JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – With disciplined policy reform, modernisation and partnerships, mining can elevate South Africa’s economic development, industrial capability and social progress.

“We can unlock growth, skills and job creation, restore competitiveness, and secure a sustainable future for our industry and our country and demonstrate why mining matters,” Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane emphasised at the 136th AGM of Minerals Council South Africa on Wednesday, May 27.

“I’m proud to say that our sector has once again demonstrated resilience, discipline and the ability to deliver value in the face of a complex, volatile and evolving domestic and international environment.

“Internally, we strengthened governance, succession planning, and risk oversight. Quarterly risk reviews and structured board sessions improved alignment between advocacy priorities and emerging risks.

“Financial discipline remains robust, reinforcing our credibility. Our work is delivered through structured engagement with government, labour, communities, other economic sectors as well as domestic and global institutions.

"The maturity of these platforms reflects a shift from crisis response to future-facing and structured collaboration, and forging partnerships for investment and growth,” Mthenjane reported.

He described modernisation as the long-term lever for safe, healthy, productive mines that were globally competitive.

Through partnerships such as the Mandela Mining Precinct and Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, the Minerals Council was integrating mechanisation, digitalisation, and safety and health-enhancing technologies into operations.

“Modernisation in South Africa is people-centred and integral to competitiveness, resilience and sustainability - it must enhance safety, health, and productivity, deepen skills and improve efficiency simultaneously,” he noted.

In 2025, the council intensified engagement on the amended Employment Equity Act and launched the Women in Mining Strategy 2025–2027, with research showing strong investment in skills development, reflecting commitment to workforce empowerment and long-term sustainability.

Transformation was, he said, deliberate, achievable and supported by strengthened skills pipelines, with sustainable transformation requiring policy coherence, collaboration and practical implementation mechanisms that recognised operational realities and past achievements.

A growing mining sector was, he pointed out, breaking through racial and gender barriers to employment, generating economic opportunities through enterprise and supplier development and procurement opportunities that increased localisation, creating ownership models for employees and communities, enabling investment in critical infrastructure within communities and surrounding regions, and driving industrialisation through producing critical materials and minerals.

In this way, mining was diversifying the economy, stimulating broader skills development and harnessing the full potential of South Africa’s capabilities.

While challenges remained, the council had entered 2026 on a stronger footing and with clear intent.

It was partnering with members to embed predictive safety and health systems to eliminate critical risks and continue the journey towards zero harm.

It was prioritising the strengthening of inclusive transformation through skills pipelines that would meet evolving innovation and technology developments.

Securing pragmatic policy certainty under the Mineral Resources Development Bill and other related legislation would limit the burden of compliance and enhance the ease and ability to do the business of exploration and mining.

Restoring infrastructure reliability to unlock production growth would generate the revenue required for reinvestment.

Restoring competitiveness, Mthenjane pointed out, would require continued infrastructure reform, regulatory certainty, and accelerated exploration investment.

Since January, the council had, he said, been working on the fundamental elements that underpinned investment and growth.

“We’re identifying what is constraining investment in exploration, mine development and mining operations. Some of these factors are well known, however, we’re engaging a broad range of stakeholders, locally and internationally, to develop a comprehensive understanding of the blockages and options to address those constraints,” he reported.

The strategy would deliver a focused intervention model, identify mechanisms to convert capital availability into projects, and make bottlenecks visible so they could be resolved.

“For this strategy to succeed, we need trusting partnerships with key government stakeholders, State-owned entities and investors. By forging partnerships for investment and growth, we can unlock and translate South Africa’s world-class mineral endowment and deliver economic wealth and social prosperity for employees, communities and greater society,” Mthenjane enthused.