JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The regulatory uncertainties and inability of the industry to transparently, quickly and efficiently apply for mining and prospecting rights in a corruption-free manner has had severe investment consequences, Minerals Council South Africa states in its Facts & Figures Pocketbook 2022.
This is glaringly evident in exploration, which, the Minerals Council adds, has virtually ground to a halt. In 2022, the mining sector spent a mere 9% of what it did during the commodity price peaks of 1990 and 2006 – and then overwhelmingly on brownfields exploration in existing licence areas and minutely in new unexplored greenfields areas.
Under a gross fixed capital formation headline, the council points out that higher commodity prices have not resulted in higher fixed investment in mining, owing to the structural domestic constraints.
Minerals Council chief economist Henk Langenhoven and his team provide crucial insight into what mining’s numbers mean for the highly significant role that mining plays in South Africa.
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