Mining in focus
small local supply of rough diamonds over
the years reflects the discrepancy that exists
between the country’s diamond resources
and the beneficiation of such resources,” read
Moumakwa’s overview. It also highlighted
that South Africa has been mining diamonds
for over 100 years and there have been
legislative interventions to try and enhance
beneficiation of diamonds. Unfortunately,
despite these, the diamond beneficiation
industry continued to be underdeveloped and
“disproportionately small”.
You can’t access funding if you
don’t access the markets.
From a diamond point of view, Mantashe
believes that, “Stimulating local beneficiation
of rough diamonds for non-jewellery
applications will attract untapped markets for
the diamond beneficiation sector, resulting in
a demand for goods previously not desired by
beneficiators.” There is no doubt that increased
beneficiation does indeed have significant
advantages; however, several challenges come
with beneficiating on a large scale.
Why is beneficiation so
important?
www.miningmirror.co.za
Challenges encountered with
beneficiation
One of the biggest challenges that has
contributed to the decline of beneficiation,
is inconsistent and unaffordable electricity
supply, because many refineries and smelters
rely on electricity. PwC’s report highlights
how electricity limitations and subsequent
increases in electricity costs resulted in some
companies deciding against beneficiation in
South Africa. During the panel discussion,
sector specialist for mining, beneficiation and
energy at the Public Investment Corporation
(PIC), Heidi Sternberg, gave an example of
such an occurrence.
“We’ve seen ARM (African Rainbow
Minerals) closing a couple of their smelters
in South Africa and setting up shop in
“We recognised for quite some time that for
us to grow the economy, we have to increase
the manufacturing base of South Africa. So, in
essence, we are trying to support local mineral
beneficiation — but bearing in mind that
we are contributing to a broader government
mandate in terms of manufacturing,” said
Tshepiso Kadiaka from the Department of
Trade and Industry (dti). She was speaking
at the Mintek & Yimani Foundation Social
Partners Stakeholder launch which took place
in 2018.
“We as South Africa need to get to a
stage where we graduate from talking about
mineral beneficiation and actually having a
handle over this beneficiation,” Kadiaka said.
She also mentioned that research showed
that — to a certain extent — countries that
were sources of minerals had a competitive
advantage. “We have to reap the competitive
advantage for us to be able to create that local
manufacturing base.”
Presenting at the National Science and
Technology Forum (NSTF), Peter Craven,
Mintek’s general manager for business
development, highlighted several benefits
that beneficiation would have for South
Africa’s mining industry. He mentioned job
creation and a diversified mining industry.
Another benefit of beneficiation is “reduced
dependence on depleting resources”. Because
beneficiation requires a certain skill set, the
development of skills is another advantage.
The combination of job creation and skills
development would ultimately lead to
improving the lives of communities, especially
those close to the mines.
Mining in South Africa has played an
important role in the country. With a wealth
of various minerals deposits, mining has
made a significant contribution to South
Africa’s economy and development. The
country is among the top producers of PGMs,
manganese, chrome, gold, and many more.
These minerals have a high demand — which
has favoured the country’s export sales.
Mineral wealth has made South Africa
an ideal destination to source minerals,
which are then further beneficiated
elsewhere. Although this may not necessarily
be negative considering the significant
contribution to export sales, beneficiation
could put South Africa in a position to obtain
higher sales value, simply because instead of
exporting raw minerals, the country would
export finished products.
Malaysia.” Council for Geoscience CEO
Mosa Mabuza was also part of the discussion
and echoed Sternberg’s sentiments, saying,
“In South Africa, when we started talking
about beneficiation, we used to brag about
having the cheapest and most abundant
electricity. Today, we have neither; it’s nether
cheap, nor available.” The Minerals Councils
of South Africa details how the production
of ferrochromium has since been shifted to
outside of South Africa because of inconsistent
and costly electricity.
Another major setback associated with
beneficiation, is having access to markets
and being competitive in those markets. This
is especially the case with the beneficiation
of iron ore, which is used in the production
of steel and stainless steel. At this time, the
majority of iron ore produced is exported
and beneficiated outside of the country. The
PwC report explains that currently, China
is not only the biggest consumer of iron ore,
but also the largest and cheapest producer of
steel. July 2017 statistics showed that South
Africa produced 479 000 tonnes of steel while
China produced 74 billion tonnes. The figures
show that South Africa is no match for China
when it comes to producing steel. It would
be extremely difficult for South Africa to tap
into that market and be competitive. “If the
Mintek’s industrial unit includes projects related to ceramics and pottery.
MARCH 2019 MINING MIRROR [31]