Beneficiation is a deliberate policy intervention to move South Africa from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy, as the imminent depletion of mineral resources places an obligation on the country to find alternative ways of creating economic sustainability beyond the mining phase.
This is according to Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica.
“The policy concept is premised not only on the abundance of mineral resources in thhow much is a triboelectric separatore country; it is implicit that the country needs to buildicon gold recovery gravity concentrators igr 3000 more capacity to beneficiate, in terms of skills, infrastructure and technology development. “Mineral exploitation in the country has already led to the development of some downstream activities and we need to encourage such advances,” said Sonjica at the Chamber of Mines annual general meeting, in Johannesburg, last week.
“It is in this vein that we work in consultation with the mining industry to develop a strategy for further value addition for ten strategic minerals. Thesgold mining cil manufacturerse consultations are intended to final- ise the beneficiation offsets as provided for in the Mining Charter.” She added that w
hile mining com- panies had been enthusiastic about the process to determine beneficiation baseline levels and had also proposed certain future targets for growth, these targets had been below expectations and their impact had been minimal, she said.
Given the slow pace of reaching consensus on the beneficiation targets with mining companies, there was a risk that the overarching beneficiation strategy for the minerals industry would overtake this process.
“I would, therefore, urge the Chamber of Mines to continue to play a role in order to fast-track the significant commitments by the mining industry,” said Sonjica.
A study had already been done, with plati- num-group metal (PGM) producers Lonmin, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum looking at areas of both downstream and sidestream value addition, which the country could exploit in the short and longer term.
“This work also gives clear indications of the roles and deliverables for each of the stakeholders. However, I must impress upon you the plight of the poor in South Africa and, therefore, the urgency with which we need to start implementing those short-term goals that can be attained within the current conditions.”
Sonjica pointed out that the strategy for beneficiation also sets the scene for harnessing opportunities for further value addition for gold, PGMs, diamonds, iron-ore, vanadium, titanium, nickel, chromium, manganese and coal.
“We all look forward to the implementation of the findings of the PGM study, once our holistic beneficiation strategy has been finalised. We need to get this programme right because it speaks to the delivery of jobs, which will assist in ensuring continued political stability.”