Gwede guides miners towards SA’s unexploited mineral riches

Confirmation of how South Africa's government has turned business friendly came this morning at the Junior Mining Indaba in Johannesburg. Less than a week after his reappointment and fresh from a three day cabinet Lekgotla, mining and energy minister Gwede Mantashe provided some quite astonishing and very specific guidance guidance to junior miners… have a listen and you, too, might be heading off to explore for potential golden riches near the world famous Vredefort Crater… – Alec Hogg.___STEADY_PAYWALL___.This is The Rational Perspective. I'm Alec Hogg. In this edition, Gwede guides miners towards toward unexploited mineral riches. Confirmation of how South Africa's government has turned business-friendly came again this morning at the Junior Mining Indaba in Johannesburg. Less than a week after his reappointment and fresh from a 3-day cabinet Lekgotla, Mining and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe provided some quite astonishing and very specific guidance to junior miners on where they can make huge finds. Have a listen and you too, might be heading off to explore for potential gold and riche to the East of the Vredefort Crater..That charter, if you read it properly, is much more friendly to junior miners. You know, the provision on exploration where we decide and say, "Don't put empowerment as a requirement for exploration" was a decision that was properly thought out and we said, "Because when you're doing exploration, you are looking for a mineral. Why do you force people to get empowerment partners when they're exploring?" and we removed that in the charter. That was an attempt to accelerate and step up exploration, that's why it is important that we should abstain exploration activities and create the blood-flow and the life of the industry. We must continue to make new discoveries. We must increase the production that is lost from depletion of the old sectors. Gold is in decline. It will continue to be in decline unless somebody tries to do exploration to the east of the Vredefort..Also read: Mantashe confirms business friendly face of new Ramaphosa Era.Nobody has done it but we are convinced with our discussion with the producers that somebody must do exploration to the east of the Vredefort. It is likely that we'd find massive gold deposits there. Secondly, we must be quite happy that there is a big number of small mineral groups that are playing equally important roles. For example, the demand for new minerals like vanadium, copper, zinc, and lead among others, is growing. Cobalt…you can list all of them. It's going up and we must appreciate that because it helps us appreciate the fact that traditional South African mining, which equated mining to gold mining, must change because mining in South Africa is not just gold mining. It's mining of the various minerals that we have. For junior miners, one of the ways of growing is pooling resources together because when you pool your resources together, you are actively building your competitive advantage..Also read: SA Govt seeks help finding solution to "biggest threat to economy".Success in business is about developing and sustaining your competitive advantage in your target market. Now, this is a tradition that black business in the main, must develop and appreciate – that bigger entities are more sustainable. Not because of size, but because of their ability to benefit from the economies of scales. When you pull two partners together or you pull two entities together, it's not 1+1=2. If you do it properly, it's 1+1=3 because you get another one from synergy. So, it is quite important for all of us to begin to think bigger and bigger. We are junior now. We must be senior tomorrow. Some junior miners must discuss with the CGS…you want to talk about incentive. Talk to the Council for Geoscience because they are beginning to think differently there. I talked about what they found on the Springbok Flats. .I think junior miners will benefit better and move with the necessary speed to find the rich coal deposit in the Springbok Flats. There it was having some infraction by uranium and the research by a young PAG student is that uranium is at the north end. There is a big lower end at the Springbok Flats where there is a good deposit – 3/10 metres thick seams and as a miner, I know that if it is that thick, you don't need to blast. So, please do talk to them. What have they found there? They have done the exploration for you. They have done the tests and you can take that further with them. Secondly, you can talk to them about what they're doing in the Molteno Coal Fields. .It's called Molteno and I was shocked to find that is where I come from. Now, junior miners, please talk to them. What have they found there? Then, you can follow things through. .That was South Africa's Mining and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe who this morning, became the first member of the new Ramaphosa cabinet to take a public podium. This has been The Rational Perspective. Until the next time, cheerio.

Gwede guides miners towards SA’s unexploited mineral riches

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