Opportunity Issue 108

MINERALS COUNCIL SOUTH AFRICA
There seems to be quite a bit of foreign
interest in the Northern Cape?
The foreign interest is widespread. Vedanta, from a base metals and
zinc perspective, has been present in the country for a while and
they’re really just consolidating around that asset in the Northern
Cape. Given the long-term positive sentiment towards mineral
commodities, including zinc, they continue to invest. In terms of
other commodities, junior miners are very active, looking for new
opportunities and the Northern Cape is one of those areas that still
has huge opportunities for further exploration beyond what it is
already known in iron ore and manganese.
The Minerals Council website references women in
mining and several events related to that subject.
Women in Mining is not an event; it is who and the way we are
and the way we work. Beyond the context of transformation in
South Africa, in mining, our members have invested significant
amounts of change effort to increase the participation of women in
the workplace across all levels of mining, currently standing at 15%
of the mining workforce. We are led from the top by Ms Nolitha
Fakude as the President of the Minerals Council South Africa,
which represents members for 90% of the mineral production of
South Africa and close to 5% of the formal sector workforce. Large
corporate agents of transformation in the mining sector, such as
Exxaro Resources and Kumba Iron Ore, are led by women CEOs, Dr
Nombasa Tsengwa and Ms Mpumi Zikalala, respectively. So, at the
leadership level we are making good progress. The representation
and participation goes deeper into various levels of our member
organisations. What’s also been pleasing is that as technology
improves, the emphasis has been less on (literally) manpower,
which has allowed more women to participate at the “mine face”
where production takes place. As an industry we are focused on
diversifying the workplace, harnessing the full potential of human
capability to maximise value creation and ensuring that everyone
who participates in mining thrives economically and socially.
Please tell us about the Mandela Mining Precinct.
The Mandela Mining Precinct is one of our pride and joys. It is a
private-public partnership between ourselves and the Department
of Science and Innovation through the CSIR. It focusses on how we
continue to modernise mining in all respects. It is innovation, not
only from a technical perspective but also in terms of how people
interact with technology and how technology is used to enhance
the capability of people. It is also looking into the future in terms
of what are the future needs of society which mining can fulfil. The
research done today in order to prepare for the future. And it is led
by a woman, Ms Julie Courtnage, I should add.
Any final thoughts on the mining sector today?
In order to get to the position where the mining industry can
play the role that we want to play, it is important that we fix the
challenges that the mining industry is faced with. We often say
that the challenges of Transnet and Eskom present an existential
crisis, not only to the mining industry but to the economy of South
Africa. The mining industry is playing a role in ensuring that we
address these critical areas to remain globally competitive. We
are working very closely with government and the rest of South
Africa’s business in ensuring that Eskom performs effectively and
efficiently in terms of delivery of electricity. We’re very pleased
with the reforms that have been announced to date and we look
forward to implementation sooner rather than later.
Equally with Transnet, stabilising performance is going
to contribute significantly to arresting the decline in mining
output that we’ve seen recently and that will provide for
confidence and certainty in terms of reinvesting in mining and
planning for growth. The reforms do need to be executed with
speed and at scale because of the impact that they are going to
have on confidence in mining and other sector investment and
consequent employment creation. It will generate revenue for
the fiscus and the combination of these is a stimulus into the
economy which will then begin to see the economy perform
well above the current levels of 0.5% of GDP growth, to the
national ambition above 6%. Lastly, to inspire confidence and a
sense of well-being and safety in the rest of society, we are also
playing a big role in eliminating crime and corruption, because
that is affecting the whole economy and many aspects of our
lives. The expected outcome is greater security for people,
households and business assets and freedom of movement
which will provide for thriving livelihoods and economy.
Therefore, these three areas remain a critical priority for us to
continue to focus on and deliver during this year, which I call
“2024 Forward and Upward”.
BIOGRAPHY
Mzila I Mthenjane is the CEO of the Minerals Council South
Africa, the advocacy and impact group whose members
represent 90% of South Africa’s mineral output and employ
close to 480 000 people. He was previously the Executive
Head for Stakeholder Affairs at Exxaro Resources Limited.
He has more than 30 years’ combined experience in
the resources business (gold, platinum and coal) and
investment banking (Corporate and Project Finance). He
has held various board positions as non-executive director
in various entities including Pamodzi Gold Limited, Fraser
Alexander, Impact Catalyst, Merafe Resources and the
Student Support Programme. He is the current Chairman of
the Board of the Impact Catalyst and is the former Chairman
of the Wits University Mining Engineers Association
(WUMEA) and the former President of the South African
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). He holds a
BSc degree in Mining Engineering from the University of
Witwatersrand (Wits) and has completed various leadership
development training programmes.
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