The talk of nationalisation has done much harm to the mining industry, and it will take years to recover the losses thereof. It now rests on the Department of Mineral Resources to rebuild investor confidence and recreate a conducive environment for business to operate in the mining industry, particularly when it comes to the unemployment rate, which sits at a horrifying 25,2%.
It becomes ever more important to ensure that government policy is - and its utterances are - crystal clear on matters of economic relevance in mining especially. This is extremely urgent, if the optimism of the National Development Plan is anything to go by, as it states that from the mining sector 300 000 direct and indirect jobs could be generated by 2030.