Johannesburg-based mining technical consulting company SRK Consulting says despite the industry grappling with commodity price cycle shocks, new mines have been built in South Africa and the rest of the continent, signalling growth.
Andrew van Zyl, director and principal mining engineer at SRK Consulting, noted while the platinum sector is under strain, there are some positive signs as new operations have been developed in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia and Zambia.
“In South Africa there are not as many new mines as we would like to see, but we are seeing new copper, platinum, and gold operations that have started up in the last few years.
“While I would not call it a boom, there have been new mines started in a number of commodities, despite challenges”.
New mines include Ivanhoe’s Platreef Mine in Limpopo, and Orion Minerals’ Okiep Copper Mine in the Northern Cape, while De Beers has extended the life of its Venetia Diamond Mine in Limpopo by converting it to an underground mine
Early project evaluations also included the feasibility study for Shell’s Pering Mine, while one of its key projects was the extension of Buffalo Fluorspar Mine, which was facing closure because the main ore body was becoming depleted.
SRK Consulting, South Africa's biggest mining consulting company, was established in 1974, by Oskar Steffen, Andy Robertson and Hendrik Kirsten in Johannesburg and has grown to operating 45 offices across countries including South Africa, Ghana, the DRC, as well as North America, South America, Eurasia and Australia.
Van Zyl said mines have become deeper and managing them profitably has been important for the sustainability of the industry. “Many of the deep-level mines we have are old, and it has taken a lot of innovation to run them both safely and profitably; every year it has got more difficult to run a deeper mine”.
He said one of the positives is the industry’s role in ensuring energy security after more than a decade of load-shedding.
“Mining companies have been building renewable energy projects, and we are all seeing the benefits of the additional capacity. A lot of the reduction in load-shedding is due to the combination of industry and residential growth in renewables,” he said.
The mining industry has installed several gigawatts of energy, a huge contribution to the energy base of the country.
“It is the first time that the power costs for mining have gone down. Power-related inflation has been above headline inflation for the last 20 years," he said.
He said safety has always been a key focus of the industry, with tighter measures developed to safeguard employees. Tailings dams were also a concern after the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019 in which 270 people died as a result of the dam collapse.
He said underground mining was safer compared to 30 years ago.
“Companies take health and safety seriously. We easily forget that the mining industry has made a contribution to alleviating pressures from illnesses such as HIV and tuberculosis, to Covid-19. Over time, mining companies developed a lot of expertise in respiratory illnesses because of the prevalence of TB and trying to reduce the prevalence and the effects of TB and other respiratory illnesses. They made significant contributions which have been to everyone’s benefit.”
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