TSHWANE (miningweekly.com) – Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe stressed on Wednesday that the key factor in the future of South African mining was the human element. He was delivering the keynote address at a Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection function launching a book on the future of the country's mining industry.

He started by quoting Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who was writing about the author of the reforms which have dramatically transformed China in recent decades -- Deng Xiaoping. "Deng Xiaoping gave priority to the status and role of the people," wrote Xi.

"Mining is about people," affirmed Mantashe. "When it is not about people, it collapses." And the people included both the mineworkers and the members of the communities adjacent to the mines. When considering whether mining will be a sunrise or a sunset industry, "we have to refer to its relations with people".

"My own view is that it has always failed to relate to people in a way that would make it a sunrise industry," he cautioned. Growing demands from communities was one of three pressure points he identified as squeezing the local mining industry.

He reported that, after he had been appointed Minister, he had visited all the main mining areas, "to reconnect with those communities". They informed him that the mining companies did not talk to them. He passed this on to the companies and also told his own department that it was also failing to talk with these communities. He affirmed that it was the responsibility of mining companies to ensure that their relations with these communities were healthy.

A second pressure point was the general attitude in the country towards mining. "Mining is not a loved sector," he observed, drily.

The remaining pressure point was increasing environmental demands. "If mining is reckless about it [the environment], it is not going to survive." The industry must mine responsibly. "If it does not, it is going to be in trouble."

The mining sector also had to adopt and adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He noted that South African mining executives tended to be nervous about these technological developments. His response has been to point out that every technology, throughout history, has used inputs that are mined or grown.

If these issues are not addressed, he stated, then mining in South Africa will be a sunset industry. If they are addressed, it will be a sunrise industry.

The book that was launched was The Future of Mining in South Africa: Sunset or Sunrise. Mantashe worked for 30 years in the mining industry, as a mineworker and then as a union official.