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The changing face of the global mining industry

Mining MX the South African mining industry journal published its 2022 edition of the Mining Yearbook recently.

For many years, this publication produced in conjunction with leading business weeklies is the holy grail for stakeholders in the mining industry with a particular interest in South Africa and the region. This year’s publication is freely available on the Mining MX website.

The 2022 edition ran under the theme “Rock Bottom: Why South African Mining cannot risk more Mantashe blunders”. The theme is a harsh though factual indictment on the effect of government policy on the mining industry personified by the current minister of mines and former communist Gwede Mantashe.

  • South Africa owes its existence as a nation to its mining industry which remains one of its largest contributors to its GDP.
  • Mining MX published its annual Mining Year Book which shoed that mining investment in South Africa is on the decline.
Why Australia is a top mining destination

This is specifically in the case of South Africa, which has enjoyed the most benefit from the mining sector in the southern region. This benefit translated into further foreign direct investment flows of more than US$ 40 billion in 2021 alone, up from US$ 3 billion in 2020.

This is in contrast with Zimbabwe, which has been an investment pariah for the last two decades. Zimbabwe has not appropriated as much from its mining sector relative to South Africa, especially when viewed through the foreign direct investment lens. According to its central bank, the country garnered foreign direct investment proceeds of US$ 103 million for the year.

Regardless of the poor showing in FDI terms, the country has recorded a 33% rise in export earnings driven primarily by the mining industry to US$ 5.45 billion. This is to show that the mining sector is central to southern Africa’s economic development.…

Abena Andoh-Mensah, a Metallurgist at Abosso Goldfields Limited (Damang Mine). www.theexchange.africa

The company has managed to make a strong comeback from when it faced an existential threat when prices of commodities slowed down in 2014. Prior to that period, mining company shares were hot because of China’s urbanization. It drove prices of commodities through the roof taking the shares of resource companies with them.

When China’s economic growth slowed down the miners also felt the pinch. The pinch was felt especially at Gold Fields which had to restructure its business and retrench at least 1,300 workers mainly from Ghana to ensure the long term sustainability of the company. The restructuring produced desirable results characterized by net cash inflow of US$ 235 million. In that same year, its Australian operations produced 1 million ounces of gold.

The company’s operations are massive and span 3 continents.…