‘Russia could help SA platinum sector’

Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday that a partnership with Russia might be beneficial to the platinum sector.

Mantashe was speaking alongside his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Kobylkin, at the South Africa-Russia Platinum Group Metals conference in Johannesburg.

He said it would be beneficial for South Africa to use Russian technology in developing the platinum group metals (PGM) sector.

“In terms of PGMs‚ it is important to illustrate the effort we are putting in increasing the demand for platinum.

“I’m very excited by seeing attempts to develop uses for PGMs‚” Mantashe said.

“For us in South Africa‚ PGMs are quite an important sector; it used to be gold. There are more workers in PGMs than in gold.

“It’s quite important for us to invest in PGMs. We have no luxury to just sit back and watch them declining.”

In his closing speech‚ Mantashe said SA could not sustain its mining unless proper exploration work was done.

“We will benefit if we can partner with Russia in terms of technology. The more we modernise our technology, the better all of us are.

“It is quite important that platinum jewellery is promoted and grown.”

The conference sessions‚ apart from the closing address‚ were closed to the public. –