The digital age holds out great opportunities for mining companies to reduce risk and improve safety and profitability; SRK Consulting (SA) chairman William Joughin gave delegates at the Investing in African Mining Indaba a taste of what is already being achieved.

Stronger mineral markets underpin a more upbeat mood at the Investing in African Mining Indaba underway in Cape Town, but the really important messages from opinion leaders at the event have the sound of ushering in an age of mining differently.

“My focus as chairman will be on leveraging SRK’s distinctive combination of experience and innovative capability, where our expertise gathered over decades is captured and applied in new technologies that generate more value for our clients.”

While the headlines seem to suggest growing levels of mistrust between mines and communities, South Africa is home to a breakthrough where these partnerships are now practically being built. According to SRK Consulting’s corporate social and development consultant Tim Hart, the narrative of treating communities as partners rather than beneficiaries has found its way steadily into the mining sector’s approach, but the difficulty has been to put that idea into action.

With Africa still low on the global mining risk rankings, explorers and developers being drawn back into the continent by the commodity price recovery would be wise to step carefully – on the strength of quality studies and plans informed by experienced local professionals.

With Africa still low on the global mining risk rankings, explorers and developers being drawn back into the continent by the commodity price recovery would be wise to step carefully – on the strength of quality studies and plans informed by experienced local professionals.

The issue of water quality has become topical in the aftermath of the contamination in the Olifants River catchment in Mpumalanga over recent decades, as well the surfacing of acid mine drainage from old and abandoned mines around Gauteng and other provinces.

SRK Consulting (North America) Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Corporate Consultant Stephen Day as its new chairman.

While the mood at the recent Junior Indaba mining event was sombre when it came to South Africa’s policy environment, there were some interesting opportunities being mooted for minerals like lithium.

SRK Consulting SA has been rated in the top five companies in South Africa’s consulting engineering (mining and infrastructure) segment in the recent Top 500 Companies Awards.

The recent share price collapse of a much-vaunted copper-gold project in south-west Alaska is an indication of what can happen when explorers and planners do not cover all the bases in the early stages of the project cycle, according to Marcin Wertz, partner and head of the mining unit at SRK Consulting.

Signs of hope – visible in some commodity prices and increased exploration drilling – have lent a more upbeat tone to the buzzing Investing in African Mining Indaba taking place in Cape Town this week; but South Africa has some sobering lessons for those African countries present which have yet to fully launch their mining sectors.