JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – After indicating for several years its intention to develop a local minerals beneficiation industry, government has announced that it will, this year, develop a Minerals Beneficiation Action Plan as a component of the Industrial Policy Action Plan.

Addressing Parliament during his Budget Vote speech on Tuesday, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies added that “extraordinary” resource rents profits earned by companies during the commodity super-cycle had not been adequately shared with workers.

He explained that the terms of trade for South African exports had since declined “substantially”, as weak international prices reduced revenues from the country’s key commodity exports.

“I am not suggesting that beneficiation is easy; however, if we fail to decisively pursue beneficiation we will relegate the South African economy to a place at the bottom end of the globalisation of labour, with serious consequences for our ability to generate income and employment.

“Our economy will remain undiversified and will be beholden to international commodity markets,” he cautioned.

He added that government did not have the luxury of debating whether or not to beneficiate its mineral wealth.

“We must harness the collective industrial capabilities of local firms to map how to beneficiate and what enabling policies or support measures are required to ensure this happens successfully and for the benefit of all South Africans,” Davies asserted.