Modern Mining February 2015

feature SUSTAINABILITY IN MINING Professor Caroline Digby.

Sustainable mining – how

In the wake of the Marikana tragedy, there has been much hand-wringing in South Africa about the failings of the country’s mining industry and its lack of progress in achieving sustainability. But matters are not necessarily as dire as is sometimes perceived. One expert who takes a more sanguine view of the situa- tion, for example, is Professor Caroline Digby, Director of the Centre for Sustain- ability in Mining and Industry (CSMI) at Wits University, who says the industry has taken huge strides towards the goal of sustainability in recent years. “There is still a long way to go but I see no reason for pessimism,” she says. “There is a clear understanding on the part of many mining companies, certainly the big- ger ones, that they need a ‘social licence’ to mine and that this in turn depends on the sustainability of their operations.”

D igby does point out though that there is still a considerable gap between theory and practice. “I think we – and by ‘we’ I mean the industry, the government and organisations such as the CSMI – know what needs to be done but I’m not sure we’ve figured out how to do it,” she says. “There’s been a large number of initiatives undertaken over the past 10 years or so and these have re- sulted in a plethora of standards, laws, guide- lines, toolboxes and the like but we haven’t yet spent a huge amount of time working out what really works on the ground.”

On the question of South Africa’s regulatory framework governing mining, she says that while it is fairly prescriptive by world standards it is also generally regarded as ‘cutting edge’ by international observers. “We’re definitely not lagging the field and many countries regard South Africa’s mining legislation as something to emulate. The key piece of legislation of course is the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) of 2002 which specifies in detail the social responsibilities of mining companies and the BEE require- ments that they need to meet. The MPRDA has been a great enabler of empowerment and

As part of its approach to sustainable development, Kumba Iron Ore’s Thabazimbi mine handed over a R16 million bio-energy and organic vegetable project to the community of Regorogile near Thabazimbi, Limpopo in September last year (photo: Kumba Iron Ore).

32  MODERN MINING  February 2015