Browsing by Author "Leteane, Festus Puso"

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Challenges and enablers of a strong and sustainable junior coal mining sector in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-09) Leteane, Festus Puso; Goerge, James
The South African coal mining industry produces about 250million tonnes per annum, for the domestic and export markets. The industry is dominated by the major coal producers, with the top five producers producing about 80% of the coal in the country. It has few mid-tier producers and junior miners. The SA junior coal mining sector is mostly made up of single asset operating mines, located in the Witbank Coalfields, in Mpumalanga Province, and a few in the KwaZulu Natal province, mining anthracitic coal. The SA junior coal mining sector is fragmented, stagnant and not sustainable in its current form. Most of the junior coal miners are operating surface mining operations which require less upfront capital and are not costly to operate as compared to the underground operations. This study aims to understand the deep underlying issues that contribute to the challenges facing this sector, as well as the key enablers for a sustainable junior coal mining sector in SA. In the first objective, we investigated the challenges facing the sector, as well as their underlying root causes. In the second and third objectives, we established the key enablers and a roadmap necessary for a sustainable junior coal mining sector in SA. The literature highlighted the lack of enabling mineral policy as an underlying root cause of the challenges facing the sector. However, the study revealed that, the lack of access to funding remains the persistent and main challenge facing the sector as lot of effort has gone into improving the mineral policy, and the lack of execution in the process of policy implementation remains an obstacle to unlocking the key enablers of a sustainable junior coal mining sector in SA.