Editor’s take: Despite the common negative perspective that mining is a ‘dirty industry’ due to its troubled past, the recently ended Investing in African Mining Indaba virtual cast the spotlight on the transformation the industry is undergoing in its efforts to clean up its reputation. This year’s event – which took place on 2 – 3 February – highlighted the industry’s move away from a box-ticking approach to a ‘value beyond compliance’ attitude towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). 

In this year’s Top Mining Projects feature, we have selected projects distinguished by their size, the high quality of the assets and innovation by the teams on the ground. This year we have selected three that have set the bar high from three different African countries, covering tin, gold and diamonds.

MM Digital December 2020

A lot has been said about the future of mining in the past few years. In the South African context, for instance, a big concern is that finding minerals after more than a century of digging often means going deeper than ever before, posing both cost and safety challenges for miners.

Declining ore grades at current depths mean that mining companies have to mine deeper to reach new deposits, significantly increasing the cost of extraction. According to Deloitte, since the start of 2000, over 75% of new base metal discoveries have been at depths greater than 300 m. Mining at these depths also introduces additional safety issues due to the high risk of rock falls, flooding, gas discharges, underground earthquakes and ventilation problems.

In this issue, the editor joins the critical metals dialogue. It is common knowledge that critical metals are vital to the functionality of various emerging technologies, yet they have a potentially unstable supply globally. Demand for critical minerals has skyrocketed in recent years with the growing global appetite for high-tech devices, mainly in the renewable energy and e-mobility spaces.

These metals are considered ‘critical’ in that they are necessary to the development of future economic needs, and yet their availability in sufficient quantities for future market demands has been questioned. Significantly, the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted how deeply global supply chains can be disrupted in a short space of time, and the importance of ensuring resilience through a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials.

In the October edition of Modern Mining, the editor touches on the need to revisit the licensing regime to unlock mining investment in Africa. That the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world in ways not seen since the world wars is no overstatement. We would all agree that no event since World War II has had as extreme a global impact as COVID-19. Apart from the public health crisis, the pandemic is leaving a trail of economic destruction on a scale unseen in generations.