A STORM IS COMING…

roger Baxter, the CEO of the Minerals Council, is an optimistic kind of guy. He stoutly believes, for instance, that South Africa’s economic recovery can be found in the revitalisation of its mining sector. But even he is finding it hard to keep the faith sometimes.

“This is now a matter of urgency,” he said in a Minerals Council statement in November, a reference to the impending downgrade of SA’s sovereign debt by credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service. A “substantial turnaround” was needed in six months, preferably through a series of economic reforms, if SA was to avoid moving a peg down the world’s economic ladder.

It’s true, SA mining is on the edge. New investments – of the fresh capital, greenfields type – can be counted on the fingers of one hand. But don’t tell