1. DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL RESOURCES
PPC
PRESENTATION OF THE MINERAL RESOURCES 2012 SONA RESPONSE
DATE 15 FEBRUARY 2012

2. Presentation Outline 1. Job creation 2. Beneficiation
3. Competitiveness
4. Infrastructure
Skills development
Health issues
Procurement
Employment Equity
Honourable Chairperson
Honourable Members of the Portfolio Committee
We welcome the opportunity to brief the Portfolio Committee on issues arising from the President’s State of the Nation Address, impacting on the Department.
Honourable Members, we are making this presentation congnisant of the fact that, currently the debate is underway on the State of the Nation Address and the Minister of Mineral Resources would be participating in the dabate today. We are also aware that they would be appearing before this Committee to present our Strategic Plan, which would further elaborate on the operational plans in place to implement these and other matters.
Having said that, I need to indicate upfront that in our this month, would be remembered also for a successfully hosted Mining Indaba which was well attended and greater focus on impact of mining in the economy.
Having said, I would like to introduce my team:

3. Job creation
The New Growth Path has identified the mining industry as one of the key job drivers
The President’s speech indicated that the mining industry has contributed to the reduction in unemployment for 2011
To address the issue of job creation, stakeholders developed a strategy for the sustainable growth and meaningful transformation of the mining sector; Further to this, was a commitment by all parties to create 140, 000 jobs by 2020.
Current indications are that we are on track.
Together with stakeholders, through MIGDETT, we will monitor the progress through the job creation task team.

4. Job creation Cont’d
Through licensing and regulatory activities, the department will continue to contribute towards job creation through:
issuing of prospecting rights, mining rights and mining permits to compliant applicants.
improving monitoring and enforcement of compliance through conducting inspections covering Social and Labour Plans.

5. Beneficiation
South Africa is endowed with a variety of mineral resources
The challenge for the country has been the ability to significantly add value to the mined minerals
The president emphasised the importance of beneficiation in addressing the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality
In this regard, the department has developed a beneficiation strategy that was approved by cabinet. Cabinet instructed DMR to develop implementation plans for the following value chains:
Iron ore and steel
Energy
Diesel particulates & autocatalytic converters
Pigment and titanium metal production
Jewellery fabrication
The first two were approved by cabinet in November 2011 and the remaining three are due for submission to cabinet this year

6. Competitiveness / Infrastructure
Competitiveness in the mining industry is critical in terms of developing new projects and creating jobs for the people of South Africa
Some of the critical elements that are needed in addressing competitiveness are:
infrastructure – as highlighted by the president in his speech
research and development e.g high quality geological information
availability of energy
As stated earlier the sector strategy for sustainable growth and meaningful transformation has been developed under the auspices of a multi-stakeholder task team.
The DMR is currently working with stakeholders to address the issue of infrastructure constraints through:
- inter governmental structures
- MIGDETT processes

7. Skills Development
Skills development is still a challenge within the mining industry.
The DMR is collaborating with the DHET through the MQA to improve on skills development in respect of the following programmes:
Artisan Development.
Improving women participation.
Developing black managers.
Skills required to support Beneficiation Strategy.
Bursaries.
The Department will explore ways of improving the percentage pass rate for various certificates of competency.
The DMR has its own internal programmes to enhance the skills of the staff.

8. Health
Health of mine employees including TB, HIV and AIDS is a continuing concern within the mining sector, these issues were also identified during the Mine Health and Safety summit held in November 2012.
Commitments were made during the Summit which will address silicosis, TB, HIV, AIDS and the general health of employees.

9. Procurement Employment Equity
Responding to the Call of the President we will further tighten up our Supply Chain Management (SCM) to prevent fronting and corruption.
All employees of the Department, including SCM employees are screened before commencing employment in the Department.
Employment Equity
The department has a mandatory 2% as its target for disabled employees in its employment equity plans. Currently we are sitting at 0.6% but plans are afoot to increase this target through our recruitment strategy.

10. THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?