Survival Tips

South Africa urged to go back to basics to avoid mining’s demise

- Mia Breytenbach

For South Africa’s mining industry to return to more successful times, the country will need to go back to basics, says Wits Mining Institute director Professor Fred Cawood, who also suggests that these basics could aid in the continued survival of the mining industry in South Africa.

These basics would include embracing Africa, South Africa, mining sustainability, mine modernisation and the skills needed for a twenty-first century mining industry, he said in a presentation delivered at the thirty-eighth African Mining Network event, in Johannesburg, last week.

The head of the University of the Witwatersrand institute acknowledged that there were key concerns for the industry, including reckless politics, volatile commodity prices, a long-term trend of mining becoming less important as no large deposits had been found, as well as international trends.

“[To go back to basics], we can start by embracing Africa . . . Africa has the mineral resources the world wants and needs,” Cawood said, adding that the continent had large quantities of good quality minerals, as well as the people and skills to mine those minerals.

He suggested that African governments and mining companies align their policies and strategies with the African Mining Vision, while innovations for broad benefit, for mine sustainability and for business improvement should form part of all decision-making processes.