Media has claws out for mining industry - Business Day

One miner interviewed said they had "mostly slept"; another said they had spent the time worrying that their wives and children were worrying about them. That afternoon, urgent meetings were held between mine management, the unions and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane. But there were no meetings, it seems, between the energy minister and Eskom about how pylons carrying high-voltage lines could be blown over in a storm.

While the mining sector has experienced a steady decline over the past two decades, it remains important to SA, accounting for about 8% of GDP in 2016, according to Statistics SA. The sector employs less than 3% of the workforce.

Some of SA’s mines, like those in the coal sector, are not very different from mines elsewhere. Others, like the gold and platinum mines, are deeper, larger or have narrower ore bodies than those in other countries. As a rule of thumb, narrow vein deposits are more difficult to mine and need people up close to the rock face. Technology has not yet been able to fully get around this requirement.

Working faces just more than 1.2m high preclude the use of large, mechanised machinery that have been instrumental in increasing productivity and safety in mines in Australia and Canada. In those countries, many mines have massive ore bodies that can be mined remotely using large machines, which removes people from high-risk areas.

Having people working at the rock face, drilling, blasting and loading out broken ore puts them in harm’s way. Most of SA’s mining employment (and revenue) comes from narrow-vein gold and platinum mines, which employ about 60% of the mining workforce. It is debatable if such mines would be built in Australia due to their inherent risks and their insatiable need for labour.

In SA’s gold and platinum mines wages are lower than those in Australia because more people per tonne of rock are needed locally, largely due to ore-body geometries.

The late Hugh Masekela’s song Stimela is a haunting eulogy to the millions of migrant workers who made their way to the Witwatersrand to labour on the mines. The 1906 poll tax and 1913 Natives Land Act benefited the mining industry during colonialism and apartheid.

This has not been properly acknowledged by the Chamber of Mines, as is evidenced by the self-justified submission it made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which did not include a written apology for its historical role. This undoubtedly contributed to the deep anger at, and visceral distrust of, mine owners in SA.

In January, with unemployment at over 27%, according to Stats SA (the highest level in 15 years), the country’s leadership went to the World Economic Forum in Davos keen to reflect a break with the immediate past. So … whither mining?

The scrutiny to which deaths and injuries on industrial-scale mines are subjected is entirely justified. What is not justified is the disparate treatment meted out to these mining enterprises compared with others that kill or injure: road deaths and deaths of Zama Zamas — artisanal miners in disused mines, especially on the East Rand.