Mining and Exploration

This past Friday 14 June, Mr Motlanthe presided over a special mining task team consisting of labour, government and mining company representatives. Together the team have put together a ten page draft agreement to reposition South Africa’s mining industry in order to make it more attractive to investors and enable the sector to contribute further to social and economic development.

Ever since it was first established in March of 1971 by Frank Pyott and Roger Boone, PBE’s (Pyott-Boone Electronics as it was previously known) mission has been to design and build reliable, high tech equipment to improve mine safety and productivity.

It is not hard to see why Resource Generation, a company listed on both the Australian and Johannesburg stock exchanges, was attracted to the Waterberg region of South Africa and in particular to the Boikarabelo coal mine which it has been developing since 2008. The area, in the north-east of South Africa close to the border with Botswana, is very accessible, and the quality of coal in the resource unrivalled.

A quick glance over Chile’s basic health indicators makes one thing clear. With infant and maternal mortality levels amongst the lowest in Latin America, and the average life expecting coming in at close to 76 years, a figure that is up from just over 60 years in the early 1970s, it is plain to see that much of the country’s population is benefiting from what is an advanced health care system.

Sustainable opportunities

While Guatemala’s enormous mining wealth is no longer the well-kept secret that it once was it is still an industry very much in its infancy. Through its Marlin Mine operations, Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Goldcorp, is working to ensure the country will soon be able to unlock its potential.

Following more than 800,000 metres of drilling and intense preparation, financing and community relations works, in addition to obtaining hundreds of permits and constructing the actual mine, it was in April 2011 that the first gold bar was poured at Osisko Mining’s Malartic mine in Canada.

With the 13th largest economy in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP), Mexico has a long-standing tradition as a mining country with its history dating back to the pre-Columbian days, when mining was practised by the Maya, Aztec, Mixteco and Zapoteco peoples. Since those early days the country’s underground resources have played a significant role in the development and prosperity of its economy.

James Bay, a tongue of water licking out between Ontario and Quebec, is by any standards remote. The Cree nation that lives on its shores have staked their claim, not always without difficulty, to such economic development as has taken place in the region, but today the greatest impact on their way of life is undoubtedly mining.

Mining activities have been taking place in Botswana since the nineteenth century with the advent of the gold rush in the northern part of the country and have since acted as the backbone of the country’s economy. This has been particularly true in the last four decades, during which time Botswana’s hugely significant diamond sector has helped drive the economy to new heights. Today the mining industry remains the main driver of economic activity in Botswana and is forecasted to sustain the economy further into the future.

Charles Siwawa, CEO of the Botswana Chamber of Mines, discusses the positive changes he has witnessed within the mining industry, what motivates him and what the legacy he hopes to leave behind.