Sponsors of the 2014 Joburg Indaba
Slicing the cake in the mining industry
Slicing the cake in the mining industry
(Johannesburg 4 March 2015) A new taxation regime is just one of the issues that will be raised at the forthcoming breakfast debate hosted by the Joburg Indaba team in Johannesburg on 24th March 2015.
Arguments and counter arguments are taking place in the mining and resource sectors concerning issues relating to land reforms, royalties and new taxation policies. Chairman of the successful Joburg Indaba, Bernard Swanepoel, believes it is now time to talk about how to ‘slice the cake’ and prepare the industry for the next commodity boom.
“The conversation around super tax and resource rents is one that needs to be held so we can ensure nothing stands between us all from reaping the benefits of the next super cycle,” says Swanepoel. How miners could or should share profits and contribute to socio-economic redistribution has been an ongoing discussion amongst all industry stakeholders.
Swanepoel will be joined by the head of research at Imara SP Reid and author of Our Land, Our Rent, Our Jobs, Stephen Meintjes. Meintjes will put forward a proposal to replace taxation with the collection of land and resource rentals. Contributing to the discussion with different viewpoints is Frank Abbott, Financial Director, Harmony Gold, Muhammed Saloojee, Partner and Head of Corporate Tax, KPMG and Claude Baissac, Managing Director, Eunomix
Seats are limited so hurry and engage in this critical conversation by booking your seat today via www.joburgindaba.com
Mining Indaba still ‘relevant as ever’ – analyst
Bernard Swanepoel, Village Main Reef chairman and chairman of the Johannesburg Mining Indaba, says the size of the Cape Town showcase (more than 7 000 delegates expected to attend this year) makes it “a fantastic money spinner for the owners” and for the City of Cape Town from a tourism perspective. But he maintains that very little will come of it in terms of dealing with critical issues facing the industry.
Read the full article here
Bernard Swanepoel: Is SA mining stumbling over cliff or migrating to better future?
As South Africans we are famous for talking. CODESA’s, Lekgotla’s, Indaba’s, working groups and conferences is what we do. Some would say that this has served our country and our industry well in the past as we navigated our way from the dark past to a democratic and inclusive future.
Swanepoel on BEE and lack of juniors
The state of the nation address and the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba, which took place in Cape Town earlier this month, have dominated headlines. Bernard Swanepoel, former Harmony Gold CEO and chairman of The Joburg Indaba, which takes place in October, shares his thoughts.
Read the full article here
Positive steps to secure South Africa’s future energy mix
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate use
Positive steps to secure South Africa’s future energy mix
(Johannesburg 11 September 2014) Updated in November last year, the very ambitious Integrated Resources Plan for 2010-2030, states its main aim is to reduce South Africa’s reliance on coal in electricity generation to below 50% by 2030.
In procuring renewable energy the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme(REIPPP) has been quite successful as a programme. However its procurement target of 3,625MW, over an initial five tender rounds, is set at less than 10% of South Africa’s total power capacity of 43,000MW. There is also concern that it will take a few years to construct and add this base requirement to the national grid.
Although limited, South Africa has other renewable energy power generation capacity, stemming from hydro-power, pumped storage, and nuclear. Hydropower capacity is being sourced from the Ingula Pumped storage scheme, providing some 1300MW in the first of four units, set to come online in mid-2015.
Regional power schemes, from renewable energy sources are also being pursued, with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Inga project being the most prominent. Inga has the potential to generate 40,000MW of power, unfortunately the timeframe on this being fully operational is highly uncertain. Inga is proposed to be rolled out in six phases, the first of which is set to generate only 4,300MW, of which South Africa will procure 2,500MW. Construction on phase one is only likely to begin in 2016/17, meaning it could be some time before South Africa benefits from this capacity source.
As outlined in this year’s State of the Nation address and mentioned in the budget speech, South Africa’s biggest single renewable energy project goal is the development of new nuclear power plants, of which the government is targeting an additional 9,600MW of nuclear energy capacity.
In 2013, just over 94% of South Africa’s electricity generation mix came from coal-fired power stations. The remainder came from gas power plants, the diesel-fired open-cycle gas turbines, which are very expensive to run and have been used extensively during power shortages, and from renewable sources, being mainly Koeberg.
“The biggest constraints to growing South Africa’s energy production capacity, including increasing the percentage of renewable energy, are the inefficiencies of Eskom, government interference, and the huge financial resources needed to fund its current and future energy projects, “ states Claude Baissac, CEO of Eunomix and a recognised country and political risk expert.
Coupled with SA’s agreement on global Greenhouse Emission Policies which knock our overextended and major supplier of energy, coal, what options does this country have?
South Africa’s energy crisis has been caused by poor planning and the inefficiency of the government and its state owned enterprise, Eskom.
“Plans are underway to build on South Africa’s power capacity to match current and future demand. One of the major current issues is that South Africa commissioned two huge new coal-fired power plants, namely Medupi and Kusile, with a third in the offing, ‘Coal 3’. At full capacity, these three power plants will add over 10,000MW of additional coal-fired power to the grid, therefore diluting some of the gains made in increasing the percentage of non-coal power projects in South Africa,” adds Baissac.
South Africa has many options for reducing the reliance on coal. Potentially the greatest source of future energy supply could come in come in the form of additional renewable energy sourced locally and from the near region, off-shore gas deposits coming from gas imports from Namibia and from Mozambique, which holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves and coal-bed methane.
Lastly and probably most importantly is shale gas however details of a shale gas programme are yet to be finalized.
In terms of solving Eskom’s efficiency problems, one option for South Africa is to partly privatize Eskom, ready suggested by some parts of South Africa’s cabinet.
“There needs to be a concerted effort from the South African government to ensure Eskom acts as an efficient company, perhaps more restructuring. Lastly, Eskom could allow more independent power producers to increase their role in supplying power to areas that are experiencing particular shortages or are energy-intensive users,” concludes Baissac.
Baissac joins other leading experts in the mining and resources sectors at next month’s Joburg Indaba to explore other opportunities to increase and secure renewable energy production in South Africa.





Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a division of FirstRand Bank Limited is a leading African corporate and investment bank and part of one of the largest financial services groups in Africa. We offer our clients innovative, value-added advisory, funding, trading, corporate banking and principal investing solutions.
Wesizwe Platinum is a public company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa with its shares listed on the JSE Limited. Wesizwe, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Bakubung Minerals (Pty) Limited and Africa Wide Mineral Prospecting and Exploration (Pty) Limited, is engaged in the development of its Bakubung Platinum Mine.
Ivanhoe Mines, with offices in Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa, is developing its three principal projects:
Barnstone is the service provider of choice for Enterprise Resourcing Planning Market with its SAP Mining Solution for Mid-Tier mines. 
