ON THE MONEY
STUART THEOBALD: Ponderous old-school mining models will struggle to survive in a leaner, meaner era
The mining companies that are managing to succeed in SA today are a different breed to what they were two decades ago. The old mining conglomerates — think of Anglo American or what Gencor once was – were elaborate corporate hierarchies. Head office managed the politics, trying to keep on the right side of the old apartheid state and then the new democratic government. It also maintained lots of support functions — engineering departments, research and development, corporate finance, public relations, corporate social investment — while the operating divisions were left to get on with the job of efficient mining. Successful miners today have to do all of that themselves in a much tougher environment. Costs are far higher, prices are lower and regulations are more intrusive. The mining sector remains squarely in the focus of politicians. Community relations are a far more material issue because of the settlements abutting mines, replacing the migrant labour model, while the governmen...
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