The company, which is reported to have invested around R11.2 billion ($677 million) in the ultra-high-density media separation iron-ore project at Sishen, South Africa’s Northern Cape, noted that despite volatility in the South African market, the country is pivotal to the company’s operations.
“We have other investments in terms of innovation and technology,” Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad commented during last week’s discussion with Joburg Indaba chairperson Bernard Swanepoel.
“We’ve made commitments in terms of exploration investment in South Africa, and despite the challenges, despite the volatility, despite the uncertainty, the opportunity remains huge for us,” he added.
The CEO also relayed that South Africa’s rich mineral resources remain a major strength, but attracting more investment also depends on creating the right conditions for businesses to compete and develop projects.
“Whilst South Africa’s mineral endowment remains one of the greatest strengths of South Africa, attracting investment increasingly depends on broader conditions that support competitiveness and project development,” Wanblad explained.
As reported by MiningWeekly, the CEO of Anglo American conveyed contentment that Government-Business Partnership’s transition into its third phase had established mining as a crucial foundation for sustainable economic expansion within South Africa.
The partnership is designed to create around a million jobs and spur approximately 3% growth.
South Africa currently boasts world-class engineering expertise, developed financial markets, and strong institutions that could support a globally competitive mining industry.
Despite this, Wanblad explained that the country has three pivotal areas that need to be prioritised to turn these advantages into projects that could attract investment and move from planning to execution.
“The first of these areas is that we have to continue to address administrative complexity that just too often delays investments or creates unpredictability as far as investors are concerned,” Wanblad stated.
“These need an efficient and harmonised regulatory environment, and this is not only permitting that I’m talking about.
A crucial part of this is the successful implementation of our long-awaited modern cadastral system, which should improve transparency, strengthen investor confidence, and the combination of those should unlock exploration and therefore unlock project development, which is clearly the genesis of every new mine,” Wanblad added.
Furthermore, South Africa must sustain the “hugely encouraging and measurably good progress” achieved in rail and logistics reform to establish robust and dependable freight and port infrastructure.
“We have made superb progress there, but undeniably still some ways to go,” Wanblad explained.
The third priority was improving South Africa’s energy security, although he acknowledged that the country had already made significant progress in this area.
“The next challenge that I think we really do have to get our heads around is this issue of security, safety, corruption, et cetera.
I know that’s one of the benchmark pillars of this partnership with government, and we are certainly very encouraged by all of this progress, but it’s going to take an enormous amount of effort and significant partnerships to be able to get it delivered,” he elaborated.
Source: africa.businessinsider.com
