Modern Mining February 2018

EVENTS

the mood at the Mining Indaba

For the mining industry to grow, we need to urgently expand our rail and port networks.” Rounding off his address, Mbazima said that South Africa desperately needed its economy to grow faster than the 0,7 % recorded in 2017. “The mining industry can be a significant con- tributor to this growth, but only if we make conditions right for investment,” he concluded. In somewhat similar vein to Mbazima, Randgold Resources Chief Executive Mark Bristow told delegates that the mining indus- try’s unique ability to function as a primary driver of economic growth in Africa would be impaired or even destroyed unless mining com- panies and their host countries worked together to address the existential challenges it faced. He said while the industry was at least to some extent dealing with the consequences of its recent excesses, the same could not be said of some of its host governments in Africa, who seemingly expected their revenue streams from mining to continue at supercycle strength and were re-writing the rules to make sure that they could harvest more from less. “How will hard-pressed companies, still struggling to recover, cope with these demands?” he asked. “By high-grading more and investing less, and that is not good for any- one, let alone the future generations of our great continent.” Bristow noted that when African countries started liberalising their economies in the mid-90s, they immediately attracted foreign investment, and their fledgling mining sectors began to grow to substantial proportions. This

regulatory regime that works for everyone.” Mbazima said he was hopeful that with the improvement in the political environment in South Africa “we can now find the ‘reset but- ton’ and get back around the table.” The regulatory environment apart, Mbazima also identified lack of infrastructure as an impediment to attracting investment into min- ing. He pointed out that a large portion of South Africa’s mining production consisted of bulk commodities such as iron ore, manganese and coal and said: “In the 15 years that I’ve been associated with this industry, I have not seen any significant expansion of the rail capacity for transporting these products to our ports.

Above: Randgold Resources Chief Executive Mark Bristow. Above left: Norman Mbazima, Deputy Chairman of Anglo American SA.

February 2018  MODERN MINING  31