African Union to launch African Minerals Development Centre and Commodities Strategy;
Johannesburg, South Africa – The African Union is to launch an African Minerals Development Centre so as to ensure that African Governments are better equipped to negotiate better mining and exploration terms and contracts.
This emerged at the second edition of the Junior Indaba, which is a gathering of small and medium sized mining players.
Through the African Minerals development centre and the mooted African Commodity Strategy,
“Mind-sets will be changed and the value add to our natural resources will be increased from 15% to at least 30%” said Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the African Union Commission Chairperson.
This will facilitate for the creation of at least 7milion jobs on the continent within the first year of implementation.
In order to implement this strategy Dr Dlamini Zuma called on the mining and education sectors to invest in much needed skills particularly as it relates to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics areas.
South African junior mining sector is broken and is impossible to fix under current circumstances.
According to Paul Miller, MD of mining investment trust Concentrate Capital Partner (CCP), an investment fund, the South African junior mining sector is broken and is impossible to fix under current circumstances
In a hard-hitting speech to the Junior Indaba being held at the Country Club in Johannesburg, Miller cited three main reasons for his pessimistic assessment which included his opinion that the “ANC government” was fundamentally against free enterprise. The other reasons included the nature of “big mining” and “big labour” which – together with “big government” – have been charged with fixing the country’s mining sector.
Miller pointed out that big mining – as represented by the re-branded Chamber of Mines which is now the Minerals Council – represented the interests of sunk capital.
“These are people who have money stuck in the ground and have already left. They have either sold down in South Africa or unbundled in South Africa, and even when they have unbundled in South Africa, they have gone and bought assets abroad.
The Indaba was held at the Johannesburg Country Club in Auckland Park.
