SA mining production reaches R1.18 trillion

South Africa’s mining production reached a record high of R1.18 trillion in 2022, boosting the country’s GDP, exports and revenue, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
He, however, told the Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Tuesday that despite this achievement, the country is far from realising the full potential of its mining industry.
“We are determined to remove all impediments and create an environment that will drive sustained growth in mining,” said Ramaphosa.
“The fact that mineral production contracted by 9 per cent year-on-year in November 2022 – largely due to electricity shortages and inefficiencies in logistics – is indicative of the challenges we need to confront and overcome.
“In addition to the energy crisis and problems with port and rail operations, the outlook for the year ahead has been dampened by concerns about safety and security, illegal mining and the pace of our structural reform programme.”
He said his government is working to address these challenges as they had a responsibility to ensure that the mining industry can grow.
Ramaphosa also said that the current electricity crisis in the country has had a huge impact on the mining sector.
“Six months ago, we announced a National Energy Action Plan to improve the performance of our existing power stations and to add new generation capacity to the grid as quickly as possible,” he said.
“[Power utility] Eskom has assembled experienced technical teams to improve performance and recover capacity at power stations, with an initial focus on the six least reliable stations.
“Through a regional power pool arrangement, we have already imported 300 MW of capacity from neighbouring countries and are working to increase this by an additional 1,000 MW.”
The South African president also revealed that they in the last six months, signed agreements for 25 projects representing 2,800 MW of new capacity. 

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, from Cape Town, South Africa, Rough&Polished