Goldfields Founder cautions against unequal sharing of mining benefits

She spoke on the topic “Building Mining Industries of the 21^st Century: Can we Grow Economies beyond Trippings of the Dutch Disease?”

Dr. Ramphele indicated that extractive industry modes were by their nature unsustainable given their failure to invest in innovation and creativity to enlarge the resource base and to allow new entrants to bring renewal to the industry.

“Instead, mining has more often than not relied on monopolistic business models that keep new entrants out thus limiting the possibility of new ideas,” she observed, adding that the benefits of high levels of mineral resources have in many cases across the world, tended not to reach the majority of citizens.

In her view, the key issues that the mining industry, governments and other regulators, workers representatives and unions as well as citizens in general should be discussing as a matter of urgency, was to set a new sustainable foundation for mining.

The key issues, she explained, included how to build a mine in the 21^st century to ensure that the benefits and risks of exploiting the resource base are shared more equitably by all stakeholders and also how one deals with legacy issues of old mine operations, in a manner that enables what needed to change in the framing of the paradigm of sustainable mining within a greater focus on sustainable economies and socio-political systems.

Dr Ramphele who is also the Chairperson of Goldfields, stressed that the private sector must confidently voice its views within the broad rubric of its accountability to its shareholders whilst mindful of the shared long-term interests of sustaining the industry in the challenging environment of the 21^st century.

“Silence in the face of abuse of power on the part of governments tends to come back to haunt industry players,” she added.

Towards building a 21^st century mines, she said the extractive mining industry models that had characterised mining in most countries of the world over the last centuries were being challenged on many fronts and noted that the proverbial resource curse had continued to plague most emerging economies where political elites were seen to be the sole beneficiaries of non-transparent licensing arrangements with industry players.

“Post-colonial Africa has more than its fair share of countries caught up in the vicious cycle of the extractive industry mode in mining and other natural resources. Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and now increasingly my own South Africa is showing signs and symptoms of the resource curse,” Dr Ramphele pointed out.

She called on African governments to provide incentives for the mining industry to invest in clean-up operations which would also provide alternative livelihoods and jobs for ex-mine workers and local communities.

Story by Sebastian Syme