Mining Industry In Africa Research Articles

The status of extended reality technology in South Africa's mining industry

The economic upheaval of COVID-19 forced companies to invest in emerging technologies to aid recovery. One such technology is extended reality, which is becoming a mature and innovative tool. Early adopters are seeing significant benefits in learning, training, immersive data visualization, and remote assistance. In South Africa, the mining industry is increasingly interested in using extended reality to optimize and innovate operations. The Minerals Council of South Africa's July 2021 report highlighted the potential of extended reality's to achieve zero-harm production and modernize the industry. However, the extent of extended reality adoption in mining remains unclear due to limited information on its usage. This study addressed this gap by distributing an online survey to assess awareness, knowledge, and current uses of extended reality in South Africa's mining sector. The results indicated that virtual and augmented reality had the highest levels of awareness and usage, primarily for learning and training. Mixed reality, however, had the lowest awareness and knowledge levels. In terms of applications, visualization and remote assistance had the least use cases. These findings highlight that the South African mining industry is deficient in its understanding and use of extended reality technologies. Without better awareness and application, the South African industry risks missing out on the full benefits of extended reality. The study underlines the need for the South African mining industry to improve its outlook on extended reality technologies to fully leverage their potential applications and benefits.

Black peoples’ control of South Africa's mining industry in the post-apartheid South Africa

The Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Charter (Mining Charter 1) of 2002 called for Black people – referred to as Historically Disadvantaged South African (HDSAs) – to own 26 percent of the value of equity and mine assets and achieve 40 percent (including 10 percent for women) representation on the higher-level management to control decision making in mining companies. This article seeks to contribute to the debate on HDSAs’ control of mining companies by looking at representation in higher-level management. The findings indicate that HDSAs were well represented in companies that they have majority shareholding despite control being lost due to indebtedness. There was no HDSAs representation in many foreign and white owned companies. Sellers of mining assets use separate companies to house HDSAs, low voting shares and set conditions in concluding BEE deals. Long job tenures, long time in climbing the ladder to higher-level management positions and preference for small sized boards are among factors that limit HDSAs’ control. This article argues that HDSAs’ control depends on the increase in equity and mine assets acquisitions. It recommends that policy makers concentrate on helping HIDSAs acquire more equity and mine assets in order to gain more representation.

Diffusion of Big Data Analytics Innovation in Managing Natural Resources in the African Mining Industry

The study draws upon the ethical theory of organizing to elucidate the links between ethical climate antecedents, organizational practices, and consequences. We also integrated organizing vision theory to examine the influence of diffusion of big data analytics innovation on sustainable business practices. The results indicate that organizational trust has a significant positive impact on ethics training and ethics audit, which is critical to South Africa's mining industry. Furthermore, the results indicate that ethical leadership is positively related to ethics training and ethics audits. Findings show that ethics training and ethics audit is positively related to sustainable business practices. Findings indicate that the vision constructed by community members is positively related to the diffusion of big data analytics innovation. We also found that the diffusion of big data analytics innovation is positively related to sustainable business practices. Lastly, findings show that sustainable business practices are positively related to firm performance.

Performance and Risk: Trafigura Beheer BV Company in the Mining Industry in Africa

The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of the African mining in five years. The analysis is suitable for African mining samples during from 2013 to 2017.This study used the credit risk, liquidity risk, operation risk and economic environment such as descriptive analysis to compare mining profitability and liquidity of the company. The findings suggest that corporate profitability may be affected by the operational risk, and liquidity may be affected by the interest rate of the economic environment.

The management of occupational noise–induced hearing loss in the mining sector in Africa: A systematic review – 1994 to 2016

Literature into exposure to occupational noise in developing countries suggests that the prevalence of occupational noise–induced hearing loss is still high. There is also evidence that the mining industry is aware of this epidemic; however, the efforts to curb occupational noise–induced hearing loss are currently unsuccessful. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore and document current evidence reflecting trends in the management of occupational noise–induced hearing loss in the mining industry in Africa from 1994 to 2016. A systematic literature review was conducted in line with the Cochrane collaboration guidelines and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. Electronic bibliographic databases such as ScienceDirect, PubMed and Scopus MEDLINE were searched. A total of 1212 titles and abstracts were identified; of which only nine papers formed part of this study. The results indicated that there is a dearth of research on the management of occupational noise–induced hearing loss in Africa. The limited research on the management of occupational noise–induced hearing loss focuses on some aspects of the hearing conservation programme pillars and not on all the pillars as suggested by some scholars in the field. Furthermore, these studies had small sample sizes thereby, minimizing their generalization. There is therefore a need for more studies on the management of occupational noise–induced hearing loss in the mining sector, as there is evidence to suggest that occupational noise–induced hearing loss in African countries is still on the rise.

Performance and Riskafrican Rainbow Mining Company in the Mining Industry in Africa

Performance and Riskafrican Rainbow Mining Company in the Mining Industry in Africa

The renegotiation window: Resource contract renegotiations in the mining industry in Africa from 2000 to 2013

This article explores the question of why countries in Africa increasingly took the decision to review and renegotiate their contracts with international mining companies during the period from 2000 to 2013. A policy window opened for African governments to renegotiate their mining contracts, brought on by the coming together of a problem, a set of policies, and developments in the political stream at the international, regional, and domestic levels. I suggest several explanations to account for these favourable dynamics at all three levels. The fact that African countries were briefly situated within a certain international and regional environment, combined with specific characteristics at the domestic level – including emergence from conflict and/or regime change, and a strong civil society presence calling for companies to sign agreements more in line with country interests – is an important determinant of renegotiation decisions. Cross-country comparisons and detailed case studies from Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo provide greater insight into these processes. This iterative, heuristic case-study approach yields greater insight into why some African countries decided to renegotiate their mining contracts. Yet the empirical evidence highlights the limitations to African countries' newfound “window of opportunity.” The recent drop in commodity prices, moreover, suggests that this window has closed and may not reopen for some time.

A Sustainable Approach to the Harmonization of Electric Power Availability with the Mining Industry in Africa: a Case Study of Mozambique

It remains for a sustainability study to consider how to meet social needs for energy services in the realization of sustainable development, because globally about 2 billion people still have no acess to modern energy. It is therefore necessary to draw attention to energy access - w million deaths annually are associated with the indoor burning of solid fuels. Energy-supply infrastructure globally needs a cumulative investment of US$25.6 trillion for the period 2008-2030, and African portion of this investment is estimated at US$454 billion. Power generation that is dependent on the mining industry seems to be a worthwhile subject for considering the combination of energy availability with national development, so this strategy is discussed, with the focus on a case study of Mozambique: it can be estimated that self-supply system in the mining industry actually export a certain amount of power to national and regional markets, and they may be an opportunity to generate low-cost power through the use of discard coal from coking coal export operations. However, Mozambique should prevent discard coal from becoming a hazardosu load; mercury is on of the most toxic element in coal and its by-products. Political strategies that solove a socio-economic problem but cause an eneviornmental one should be avoided if sustainable development is to be properly realized.

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING: (RE)CONSIDERING THE EXCELLENCE OF ACTIVISM IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINING INDUSTRY

ABSTRACTOne of the greatest changes organisations in South Africa experienced through the country's democratisation is the introduction of ‘legitimate’ activism in organisational settings. Organisational communication literature – specifically as manifest in the excellence theory – compounded this through views on the potentially positive impact activism could have on organisations by ‘pushing’ them beyond equilibrium to a state of dynamic equilibrium – mediated through strategic and effectual communication. This view, however, is somewhat fouled by occurrences such as those at Marikana, and concomitant strikes in the country's platinum industry, which have held the economy ‘captive’ in various ways. Organisations – especially the mining industry – need to ask ‘How much activism is too much activism?’ and organisational communication practitioners need to introspectively consider whether this theoretical contribution should not perhaps have come with greater guidance in terms of the chary (if not restrained) implementation of this potentially positive, yet almost insidiously dangerous, communicative feature. this article aims to explore activism in the mining industry of South Africa, specifically from the vantage points of industry heads, as it concerns the changed communicative landscape in this industry post-marikana. to this end, the article will report on seven qualitative, semi- structured interviews – along with existing literature on the topic – as it offers up six considerations in applying the aspect of excellence and ‘positive activism’ within organisations in South Africa's mining industry.

Recovery of Na 2SO 4·10H 2O from a reverse osmosis retentate by eutectic freeze crystallisation technology

The increasing amount of waste water and effluent from South Africa's mining industry forms a growing problem, which processing requires sustainable solutions in which both the water and the dissolved component can be re-used. Eutectic freeze crystallisation (EFC) has been identified as a key technology that is not only energy efficient, but also produces ice and salt products of high quality. Unlike reverse osmosis membrane systems, EFC can treat both dilute and concentrated systems minimising waste water volumes. In this paper it is shown that freeze and eutectic freeze crystallisation can be used for the processing of a reverse osmosis retentate stream containing 4% NaSO 4 and a number of impurities (F, Cl, K, Li, Mg, Ca, NO 3 and NH 4), producing both pure water and NaSO 4·10H 2O crystals. The influence of the impurities on the eutectic point and on the crystal structure of mirabilite was investigated using EFC technology investigated for a pure binary system, for a synthetic reverse osmosis retentate as well as for a concentrated NaCl system. In addition, investigations into the recovery and purity of mirabilite for these streams were conducted.

Regulation & Legitimacy in the Mining Industry in Africa: Where does Canada Stand?

There are more than 1,000 mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges, more than any other country and, as such, represent the most important source of investment in mining in Africa. This article provides a preliminary evaluation of the experience and report of the Canadian National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It does so in the context of the surge of Canadian investment in mining in Africa and of increasing public awareness of the negative impacts of the activities of Canadian mining enterprises. It examines the issues of resource governance and the ‘securitisation’ of mining activities. The recommendations favouring adoption of a Canadian set of CSR Standards for Canadian extractive‐sector companies operating abroad is contextualised in the global expansion of transnational mining investment that since the 1990s led to increasing conflicts with local communities.

Water, mining, and waste: An historical and economic perspective on conflict management in South Africa

Lack of government intervention in South Africa's mining industry has worsened conflicts associated with limited water resources. With the advent of democracy, new legislation demands that all South African citizens have the right to a clean, safe environment, including access to potable water, and that the country develop in a sustainable manner. But conflict remains due to the historical partnership between the government and the mining industry, as well as due to cumulative impacts associated with mining, which has polluted natural ground water sources. In this article, an historical overview of the mining industry in South Africa is presented, along with a simple economic model to describe behavior of the mining industry over time. Legislative frameworks used to address mine waste and mine water management are evaluated and suggestions are made for how to use an understanding of resource driven conflict to improve the outlook of mining and access to water for all in South Africa.

Developing African technical management in Southern Africa's mining industry

Competent, confident black management is essential to South Africa's future. But how is it best developed? A successful training model for indigenous technical managers exists ‐ and points the way forward.

Golden Expectations: Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance in South Africa's Mining Industry

South Africa has the strictest corporate social responsibility (CSR) legislation in Africa, requiring mining firms to comply with stringent requirements in order to secure and retain their mining licenses. This presentation explores how firms have responded to the complex network of governance initiatives that exist to encourage mining firms to engage with communities through CSR. However, mining companies operating in South Africa face three distinct challenges. The rise of a second mining union has caused unrest among mine workers; second, South African gold and platinum mines face low mine life expectancies; third, the commodity slump has left mining companies hurting with razor-thin profit margins and diminished capital expenditure opportunities. Yet despite these three challenges, firms continue to operate in the South African sphere and moreover, match and often exceed the CSR obligations demanded by the state to redress the inequalities of apartheid. This is a scholarly and policy-oriented puzzle, for if one imagines a corporation to be a rational, profit-seeking entity, then it would be natural for the company to meet the CSR legislation in order to retain their license to operate in South Africa, but it is unexpected that a firm would exceed it. Understanding this phenomenon forms the crux of this investigation and will facilitate a stronger understanding of how mining firms operating in South Africa have responded to the legislated CSR norms and the effect that they have had on both their governance strategies and their engagement/identities with the state and civil society. The presentation will also include the results of my interviews with stakeholders undertaken in South Africa between January and February 2016.