JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa remains one of the world's premier mining jurisdictions, Anglo American has spelt out emphatically, amid itself investing R11.2-billlion in the ultra-high dense media separation iron-ore project at Sishen, in South Africa’s Northern Cape.

“We have other investments in terms of innovation and technology. 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,” Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad commented during last week’s discussion with Joburg Indaba chairperson Bernard Swanepoel.

“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.

Anglo is part of the Business for South Africa platform developed in terms of the Government-Business Partnership for Growth and Jobs, which is setting up conditions to allow South Africa to grow economically and to provide long-term and sustainable jobs for South Africa’s people.

Wanblad expressed delight that the Government-Business Partnership's advance into phase three had embedded mining as a fundamental pillar of identifiable growth within South Africa, “and that’s hugely exciting for all of us”.

The partnership is targeting 3% growth and the creation of a million jobs by 2030.

Wanblad pointed out that the “unparalleled mining expertise” of South Africans was evidenced by the large number of South Africans in senior mining roles the world over.

Within South Africa itself, he said, were world-class engineering capabilities, sophisticated financial markets and well-established institutions, which provided a solid foundation for what should be one of the world's most globally competitive mining sectors.

But three key areas had to be accelerated to turn this into investable and executable project development.

“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.

“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 explained.

Secondly, South Africa must continue to build on its “hugely encouraging and measurably good progress” in rail and logistics reform, and create highly reliable freight and port systems.

“We have made superb progress there, but undeniably still some ways to go,” Wanblad pointed out.

The third area was strengthening South Africa's energy security, where nobody would suggest that South Africa had not made phenomenal progress.

To this effort, Anglo’s Envusa energy partnership with EDF Power Solutions contributes 520 MW of renewable energy that has been connected – and there is more to come, Wanblad reported.

In addition, South Africa’s removal from the grey list and South Africa’s improved sovereign credit ratings had helped to strengthen investor confidence and investment appeal.

“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 pointed out.

While some may say that South Africa has had its best days in mining, looking at the country through a different lens may point to South Africa’s best days having still to arrive.

“The fact that there's still so much prospectivity in the ground, that the world has changed and is still changing its view on mining, if we get it right, maybe mining's best days could be ahead of us.

“I know it's a big stretch for many people to think about, just given where we come from in the recent past, but it's a real option and opportunity,” Wanblad commented during the event covered by Mining Weekly.