SA mining situation embarrassing

It was heartbreaking reading an article about the incredible boom of the Australian mining industry , the profits generated recently which were in excess of $157 billion (about R1 trillion) and with new investments topping $20 billion when last year all the investment that South Africa managed to attract, and not just for mining, was a minuscule $2 billion. Now compare us to Australia. We have Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, pictured, hammering the last nail in the coffin of the mining industry with the new amendments of the Mining Charter and the suspension of new mining and exploration licences which will harm the fragile industry even further.

We see already the results with AngloGold Ashanti shedding 8 500 jobs with immediate effect.

For decades now our mining industry has been on a downward spiral, bleeding jobs at the rate of 1 200 to 1 500 per month, and the industry has retrenched over 70 000 jobs in the last five years. This when we are blessed with the best resources in the world to mine.

Then I read the Fraser Institute new list and got even more depressed because we have dropped from the top five in the world and now we are sitting as the 74th mining investment preference in the world.

Wow, what an achievement for the ANC government.

Small wonder that most of our mining companies keep on investing offshore. JM Bouvier, Bryanston