CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – There are signs of hope for recovery in some commodities, owing to recent price improvement, which has lent a more upbeat tone to this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.

However, South Africa has some “sobering lessons” for African countries, which have yet to fully launch their mining sectors, mining consultancy SRK Consulting partner and principal consultant Andrew van Zyl said at the 2017 Mining Indaba.

He highlighted the importance of constructive dialogue and engagement between mining companies and with key stakeholders, including government and communities, warning that South Africa still had to improve its performance in this area.

“Many African countries are at this event to leverage their mineral resources as a catalyst for broader economic development; however, to do that effectively, there needs to be a strong relationship between the public and private sector to build trust that will endure through the demanding but inevitable commodity cycles,” Van Zyl emphasised.

He said the discussions about South Africa mining future were often quite different to those about the mining futures of most other African states.

“While South Africa is concerned mainly with sustaining an ageing industry with its attendant challenges of productivity, viability and competitiveness, most
of the continent must address issues like infrastructure, logistics and developing mining codes,” Van Zyl noted.

Nonetheless, he remarked that, despite the differences, good leadership among stakeholders was vitally important to ensuring a successful outcome in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Van Zyl stated that a clear and shared vision provided stakeholders with the comfort of knowing what their sacrifices and compromises were going to achieve. “The
prize must be worth what each stakeholder is prepared to give up.”

Moreover, he said the enterprise of mining was now, more than ever, a cooperative venture, requiring commitment from mines to engage broadly about their impacts and requirements in order to elicit both social licence and the requisite buy-in from other partners.

Van Zyl remarked that, in the years gone by, it was simpler for new operations to build their own infrastructure in remote areas. However, he said the process now demanded more inclusivity and a sensitive to the wider socioeconomic and natural environment.

He further noted that one area where Indaba delegates were already discussing these kinds of opportunities was in innovative financing solutions for energy generation in the African mining sector. He pointed out that, for example, renewables formed part of the conversation about how to finance in-house power generation when traditional long-term power purchase agreements were not an option.

“It is heartening to see signs of revived interest in prospects for mining in various parts of Africa. These prospects will be well served by acknowledgements in the private and public sectors that mines are complex undertakings that rely on real collaboration and partnerships,” Van Zyl concluded.