Building Trust Building Mining
The Johannesburg Mining Indaba has just kicked-off this morning with Chairman Bernard Swanepoel giving a clear call to the industry in his opening address, to do more than talk at this year’s event. Swanepoel stressed the need to ensure that there should be a rebuilding of trust across the players in the industry in odder to reignite an industry, that despite record high prices in resources such as gold and PGM’s currently, has seen a stagnation of new mining activities across the various mining sectors.
The industry has seen ongoing new investment declines over the last ten years and this together with ongoing challenges with uncertainty in policy and regulatory matters, that has deeply damaged investor confidence in the country.
As a mark of this South Africa that for many years was the global leader in gold production, and at one stage produced over 600 million tons of gold annually, has now dropped to around 100 million tons. given the current record high gold prices, the impact of this on the country’s economy is significant.
Anglo American, once South Africa’s largest mining group, today has not a single mining operation in the country, with the bulk of its new operations having been focused elsewhere on the globe. They do however still have part ownership of Rhumba mine and De Beers in the region. Duncan Wanblad CEO of Anglo American, spoke candidly about South Africa’s mining landscape highlighted that South Africa with all its natural resources is one of the least explored indicating that there is massive opportunity still remaining in the region.
Changes Needed but Growth Possible:
A major challenge for listed mining groups is the ability to unfold investor value that creates strategic challenges and this was part of Anglo’s move to list on the London Stock Exchange in 1999. Wanblad expresses that due to the intensive capital requirement for new mining developments, there was the need to raise new capital and the disinvestment from South Africa was part of this strategy.
Interestingly, when Anglo diverged from Tugela and other mining interests in South Africa, those entities saw growth in value under new management.
However Wanblad highlighted that while the South African supporting elements for mining such as infrastructure were not completely broken, there was an urgent need for these to be addressed to ensure that mining can remain viable and profitable.
Exploration Drop-off Critical
South Africa is under explored today because it has not had the support in the form of policy certainty over the last 17 odd years according to Wanblad, and this is killing investment due to uncertainly. “You need policy certainty and economic stability in order to change this reality” said Wanblad. “Nothing is telling me they are going to be overcome tomorrow, but nothing is telling me they can’t nee overcome” states Wanblad.
July Ndlovu Inducted into Mining Hall-of-Fame
Another milestone in mining for the country happened at the gala event last night where Resources 4 Africa announced the induction of July Ndlovu, CEO of Thungela Resources, into the Joburg Indaba South African Mining Hall of Fame. The announcement was made at the annual Joburg Indaba Gala Dinner, which precedes the main event held on 8–9 October at the Inanda Club, Johannesburg.
Launched in 2016, the SA Mining Hall of Fame recognises individuals who have made a lasting impact on the South African mining sector since the dawn of democracy. Its members include some of the industry’s most respected figures, such as Neal Froneman, Sipho Nkosi, Mark Cutifani, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Peter Steenkamp. With Ndlovu’s induction, the hall now honours 20 esteemed leaders whose influence has shaped the sector over decades.
Bernard Swanepoel, Chairperson of the Joburg Indaba, says: “The Hall of Fame is about celebrating resilience, leadership and vision in an industry that is both deeply challenging and immensely important to South Africa.
“July Ndlovu embodies those qualities. He has navigated extraordinary global and domestic headwinds with a combination of optimism and strategic conviction. Not only did his leadership of Thungela delivervalue to shareholders but also positioned the company as a resilient player in the international energy market.”
