Speaking at the Joburg Indaba, Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe spoke of the current state of the Mining Industry. These were his key points made.
Key points:
For the past few years, the mining industry has not been unified, but great strides have been taken in the past few months. According to Mantashe, “We have now re-established relations and we’re talking to one another. We fought, we hugged, we embraced,” Mantashe believes that mining should not a be a sector of charters, but a sector able to contribute significantly to the gross domestic product of the South African economy.
Mantashe has called for greater use of Platinum, mainly through a platinum Mandela coin and platinum-catalysed fuel cells used to power off-grid areas. “We must develop demand for platinum,” says Mantashe. “We must develop the Mandela coin and every person in mining must buy that coin.” He further says that “We must market the fuel cell and we must use it to take energy across the country.” He continues by saying that, “It’s a responsibility for us as a country to create demand for platinum. Let’s look into growth potential and investment potential and give young people opportunities.”
The gold industry has had a considerable downfall, and Mantashe encourages growth for the industry in 2019.
In addition, he praises the new Mining Charter for making provisions for mineworkers. The health and safety of these workers are of incredibly importance, because they are crucial in converting mining investment into wealth, and communities. He says, “Workers put their life on the line and they must have a stake and we settled that.”
In terms of the Industry operations itself, Mantashe cautioned stakeholders that disrupting mining meant disrupting benefits and economic growth. He also urged the industry to be more predictable from a production point of view in terms of mining volatility. Finally, he urges the industry to change the narrative of South African mining. “If we can change our narrative as the industry, our rating as an industry will change internationally. We must be attractive to investment.”
[Source: Miningweekly.com – https://goo.gl/7R2sB6]
