The exploitation of minerals must form the basis of diversified economies in the developing world, said Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor on Thursday.

“Exports of raw materials and oils often strengthen a currency, rendering other products less competitive and driving them out of business. Resource exports skew growth away from manufacturing, which must be addressed in resource-rich economies.

“It is not always possible to affect exchange rates, so beneficiation and associated localisation must be pursued. South Africa, as an old resource-rich country, has diversified its economy and new resource-rich countries can and should diversify their economies,” she averred, adding that the diversification of developing economies can be assisted through knowledge and expertise sharing.

Speaking at the opening the Department of Science and Technology (DST)/Mintek-Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Science and Technology training programme – a three-month minerals processing and beneficiation workshop – Pandor said a key example was the South Korean economy, which held important lessons for South Africa and other developing countries. While it had a distinct comparative advantage growing rice four decades ago, it did not rely on this alone. It developed its industrial and manufacturing base and its human capital and was currently a developed industrial economy.

“What we in NAM must do now is put in place policies, institutions and the regulatory framework to ensure that natural resources benefit all citizens. This DST/Mintek-NAM fellowship training programme is an expression of this continuing South-South science, technology and innovation cooperation.”

NAM Science and Technology Centre director Professor Arun Kulshreshtha stated that the mining industry was an important source of foreign exchange, tax earnings, infrastructure creation and employment in developing countries.

“The minerals sector has seen significant growth in the past number of decades, but, in developing countries where the resources are available, they are not fully exploited owing to a lack of advanced skills,” he pointed out.

The consequence was that despite having extensive resources, no significant downstream processing or value-addition had taken place. The common challenge then was to develop mineral resources into products that would contribute to positive economic development.

“The shortage of skills is a significant impediment to developing minerals value chains from extraction to products. This obviates the adoption and implementation of appropriate policies on a priority basis at the national and organisational level that promote and facilitate growth in the minerals sector to sustainably develop it and related products, infrastructure and markets simultaneously.

“To achieve this, it is important to provide an adequate interface between academic and research and development institutions, and the mining and minerals industries,” said Kulshreshtha.

The training fellowship would provide deserving youth with training in various facets of mineral exploration and he was confident that the training course would help developing countries to improve the addition of value to their mineral resources.

The minerals processing and beneficiation workshop currently being hosted by South Africa involved 11 of the 47 NAM countries participating in the NAM Science and Technology Centre.

Nineteen delegates from Syria, Sudan, Ghana, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe would learn about minerals processing and beneficiation directly from the South African minerals science council Mintek and its partners in industry as part of South-South scientific collaboration and cooperation between the nonaligned countries.

Pandor lauded the 25-year-old initiative, of which South Africa held the presidency until 2016, under the guidance of Kulshreshtha.

The NAM Science and Technology Centre was located in New Delhi and was hosted by the Indian government. It had achieved good success in line with the resolution to promote South-South capacity building, through training courses, conferences and transfer of technologies.

Kulshreshtha noted that the centre had successfully executed collaborative science and technology projects on rainwater harvesting, biological pesticides and low-cost housing, made possible through strong partnerships and robust support from member countries.