Sikoe, Oratile2025-08-182024Sikoe, Oratile. (2024). The effects of renewable energy integration on profitability & employment- a case of South African mines [Master`s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/45953https://hdl.handle.net/10539/45953A research report submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Commerce, In the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024The mining industry has been seen as one of the most energy-intensive industries in the world. That is also responsible for being a source of critical raw materials for other sectors in a country, such as manufacturing, construction, transportation, and energy sectors. In the past years we have observed an increase in mining companies adopting renewable energy in order to introduce cleaner energy sources into their mining operations. However, the economic effects of renewable energy source adoption are understudied in South Africa. This research is set out to examine and understand the effects of renewable energy integration into the mining industry on profitability and employment, with the use of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Stationarity (ARDL) model. Our results revealed that there is a positive long-run relationship between renewable energy integration, employment, and mining profitability in the South African mining industry, including in the short-run. More specifically, the results show that the adoption of renewable energy sources bolsters both profitability and employment in the mining industry of South Africa such that a unit integration of renewable energy will most likely result in a respective percent increase in employment and mining profitability. Our research is the first of its kind in providing this evidence compared to related literature which is not industry specific. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of the transition by industries to renewable energy to simultaneously promote economic growth and ameliorate environmental quality in the context of developing countries where extractive industries pervade.en© 2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.UCTDmining industryrenewable energyemploymentDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSDG-7: Affordable and clean energySDG-8: Decent work and economic growth