Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo: High technology is being deployed at the world’s deepest mine on Gauteng’s Far West Rand to uplift safety.

Creamer: Yes, safety is number one in mining and when mining extends to great depth, it is very hard to predict what can happen. The mine we are talking about is the Mponeng mine. This is the world's deepest mine and it is a major gold mine out on the Far West Rand. What they want to try and use is sound technology, which will provide early warning if there are rocks cracking or any situation like that.

The alert that the sound provides can enable people to exit the mine. But, by and large, it will be another form of digitization of examination. We see digitisation sweeping the world. Everything is going digital and this will be a sort of a digital insight that you get early, so that you can vacate the mine and make sure that there are no fatalities.

Kamwendo: South Africa’s mining industry this week hailed the launch of the Government-Business Partnership for Growth and Jobs.

Creamer: This Government-Business Partnership for Growth and Jobs is predicting that by 2030 South Africa will achieve economic growth of 3% a year and an additional million jobs. Now, they are probably trying to be conservative to make sure that they hit those targets. But still, if they do, 3% growth and a million new jobs is going to be very good for South Africa.

The areas, the work streams, that they are targeting are mining, tourism, agriculture and infrastructure. Just on mining alone, mining is sitting with R50-billion worth of projects that are planned, that are budgeted but are being delayed. So, if you have got the government and business together, that public-private partnership work together, those delays, those obstacles in the way of the R50-billion that is there and waiting, can be removed and that will really be good if we can go ahead in a way that cuts the red tape and rolls out a bit of red carpet to try and help these things to go on the mining front. That will be very good in mining.

But there is a lot of potential as well in agriculture and agro-processing. Business Leadership South Africa, that is the private sector side of this and then the Presidency is the public sector side. They are at really high levels and we can see that Minerals Council South Africa has got huge confidence in this. They have also got huge confidence in the fact that we can grow our mining sector. There are needs for exploration. There are needs for South Africa’s mining cadastre to be developed and that was one point that was made there.

South Africa simply has to have an exploration cadastre going and then with AI as well, artificial intelligence, we can fill the cadastre areas with metals and minerals that AI confirms are beneath the ground. So, when you drill, you will know you are going to hit the metal that you are looking for, be it tungsten, be it copper, or whatever, because you will know through artificial intelligence that it is there.

Kamwendo: On October 2, South Africa will discuss the future of South Africa’s minerals industry.

Creamer: This is very important. It involves South Africans sitting down in South Africa and collectively, with researchers from the public sector, from the private sector, South Africa has been in the minerals business for more than 100 years, but we have been relatively stereotyped.

We have looked at gold, particularly that has been the big thing, and that's gone so deep now. But critical metals and minerals and future-facing metals and minerals are on the radar all around the world. We have them here in South Africa and we must discuss how we are going to deal with them. The discussion on October 2 is going to be hosted by South Africa’s State-owned Mintek. That is South Africa’s national minerals research organisation and a metallurgical research organization, based in Randburg, north of Johannesburg.

Mintek will create the platform and then people will come in and discuss how they see things, the possibilities. It will also consider things like waste. There is a lot of waste around the place and urban mining is coming into play, where you have a circular economy where you don't let anything go to waste on surface and you turn the waste into wealth. But that is just one aspect.

There are so many aspects that they are going to look at. It is diverse and there is also a lot of depth and it is done by researchers – and youth will also be there. It will give a good platform for the next generation of activity, the next generation of thrusts and mining and also all sorts of other metals and minerals activities that we should pursue in South Africa.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing, editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly.