African Mining interviewed Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp on the role of mineral

MINING INDABA •

exploration and development and how it can assist in moving Africa forward to be viewed as an investment region that can be considered stable and secure to be the supplier of choice for the future .

“ Africa is currently receiving only a fraction of the exploration budget that is allocated globally to projects ,” says Dr Steenkamp . Some of the most common concerns for not investing in the African region relate to fears or high risk associated with projects , based on historic and unfolding current events . The number of attacks on mining operations have increased in recent years , leading to the temporary halt or complete suspension of operations . Conflicts have also occurred between the licensed operators and the local communities or with the illegal artisanal miners operating on the borders of the operational mine areas . The local authorities , supported by the governments , have been urged to make an effort to ensure that legal mining operators are protected and supported in terms of security of their operations and staff .

Operational mines also need to be supported with a functional and well-maintained infrastructure . There has been a move toward installing renewable and green energy systems on remote sites or areas of unstable electrical supplies , representing a huge capital investment by companies . These power supplies are also , to an extent , utilised to support local development of the surrounding communities as part of the social license to mine . Mining companies have also invested in the development of infrastructure such as roads and harbours to secure movement of ore from pit to port . It is therefore also important to secure this infrastructure for the benefit of both the mining company and the host country to ensure a mutually beneficial future . mining cadastre is considered a key component for evaluation of investment in a country , specifically in developed mining regions . A number of southern African countries have in the past year invested in adopting and making available a public mining and exploration cadastre system available with awarded and operating exploration and mining license areas . In the same vein , investors need to know in real time what the status of their applications for exploration are .

" Another inhibiting factor for investment in exploration or mining operations consists of frequent changes to the mining legislation or tax and royalties , which are either not conducive to investment or make the system susceptible to corruption , " says Dr Steenkamp .

Vast areas of Africa are still under-explored or not explored , due to reasons of country limitation on the award or access to explore or just by the shear inaccessibility of some regions . It has been proposed that Africa hosts significant deposits of critical metals and elements to meet the near future demands for especially the electrical storage and battery markets being driven by the EV and green energies markets . Expediting exploration in Africa will assist in securing a supply of materials that contributes to the goal of global diversification of sustainable and ethical sourcing and minimising the risk of global market disruption or manipulation by superpowers .

The future exploration is also linked to the changes in geological exploration techniques and the adoption of more advanced technologies in the field . This includes the use of more sophisticated remote sensing platforms to delineate potential near surface mineralised zones as well as the utilisation of machine learning to reprocess and evaluate historic mineral occurrences that were once deemed sub-economical or uneconomical at the time of their discovery and linking it with the viability of domestic beneficiation of the ores through new mineral processing methods and equipment . " The age of the field geologist is , however , still far from over and Africa will require highly skilled geologists with boots on the ground to keep the new discoveries ticking over ," concludes Dr Steenkamp . •

Dr Steenkamp points out that attracting exploration and mining investment also relies heavily on the availability of reliable and recent data . In some African countries the last comprehensive geological mapping and surveys were completed prior to independence . There has been support for additional geochemical and geophysical surveys , but these have been to a large extent of an academic interest and in some cases limited information placed in the public domain that would be considered valuable to the exploration investment community . “ Access to a public

Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp is an independent consultant , specialising in geological , geotechnical and geometallurgical projects and mining project management . He has over two decades of industry experience with global exposure . ncs . contract @ gmail . com

Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp