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Is South African mining's modernisation urgency falling largely on deaf ears?
Episode 57
Published 4 weeks, 2 days ago
Description
This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.
Despite South African mining ending up tenth in a ten-country global benchmarking exercise, two-thirds of the respondents who participated in a survey appear to be more intent on just doing the same things better rather than modernising meaningfully.
Despite the sustainability of South African mining being under pressure, the majority of the coal, gold, uranium, platinum group metals, diamond, iron-ore, manganese, copper, and industrial minerals profile surveyed are not modernising. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
The required transformative shift toward broader sustainability lacked emphasis and even environmental considerations ended up as "a secondary dimension".
Spelt out was the need for a shift from legacy practices towards technology solutions, greater operational resilience, and future-facing strategic approaches.
At South Africa's Mining Modernisation Showcase – where Minerals Council South Africa, the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators' specialised research unit within South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC-CeSTII), PwC Smart Mining, the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the National Advisory Council on Innovation locked arms impressively – modernisation of South Africa's mining sector was described as "an urgent strategic priority for the South African economy".
But the outcome of the survey into the patterns and capabilities of research, development and innovation (RDI) pointed to most of South Africa's miners and mining services providers not prioritising modernisation that is transformative.
Fewer than half had introduced any significantly improved goods, services or business processes in the three years in question.
The most common activities of RDI activists from 2021 to 2023 were the training employees and the buying assets to increase efficiency and productivity – marking time quicker and better, as it were, without moving any new needles.
Most workforce training is largely bypassing universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges.
International training is virtually off the chart. Access to international sources of infrastructure is also low, and intellectual property- (IP-) related activities are within a hair's breadth of being zero.
Most firms are technology adopters and not creators and traditional research-and-development- (R&D-) intensive innovation has largely fallen by the wayside.
HSRC-CeSTII research specialist Dr Amy Kahn told the showcase audience that 54% of firms reported engagement in employee training activities, which displayed emphasis on building human capital to support innovation.
Forty-four per cent engaged in activities related to the acquisition or lease of tangible assets, highlighting a blend of traditional and technology-driven approaches to modernisation efforts.
Forty per cent reported engaging in engineering, design, and other creative work activities, which underlined the uptake of existing technologies, rather than the development of new technologies by the firms themselves.
Only a third reported in-house R&D, with an even lower percentage engaging in IP-related activities.
Digital innovation in the form of software development and database activities saw moderate 37% engagement, with the most prominent RDI-activity outcomes being more personnel, increased output, improved asset use, and fewer health-and-safety incidents.
Overall, the positive outcomes align with the core objectives of RDI investments: boosting operational efficiency, workforce capability, and sustainability, the audience at the event covered by Mining Weekl
Despite South African mining ending up tenth in a ten-country global benchmarking exercise, two-thirds of the respondents who participated in a survey appear to be more intent on just doing the same things better rather than modernising meaningfully.
Despite the sustainability of South African mining being under pressure, the majority of the coal, gold, uranium, platinum group metals, diamond, iron-ore, manganese, copper, and industrial minerals profile surveyed are not modernising. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
The required transformative shift toward broader sustainability lacked emphasis and even environmental considerations ended up as "a secondary dimension".
Spelt out was the need for a shift from legacy practices towards technology solutions, greater operational resilience, and future-facing strategic approaches.
At South Africa's Mining Modernisation Showcase – where Minerals Council South Africa, the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators' specialised research unit within South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC-CeSTII), PwC Smart Mining, the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the National Advisory Council on Innovation locked arms impressively – modernisation of South Africa's mining sector was described as "an urgent strategic priority for the South African economy".
But the outcome of the survey into the patterns and capabilities of research, development and innovation (RDI) pointed to most of South Africa's miners and mining services providers not prioritising modernisation that is transformative.
Fewer than half had introduced any significantly improved goods, services or business processes in the three years in question.
The most common activities of RDI activists from 2021 to 2023 were the training employees and the buying assets to increase efficiency and productivity – marking time quicker and better, as it were, without moving any new needles.
Most workforce training is largely bypassing universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges.
International training is virtually off the chart. Access to international sources of infrastructure is also low, and intellectual property- (IP-) related activities are within a hair's breadth of being zero.
Most firms are technology adopters and not creators and traditional research-and-development- (R&D-) intensive innovation has largely fallen by the wayside.
HSRC-CeSTII research specialist Dr Amy Kahn told the showcase audience that 54% of firms reported engagement in employee training activities, which displayed emphasis on building human capital to support innovation.
Forty-four per cent engaged in activities related to the acquisition or lease of tangible assets, highlighting a blend of traditional and technology-driven approaches to modernisation efforts.
Forty per cent reported engaging in engineering, design, and other creative work activities, which underlined the uptake of existing technologies, rather than the development of new technologies by the firms themselves.
Only a third reported in-house R&D, with an even lower percentage engaging in IP-related activities.
Digital innovation in the form of software development and database activities saw moderate 37% engagement, with the most prominent RDI-activity outcomes being more personnel, increased output, improved asset use, and fewer health-and-safety incidents.
Overall, the positive outcomes align with the core objectives of RDI investments: boosting operational efficiency, workforce capability, and sustainability, the audience at the event covered by Mining Weekl