In the news

Minerals Council SA chief economist Henk Langenhoven spoke to Business Day TV about the future of coal mining in South Africa. Read More

Heavy industry and intensive energy users are counting the costs of the country’s unplanned power cuts on their business operations after Eskom implemented stage 2 load shedding this week. Read More

The absence of new mining projects, owing to limited exploration, continues to weigh on the future sustainability of South Africa’s once thriving mining sector, which once captured a larger share of major mining budgets. Read More

Whenever the mining industry experiences a downturn, exploration spending usually plummets, a phenomenon best illustrated by South Africa, whose exploration budget, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, decreased from $404-million in 2007 to less than $100-million in 2018. Read More

These are trying times in the SA mining sector, and particularly for the platinum industry. Minerals Council SA has estimated that 90,000 of 168,000 jobs — 54% of the platinum’s sector’s employment — are at risk. Read More

While the government urges coal miners to cut their prices to Eskom, and Eskom chair Jabu Mabuza exhorts them to put the country before their bottom lines, Eskom "should and could" be doing a lot more to save itself, says Minerals Council SA senior executive Tebello Chabana. Read More

At a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — where mining is often associated with child labour and the funding of warlords — technology has been recruited for the fight against conflict minerals. Read More

A research report, commissioned by the Junior and Emerging Miners’ Desk of the Minerals Council South Africa, has found that junior miners, including small-scale and micro miners, hold up to 80% of the mining licences in South Africa. Read More

The Minerals Council South Africa has called for "rational and sombre" debates about a just transition from coal-fired power to more wind and solar energy and has outlined the difficult situation mining companies are facing, amid higher electricity prices and other input costs. Read More

It is nothing short of outrageous that the government has stepped in to urge coal suppliers to cut their prices to Eskom for the good of the country, when Eskom and the government have done so little to cut costs themselves. Read More