The 128-year-old Chamber of Mines intends to come up with a new identity and name over the next few months. This may be one of the few occasions when rebranding is justified, though it is hard to imagine what else the chamber might call itself to reflect its evolution. The word "association" is no trendier than "chamber" and the word "group" is overused in social media.
The leadership, burning issues and membership of the chamber have changed fundamentally since 1889, when it first became a formal organisation. Last week it elected its fourth black president, Exxaro CEO Mxolisi Mgojo, which would have been unimaginable a century ago.
It would also have been unthinkable for a Chamber of Mines leader to acknowledge, as outgoing president Mike Teke did in his AGM speech, that the mining industry had been a direct cause of illness and hardship to some workers, and in some areas had allowed untenable situations to continue or had simply been absent when care was needed. It was trying to change that.
The issues highlighted in the latest annual report, from safety and health to modernisation of technology, were not exactly top of mind for heads of mining companies 100 years ago, though there was early innovation in deep-level underground mining engineering and processing of hard rock. In 1890 the MacArthur-Forrest process to extract gold from hard rock using cyanide was developed, which made it possible to exploit the deep gold on the Witwatersrand.
Rebranding the Chamber of Mines may be apt now, but how much has the 128-year-old body changed?
Now the focus is on using technology to make mining safer and costs more predictable. Last year the industry agreed to develop a public-private partnership based on the principle of open innovation, and the department of science & technology has agreed to re-establish the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research mining research site on Carlow Road on the borders of Melville and Parkview.
Some of the "quick win" innovation programmes the industry is working on include introducing remote-controlled operations in gold and platinum mines and increased digitisation of information.
The lingering perception in the minds of government and the trade unions that mining is a white-controlled, hugely profitable business is also not based on modern realities.
Chamber CEO Roger Baxter says between 2012 and last year the number of people employed directly in the industry fell to 455,109 from 525,000 and at current prices about half of the platinum industry is loss-making.
He says in real gross domestic product terms, the mining industry today is smaller than it was in 1994. This is largely because gold production fell to below 150t last year from about 500t, though output of other minerals has increased.
The decline in gold output from its peak in 1970 is a long-term trend, but the mining industry has also faced significant regulatory reform in the past 23 years that has affected investor confidence, Baxter says. It takes 24 years to bring a new platinum shaft into steady state production.
Though real fixed investment in SA’s mining industry has shrunk in the past two years, there are some potential large projects that could go ahead if investors were more confident about the regulatory environment, Baxter says. That is why the chamber’s priorities are to finalise the Mining Charter and amendments to the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act.
But it would be no use rebranding the chamber if it remained an organisation representing mainly the biggest mining houses led by white males.
Another organisation, the SA Mining Development Association (Samda), was formed more than 15 years ago to represent emerging miners and press for transformation of ownership in the sector. Though it does not have the same high profile as the chamber, Samda chairman Peter Temane says there are probably about 800 emerging miners in SA and Samda’s membership is over 300.
Temane says there is no question of merging Samda with the chamber. They have some common issues but also many different priorities. "We are not on the same wavelength," he says.
Baxter says the chamber represents some smaller emerging miners through members such as the Clay Brick Association and the SA Diamond Producers Organisation and has some small contracting company members.
The chamber formed an emerging miners’ desk (EMD) in 2014 with the aim of recruiting more smaller mining companies and putting in place a programme to assist new mining companies to understand their legal, social and environmental obligations. There are 30 emerging miners and advisory firms in the EMD, mostly coal companies and mostly black-owned, says the chamber’s annual report.
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