OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday 11.30am
SOUTH Africa’s mines still hold big and profitable deposits, but the embattled industry needs to open up to black and small businessmen, a summit on the future of mining heard on Friday.
Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told delegates: “The 21st century African is not going to allow a white mining industry to continue. Period.”
She said smaller companies had to be nurtured to develop alongside the big ones, and the state planned to get involved in the process.
The days when mineral rights were handed out on a “first come, have it all” basis, will have to end too, Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
“I am determined … to find a formula that would not threaten the security of tenure, that will not disadvantage established miners.”
She said companies with small shafts which they can not mine profitably should make them available to small-scale miners.
Chamber of Mines president Rick Mennel agreed that young entrepreneurs are needed to spearhead new projects. “What is poorly developed in Johannesburg is a vital junior mining sector, which elsewhere in the world has led the way in the discovery of new deposits,” he said. — AFP