Zwane ignores charter dispute
MINING INDABA: RIO MAY INVEST US$450M IN SA
Mining executives, investors and government ministers are meeting in Cape Town for the African Mining Indaba.
Minister skirts current impasse over charter and Anglo American hopes for new negotiations in Ramaphosa era.
Mining executives, investors and government ministers are meeting in Cape Town for the African Mining Indaba. Recent multiyear highs for many commodities have the world’s biggest miners swimming in cash and new demand from electric vehicles mean once-overlooked metals like lithium and cobalt are grabbing the spotlight.
But it’s not all blue skies as the industry grapples with regulatory changes and uncertainty in countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania and SA. Here are the latest developments.
Zwane ignores elephant in the room
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s speech spanned the industry’s contribution to SA’s economy, efforts to boost geomapping and the importance of exploration. However, he failed to address the acrimonious dispute between his department and mining companies in SA over the controversial mining charter introduced in June 2017.
Rio Tinto investment
The minister also mentioned that he had met Rio Tinto Group since arriving in Cape Town and dropped a reference to a planned $450 million investment by the company to expand operations.
Rio hasn’t announced that, but Zwane might have been referring to the Zulti South minerals sands project in Richards Bay. The company’s board is due to make a decision on it this year, according to a Rio spokesperson.
Mining automation
Rio Tinto Group’s Bold Baatar, head of energy and minerals, said the world’s number two miner will be competing with the likes of Facebook and Google for workers, as mining automation increases. Currently, two-thirds of Rio’s engineers are miners, but within a decade that number will be halved, he said. He also echoed a popular point from the industry: governments often have too high expectations of mining profits and don’t factor in the costs.
Anglo hopes for ‘reset’ button
Norman Mbazima, deputy chairperson of Anglo American SA, is hopeful that with the improvement in the political environment since December “we can now find the ‘reset’ button and get back around the table”.
December refers to the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC leader. Mbazima was “very encouraged” about Ramaphosa’s comments in Davos that urgent action was needed to resolve the impasse over SA’s mining charter.
Long way to go before women are accommodated
The mining industry’s culture needs to become “less alpha male” and has a long way to go to create a workplace that includes women, said Mike Fraser, president and chief operating officer for Africa at South32. From safety gear to facilities, the sector often doesn’t cater enough for women, he said. “Those kinds of conversations, while they are now coming to the surface, are probably 20, 30, 40 years too late and there’s still significant work to do.” – Bloomberg