With this year’s Mining Indaba kicking off in a few days I have revisited the issues highlighted at the 2023 event after the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s addresses. Hot air, empty promises and a total lack of unaccountability were the order of the day. To be frank, the South African government’s understanding of the country’s mining industry can be described as The Great Nothing. It is that distant from reality.
What is The Great Nothing? In cosmology it is officially named the Boötes Void. It’s a spherical region in space measuring an estimated 62 megaparsecs, or 330 million light-years, in diameter. Locally, it represents the distance between the Union Buildings and reality.
Mantashe’s missed his opportunity to address critical issues or set new targets. Instead, he tossed the ball into the private sector’s court and suggested investors need to find solutions to current and anticipated issues. While investors were hoping to hear action plans on these issues his comment left a stunned audience wondering who is running things in Pretoria.
At a time when financiers and investors are more heavily scrutinising and need reassurance on issues around ESG, particularly in respect of business and human rights and responsible sourcing, Mantashe also missed an opportunity to highlight what developments South Africa is heeding. Improving investor confidence in mining in Africa requires addressing softer, non-financial issues which are placed highly on funders’ agendas.
A further omission from Mantashe’s address was the need to improve licensing timelines and efficiencies, related to both mining and energy, which are ongoing problems for mining companies. Neither did he refer to the long-delayed mining cadaster.
Although he addressed the importance of the geological data available from the Council for Geosciences, it is concerning that he may be hinting at a move towards putting all geoscience data in the hands of the state to facilitate a tender system, rather than a “first come, first served” system for granting mining exploration permits.
While the minister’s reiteration of the importance of exploration, and plan to set up a ZAR500 million fund for emerging miners, are positive, this fund needs to be well run. Promoting exploration needs to be accompanied by an effective cadastral system and a concrete action plan on the other initiatives mentioned in the Exploration Strategy aimed at attracting investment and preventing the sterilization of minerals.
Not to be outdone Ramaphosa aimed another dart towards the private sector, stating that companies are too critical of the government without extending a helping hand. “Stop moaning! Get into the ring with us,” he demanded.
Hopefully this year one of the topics either Mantashe or Ramaphosa will provide some assurance on the ongoing woes regarding the export of coal through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.
Hopefully In less than a week we will have answers to this as well as a more positive revisiting of last year’s verbal blunders.
The 30th Investing in African Mining Indaba will take place on 5 to 8 February 2024, in Cape Town.
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