineral deposits on land for the transition to renewable energy, miners argue that they cannot necessarily be mined economically or without damage to the environment, especially in some of the most biodiverse locations where they are
found, such as South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example.
The whole issue came under the spotlight some two years ago when the government of the Pacific island nation of Nauru notified the ISA that it intended backing a Canadian mining company, The Metals Company (TMC), to start extracting these metals from the deep ocean floor. This triggered an ISA charter clause compelling the ISA to formulate and adopt rules for deep-seabed mining within two years. The clause states the
ISA must “consider and provisionally approve” applications two years after they are submitted. This would mean that TMC could start mining by next year. But following its annual meeting in Jamaica in July this year, the ISA demanded that miners wait until at least next year before starting deep-sea mining. The ISA has undertaken to make, as a priority, a decision on how the two-year rule will be applied at its next meeting in July 2024. The ISA says it has made considerable progress in advancing the regulations for exploitation and for approving a roadmap for the next steps in this regard.
For its part TMC has said that if the ISA decides to accept its application and agrees on the regulations for seabed mining, the company will only start mining after it has completed an environmental and social impact assessment itself. The ISA has been trying to develop regulations for deep-sea extraction of minerals since 2014, but its members have largely failed to agree on a suitable framework to govern it. So far the ISA has issued 31 contracts to companies to explore more than 1.5 million square kilometres of international seabed set aside for mineral exploration in the Pacific and Indian oceans and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
However, there is much support among major industrial concerns, governments, and other entities for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until more scientific knowledge has been gathered. French president Emmanuel Macron has even called for a complete ban.
Switzerland recently said deep-sea mining on the international seabed area must be postponed at least until protection from possible harmful effects could be ensured. Switzerland is a global commodity trading hub, and as such
would be an important party in the value chain of seabed mineral extraction.
In an official statement, the Swiss government said in June this year that it will “support a moratorium on commercial exploitation of the area until there is more scientific knowledge of its impact and protection of the marine environment can be guaranteed. This move was widely praised by environmental groups. According to the news agency AFP, the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature said it was “fantastic news on deep sea mining” while Greenpeace called it a “success for the oceans”. The wildlife conservation group WWF said: “Switzerland is sending an important signal for the protection of the oceans and their biodiversity”.
Switzerland presented its position to the 28th session of the ISA in Kingston, Jamaica in June, which supported the ISA’s call for mining to be stalled at least until next year.
It appears that most ISA member states are agreed that no commercial seabed mining should be allowed before regulations are in place. Going even further, according to the Swiss government, more than a dozen countries have stated that they are opposed to any commercial use of the area regardless of whether regulations are in place. And in recent months, some 600 marine science and policy experts have signed a statement calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until there is sufficient scientific information that shows it can be done
without significant damage to the marine environment.
According to The Economist, several other governments, including those of Germany, Spain, New Zealand, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Norway and the UK, also support a moratorium on deep-sea mining until environmental regulations are in place. And so do a number of global brands that are major users of green battery technology, such as Samsung, Google, Volvo, Philips and BMW.
But pressure is also building in other quarters. Already in August 2021, delegates to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) global conservation summit voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion calling for a moratorium
on deep-sea mining as well as for the reform of the ISA.
For South Africa, as for the entire African continent, the outcome of this debate holds significant potential consequences. Seabed mining is focused on four main minerals - cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper – of which African countries like South Africa, Zambia, the DRC and Gabon are some of the largest producers. These countries will suffer significant harm if seabed mining muscles them out as major producers.
And there is particular risk for African countries like Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique, who could lose their coral reefs if licenses are issued for mining in the Indian Ocean.
However, bucking what seems to be the current cautious trend, Norway just recently announced that it planned to open parts of its continental shelf to commercial deep-sea mining exploration. But Norway said it hoped to set international standards with its controversial move, adding that the seabed minerals are needed to succeed with the green transition.
Norway is often viewed as champion of environmental protection. But it is also Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer and therefore this move could be considered a trade-off. One African example of where seabed mining has already been going on for decades, is the extraction of diamonds and phosphorates from the sea along the coast of northwest South Africa and southwest Namibia. As far as could be established, no comprehensive assessment has ever been done of the environmental impacts of this mining. But it’s not exactly deep-seabed mining as most of this mining is done close to shore.
Nonetheless, South Africa has also started eyeing the potentially lucrative offerings deep-sea mining may hold. Already back in 2019, it organised a workshop attended by various African countries at the Department of International Relations and Co-operation in Pretoria. The workshop was organised by the South African government in conjunction with the ISA, the African Union (AU) and the Norwegian Government to help South
Africa and other African countries prepare for claiming their share of deep seabed mining.
It’s clear that cool heads and reason will have to prevail if deep-sea mining is to be done in harmony with environmental concerns.
– Written by Stef Terblanche.
Afew years ago, there was a lot of buzz in the mining industry and business community around junior and emerging miners… two categories of miners that were still relatively new to the South African mining scene. But since then, things have gone fairly quiet.
So, who or what are these junior and emerging miners, and what has happened to them? Because there is often confusion about these terms, particularly in circles not engaged in mining, some definitions may be in order.
According to Investopedia, unlike a full-fledged mining operation, a junior miner typically does not have its own mining operation. A junior miner is a venture capital firm; it mainly relies on venture capital to secure its financing to undertake mining operations. There is some gray area in the definition of junior miner, says Investopedia.
o3mining.com has a slightly different take on what a junior miner is, saying junior mining stocks are small, early-stage mining companies that are typically still in the exploration and development phase and have yet to mine any resources. Unlike large-cap companies, junior mining companies are new to the market and often have smaller asset bases.
Most countries with a relatively large mining industry are familiar with the term ‘junior miner’, but in South Africa we tend to use two terms for basically, but not quite, the same thing: junior miners and emerging miners.
According to the Minerals Council South Africa’s factsheet on junior and emerging miners, the term ‘junior mining’, internationally generally refers to prospecting companies only involved in the early stages of mining development. This is particularly true for Canada, it
says, where junior exploration companies are supported through the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. In Australia, junior mining usually refers to mid-tier producers.
According to Minerals Council Junior and Emerging Miners Desk head Grant Mitchell, in South Africa, junior miners are small and mid-tier producers, and not, as elsewhere, explorers who find and start the development of new ore bodies. And according to the Minerals Council, the term ‘emerging miner’ is indigenous to South Africa and typically refers to smaller mining companies or micro-enterprises. Most are new entrants to the industry and many have full BEE credentials. Since the advent of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) in 2002, there has been significant increase in the number of smaller mining companies operating in South Africa. In a sense they are part of the larger process to rectify past imbalances and bring more black participants into the mining industry as owners and operators of new mining companies. Prior to 1994 mining companies in South Africa were predominantly white-owned, managed and operated.
While it may seem at times as if things have gone a bit quiet on the emerging and junior miners front, that is not the case. Much has been happening, although there have been some challenges, not least of all the Covid-19 pandemic.
For one, the Minerals Council operates a very vibrant and active Junior and Emerging Miners Desk.
The purpose of the Junior and Emerging Miners’ Desk is to provide advice and
support, and to act as a resource centre for smaller Minerals Council member companies. The Council says that while the Minerals Council, at policy level, presents a consolidated position on key policy areas, it is sensitive to the needs of its smaller members who often lack the capacity and resources to implement policy and legislation, hence this specific desk. There are several areas where junior companies require assistance: for example, in managing regulatory issues and legal compliance and in the raising of finance. While the Junior and Emerging Miners’ Desk does not directly assist individual companies, it is, however, able to lobby on behalf of its junior members at a policy level.
The Junior and Emerging Miners’ Desk offers its members webinars on topical issues, mentorship programmes, research, committee work, lobbying and recruitment, media engagement, and policy lobbying. The Junior and Emerging Miners’ Desk also supports contracting companies and two mining associations representing over 200 smaller companies. To provide strategic leadership, the inaugural Junior and Emerging Miners’ Leadership Forum convened in March 2018. Membership is limited to chief executive officers with an allowance for the appointment of alternates. The chair of the Forum sits on the Minerals Council board.
In October 2018, the Junior and Emerging Miners’ Desk commissioned research into the junior mining sector in South Africa. The research found, firstly, that there is no single definition of junior mining companies in South Africa. Various stakeholders use slightly different definitions which causes confusion in the market. Some definitions are outdated. The research suggested that the definition proposed by the Minerals Council was the most useful and should be adopted as the standard.
Furthermore, the research found that by 2018 the Department of Mineral Resources had issued around 1,490 mining licences to junior miners for a wide variety of commodities. It found that around 80% of mining licences were being allocated to junior mining companies and only 20% to majors. The juniors, however, only generated 8% of the total revenue generated by the South African mining industry.
At that stage, the junior mining sector in South Africa employed between 33,500 and 40,300 people directly and probably as many again through fixed term contracts. This was between 7.5% and 9% of permanent jobs in the broader South African mining industry that at that point employed around 450,000 people. It was suggested that the call made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January 2019 to create 275,000 jobs per year could be greatly bolstered by the junior mining sector, which expressed
in this research survey that job creation was an important part of their purpose.
Although the research did not produce a definitive figure for the number of junior mining companies in South Africa, it made the following estimates:
• Junior miners (with multiple licences and established corporate structures) held an estimated 685 mining licences in 414 companies/entities.
• Small-scale miners (with single licences that are operational) held an estimated 467 mining licences in 463 companies/entities.
• Micro miners (with single licences in operational start-ups) held an estimated 341 mining licences in in 341 companies/ entities.
With the sector consisting of micro-, small-scale- and junior miners, the economic impact that these companies had at around 2018 within the mining sector according to Statistics South Africa, was as follows:
• Capital expenditure per annum: R2.751 billion (4.1% of total mining industry).
• Revenue per annum: R54.93 billion (7.8% of total mining industry).
• Expenditure per annum: R55.86 billion (8.4% of total mining industry).
• Junior miners spent R2.75 billion on capital goods in 2018, which is 4% of the capital spend in the mining industry.
• Juniors contributed 3% - 5% of total taxes paid in the mining industry.
The research further found that junior miners affiliated to the Minerals Council, saw their major purpose as being job creation, wealth creation for entrepreneurs who take risks, spearheading the introduction of new technology in mining, and utilising mineral resources that are too small for major mining houses’ overhead structures. In the latter regard, 53% of juniors aspired to operate at least one mine, while 68% of juniors responded by saying they were focussed on supplying their products back into the South African economy.
The junior miners indicated that they found coal, precious metals, and industrial minerals to be the most attractive commodities for achieving success as junior miners. They also indicated a number of impediments to junior miners developing their projects successfully, including:
• A non-conducive regulatory environment.
• A lack of funding.
• Difficulties in obtaining a mining licence.
Of the 17 participants in the research survey, 47% were small companies with revenues below R5 million per annum, and salary bills below R1 million per annum.
In the 2018 research, coal was singled out by junior and emerging miners as one of the more attractive options for success. However, in February, a panel discussion at the Southern African Coal Conference held in Cape Town, highlighted some of the major problems facing the junior and emerging coal mining sector in South Africa. Among the most pressing issues were finance, a dysfunctional regulator, and logistical difficulties.
Minerals Council Junior and Emerging Miners Desk head Grant Mitchell pointed out that in South Africa, junior miners are small and mid-tier producers with a market capital of up to R500-million, while elsewhere they typically are explorers who find and start the development of new ore bodies. Exploration activity in South Africa is “pretty much defunct”, he said.
Mitchell said that of the Minerals Council’s 77 members, 38, or effectively 50%, were juniors. In 2018, total revenues generated by these juniors across all mining sectors, was R54-billion, while in 2022 they generated R88-billion. This growth, he said, had been achieved despite the Covid-19 pandemic, and despite the challenges the sector faced. Mitchell suspected that coal juniors were a major contributor.
Problems faced by these juniors, particularly in coal, included the fact that the country’s mining regulator was dysfunctional, resulting in juniors struggling for years to get a mining licence
issued. Funding was also hard to secure, particularly for thermal coal projects.
However, in the same discussion, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) Primary Markets business development manager Patrycia Kula-Verster, said that major investors on the JSE are still interested in coal. She highlighted the opportunity provided by the JSE’s new Private Placement Market which was launched in March last year. And Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) Mining & Metals head Thabiso Sekano gave the assurance that the IDC was still among the few financial institutions in South Africa that still looked at coal favourably.
Logistics issues were also singled out as being problematic for junior coal miners. When seeking to raise capital, they had to make sure they could transport their coal from the mine, but rail capacity was a big problem.
In October last year, the JSE hosted an information and knowledge sharing session for the junior and emerging mining sector in Sandton as part of the Junior Mining Indaba. At this session JSE executives and industry stakeholders discussed potential opportunities and current challenges with a view to future close collaboration.
Delivering the opening address, Vuyo Lee, director of Marketing and Corporate Affairs at the JSE noted that, “The junior mining sector – made up of explorers, developers and small and medium sized producers – is not just an essential component of the value chain in mining, but also important to the long-term survival of the mining industry. These players have one thing in common, they require capital and support to grow and flourish.”
Looking at possible solutions which
could assist junior miners in future, Sam Mokorosi, head of Origination and Deals at the JSE, unveiled a new fund-raising platform, JSE Private Placements. “This is an offering for unlisted companies who are looking to raise equity or debt as issuers, and for investors who are looking to invest in SME and infrastructure. We are proud to be associated with Globacap Technology Limited, a UK fintech firm, in this offering. We currently have about R3-billion worth of deals in the funding pipeline and investors with over R10billion to spend on the platform.”
According to the Minerals Council, junior miners are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the shift towards 4IR, digital transformation, and modernisation in mining. The Council says modernisation and technology in mining is as critical for junior and emerging miners as it is for larger mining groups to ensure a safe and healthy work environment, while reducing costs, improving efficiencies and ultimately global competitiveness to unlock South Africa’s mineral wealth.
The emergence of new technologies has ushered in a wave of global change that is being driven by fourth industrial revolution (4IR) innovations and thinking, says the
Council. Space-based technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are maturing rapidly into valuable tools in mining, particularly for exploration. The Minerals Council says it is at the forefront of work to promote and reinvigorate the country’s moribund exploration, emerging and junior mining sector.
By deploying technology and modern mining methods, the cost and efficiencies of extracting ore bodies are improved, increasing the potential for the development of previously uneconomic deposits and new discoveries, creating jobs and wealth for South Africa. Speaking at a Minerals Council’s Junior and Emerging Miners Desk webinar on Modernisation and Technical Innovation for Junior Mining Companies in 2021, Sietse van der Woude, Senior Executive: Modernisation and Safety, said work undertaken by the Minerals Council in partnership with the Mandela Mining Precinct and RIIS, supported the development and rollout of such technologies.
Key initiatives of high interest to junior and emerging miners have been undertaken under the Mining Skills 4.0, Real Time Information Management Systems (RTIMS) and Advanced Orebody Knowledge programmes. These programmes seek immediately implementable, costeffective solutions and aim to establish
mechanisms that enable industry-wide modernisation and digital transformation.
The adoption of technology to find mineral deposits is essential if South Africa is to achieve its ambition of securing at least 5% of the global share of exploration expenditure in the future.
“Far from being science-fiction, technologies are maturing rapidly into action-oriented business tools,” said RIIS Modernisation Programme Director Davis Cook. “Not only is the cost of satellite data decreasing radically due to falling space-access costs, but the resolution and availability of data is increasing. Further, new technologies are being developed that allow for completely new exploration processes, enabling significantly more accurate (and hence lower cost) exploration programmes.”
Cook added that the use of AI systems in ore body recognition is gaining traction around the world. AI is capable of reanalysing existing data sets to discover previously missed orebodies.
“This creates new efficiencies in optimising for initial search locations, though it does require detailed and updated minerals cadastres,” said Cook. The US and the European Union have identified and revised lists of critical minerals and have developed action plans, which include improving international cooperation with other nations to secure a diversified and sustainable supply of these minerals.
This presents a significant opportunity for international partnerships and investments for South African mining. Many of these critical mineral deposits are mostly of modest size and on surface or at shallow depth, making them excellent opportunities for junior miners.
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It’s the year 2023 and the world is in the throes of several revolutions –the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), the green transition to clean energy and a green economy, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, and so forth. And then there is the gender revolution, the global drive to create parity for women in a world that until now has been unfairly dominated by men.
So, having just emerged from Women’s Month in August, the question may rightly be asked: where in this revolutionary world do South African women stand in the robust industry called mining? Are they fairly represented or is it an uphill battle?
According to the Minerals Council South Africa, by 2020 women represented just over 12% of all employees in the mining sector.
In 2021 business services firm McKinsey estimated that women represented an estimated 8 to 17% of the global mining workforce, while the International Labour Organisation (ILO) put the figure at 14%. While the figures still look rather dismal, there is hope. National mining industries around the world are increasingly making efforts to increase women representation. And new developments such as digitalisation and the technical skills transition in mining could help close the gender gap as many of the previous obstacles and physical constraints to the recruitment of women in mining are diminishing.
But still. With women making up 49.6% of the global population, there are almost equal numbers of men and women in the world. And yet, as pointed out above, women make up a mere 8–17% of the global mining industry.
Nonetheless, having launched its Women in Mining initiative in March 2020, the Minerals Council and its member mining
companies have set targets to increase the number of women in mining to 30% representation by 2025 and 40% by 2035.
At the same time, the targets for women in management positions are 40% by 2025 and 50% by 2035.
Against this background it is fitting that during this past Women’s Month, the Minerals Council launched its Women in Mining (WiM) Newsletter. The aim of this newsletter is to highlight the exceptional contributions, achievements, and experiences of women in the local mining industry, as well as publishing stories about the work the Minerals Council is doing to support and encourage women through its WiM Leadership Forum.
The Council says it aims to create a platform that amplifies the voices of women in the sector and facilitates sharing of best practices among Minerals Council member companies. Features include highlighting the inspiring success stories of women who have overcome barriers and have made a positive contribution to the industry and their respective companies.
mining in big numbers really only gained momentum at about the same time that the Covid-19 pandemic arrived. Before that an archaic situation prevailed because South Africa, along with many other countries, ratified a 1935 convention of the ILO that prohibited the employment of women in any underground mining work. However, many countries started denouncing the convention from the late 1980s onwards, with South Africa doing so in 1996. They instead became signatories to the ILO’s new Convention
The newsletter includes interviews with influential women in leadership roles and those doing remarkable things. It also shares industry insights and trends and provides information of upcoming events, workshops and conferences and highlight resources and opportunities to support and empower women in mining and continue.
However, in South Africa as in many other countries, the drive to bring women into
By 2020 women represented just over 12% of all employees in the mining industry
176 on Safety and Health in Mines of 1995. But it wasn’t until more than twenty years later before things really started taking off.
In South Africa and globally, the cause of women in mining only gained momentum with the inaugural Global WiM Summit convened by the International Women in Mining (IWiM) on 1 and 2 March 2021.
The first ever Global Women in Mining Summit was hosted on a virtual platform, with women of the South African mining industry well-represented via the support of the Minerals Council South Africa.
On that occasion, Nolitha Fakude, Chair of the Minerals Council WiM Leadership Forum, Dr Thuthula Balfour, Head: Health of the Minerals Council, and Thabile Makgala, Executive Mining at Impala Platinum, outlined the South African mining industry’s Women in Mining strategy to WiM leaders from all over the world. The participants engaged on the virtual platform in lively, thoughtprovoking workshops and roundtables focused on creating a common roadmap to success.
That had been preceded by the launch of a White Paper in March 2020 and the launch of a gender-based violence initiative, all part of developing a roadmap towards achieving greater recognition and parity, free of discrimination and
gender-based violence, for women in the industry. Following that, Dr Balfour, who led the Minerals Council’s Women in Mining Task Team to the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, gave a presentation launching the implementation of the Minerals Council’s WiM Strategy.
Since then, the women leading these initiatives have been very busy, now culminating with the launch of the WiM Newsletter. Many mining companies have since then also done much in this regard, but there’s so much more that still needs to be done. The local WiM have developed a road map that assists mining companies in doing just that.
Nonetheless, in a mining industry that dates back to the mid-1800s – beginning with copper in the early 1850s, diamonds in 1867, and gold in 1886 - black mineworkers in South Africa only started receiving more equal employment treatment to their white counterparts from the 1980s onwards. The process of full racial integration and employment equity only began after the 1994 democratic elections and continues.
But less known is the fact that women of all races received an even worse deal. Incredible as it may now seem, as mentioned already, they were completely barred from working underground in mines in South Africa right up until 1996 and
fared little better above ground. Mining was essentially an all-male preserve. In addition, the South African Minerals Act of 1991 also prohibited women from working underground. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which was promulgated in 1996 by President Nelson Mandela and came into effect early in 1997, ended gender discrimination. New regulations, policies and guidelines governing the mining sector have actively encouraged the employment of women in the mining industry. The three Mining Charters since 2004 have set targets for the employment of women.
So, just how much has the position of women in mining in South Africa changed since then? Let’s look at the facts as compiled by the Minerals Council in a fact sheet, ‘Women in Mining in South Africa’.
• The number of women working in the mining sector has increased significantly in the past 15 years or so – from around 11,400 in 2002 to around 53,000 women in 2015, increasing to 54,154 in 2018, and then to 56,691 in 2019. Women now represent 12% of the mining labour force of 454,861.
• By 2019 women made up 17% of top management in mining; 17% of senior management; 24% of professionally qualified personnel; and 18% of those in skilled technical professions.
• The number of training interventions being attended by women in mining increased from 12% in 2013 to approximately 17% in 2018.
The aim is to create a platform that amplifies the voices of women in the sector…
That’s a vast improvement on what the position was in 1996 when South Africa adopted the ILO’s Convention 176. By far the majority by 2019, that is 19,694 women, were employed in the platinum group metals sector, followed by 13,059 in coal, and 11,271 in gold.
And yet, women still overall only represent 12% of South Africa’s total mining labour force of 454,861 people in 2019. South Africa also lags behind other mining countries such as Australia and Canada, which, though also still very low, have a slightly higher representation of women in mining at 17% and 16% respectively. Despite recent progress having been made in increasing the percentage of women in the sector with targets for white and Indian women being achieved, targets for black and coloured women are still not being met in most instances. There
are many challenges that remain, with the safety of women miners being one of the biggest concerns. As the Minerals
changing facilities, and the fact that there are very few other women working near them, all make working underground more difficult for women.
Council’s WiM stated in its 2020 fact sheet: “One of the biggest concerns facing women who want to work underground is safety – specifically the risk of sexual harassment, and even sexual violence, directed at them by their male colleagues and by illegal miners.
“Underground conditions mean that women are often especially vulnerable. Crowded conveyances, poorly lit tunnels and work areas, the lack of toilet and
“Almost daily, women across the industry report incidents of physical assault, verbal abuse, being asked to trade sexual favours for employment or other benefits or being placed in more junior positions with less pay than their male counterparts. There have also been incidents of rape.
“Part of the problem is the patriarchal and sexist culture that exists in South African society, and which is widely prevalent in the mining industry,” says WiM.
Of course, there are other inhibiting factors too. For instance, with South Africa having some of the deepest mines in the world especially in the gold and
Until 1996 women were barred from working underground in mines
platinum industries, labour-intensive underground working conditions are physically extremely demanding, thus impacting directly on the ability of women to work at these levels in these mines.
There are accompanying health risks for women as well. Also, no pregnant woman may work underground, and the mine must provide safe working conditions during pregnancy and breastfeeding above ground. Work clothing and equipment – like boots and overalls – originally designed for men, also create problems.
But these challenges have been and are being worked on, and in many mines safe working conditions for women have already been created. And, over the past few years, female mining employees, labour unions, management, the Minerals Council and equipment manufacturers collaborated in identifying aspects of equipment that needed to change in order to be work-appropriate for women. So, on this front too progress is being made. The good news for women is that as the local and global mining industry moves into the future, modernises and becomes more mechanised, physical strength will become less of a requirement, creating significant opportunities for women in the industry.
The Minerals Council’s white paper and the subsequent WiM roadmap that was developed, have focused on streamlining industry strategies that will advance women in mining. This entails encouraging female representation in the industry and driving decisions that are in the best interest of women. As a result, the Minerals Council developed a WiM task team from within the Minerals Council and its member mining companies that is tasked with the implementation of the white paper and the roadmap, as well as its monitoring and evaluation.
As part of this, the Minerals Council is working to streamline member companies’
gender diversity and inclusion strategies and implementation effort. In turn, many companies have committed to deliver the seven foundational measures that were identified in the Minerals Council’s WiM strategy being implemented. These 7 foundational measures are:
• Reaffirm zero tolerance for genderbased violence.
• Develop gender diversity and inclusion policies.
• Provide reporting systems for gender diversity issues.
• Initiate unconscious bias training to transform the culture.
• Deploy an ongoing companywide pulse check survey.
• Build an inclusive physical environment.
• Supply PPE for women specifically.
It is now up to mining companies to take up the challenge if they haven’t done so yet. While women are making much progress in taking their rightful place in the industry much more still needs to be done.
Over the past three years, efforts have been made to implement the WiM Strategy through the Minerals Council’s WiM Leadership Forum and working groups.
attract women to mining careers and ensure a safe, inclusive working environment. Key actions over the next three years include crafting and sharing a GBV framework, revising diversity, equity and inclusion policies, establishing and running WiM structures at company level, increasing engagement on the Minerals Council’s WiM Gender Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard, using education materials on unconscious bias and collaborating
However, WiM says there is a need for refocused efforts to achieve the targets that have been set. In response, the WiM working groups have recalibrated their efforts to make the mining sector an “Industry of Choice for Women.”
Through increased awareness campaigns, utilising multimedia platforms and focused partnerships with stakeholders, they aim to
Safety and health issues are some of the biggest inhibiting factors for women in mines
with external stakeholders to address socio-economic challenges.
The revised strategy allows for continuous co-creation by women and men in the industry to create a sustainable mining sector that is diverse and equitable, and addresses socio-economic challenges in host communities. Through these efforts, the mining industry aims to become more inclusive, perform better economically
and attract the best talent in the field.
Furthermore, according to WiM, as the mining industry in South Africa and globally moves into the future, it is increasingly clear that the work they do will have to become more modernised. This will create significant opportunities for women in the industry, WiM believes. As mining becomes more mechanised, physical strength and stamina will become
less important than fine motor skills, dexterity and problem solving – all of which are more easily acquired by new entrants to the workforce. Then of course there are exciting new opportunities for women brought about by digitalisation, the shift to supporting clean energy, new approaches to procurement, and more.
– By Staff Writer
Benefits of being a SAIMM member includes:
• Receiving a monthly Journal with a balanced content and of a high standard which serves as a communication medium to keep members informed on matters relating to their professional interests.
• Attending world class industry events and technical visits, hosted by the SAIMM, at a discounted rate.
• Contributing to the minerals industry in South Africa.
• Official recognition of achievements.
Contact Prudence@saimm.co.za
The SAIMM offer world class conferences and events. Our events attract experts and specialists from all corners of the globe as both delegates and presenters. This forum provides the opportunity for peer learning and optimized networking. The titles for 2024 conferences includes
• Pyrometallurgy
• Rare Earths
• Manganese School
• Hydrometallurgy
• World Sampling and Blending
Contact Camielah@saimm.co.za
Our journal is exclusively available to our members via our website. It is a compilation of papers from industry experts published monthly. Our Journal is recognized by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The Journal is the organ of The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, which is the professional body dealing with the interests of managers, engineers and technical and research personnel involved in the mining and minerals industry.
Contact Tarryn@saimm.co.za
SAIMM the Crucible is your front row seat to conversations with industry experts and thought leaders.
Offering consistent, superior service is part of OUR commitment to OUR customers
COUNTRYWIDE GEARBOX REPAIRS SPECIALIZES IN THE REPAIR AND OVERHAULING OF UNDERGROUND FLAMEPROOF EQUIPMENT
> Flameproof tractors
> 120G Graders
> Forklifts
> Earth moving Equipment
> LHD Load haul dump machines
The company’s team of highly-skilled technicians are fully trained in the repair & maintenance of variety of internationally branded machines. In particular we offer expert services in the repair of components for New Holland Flameproof Tractors as well as Clark & Spicer.
COMPONENTS SUCH AS
> Gearboxes
> Transmissions
> Differentials
> Trumpets
> Gear Levers
> Service Exchange units