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To call South Africa’s new exploration strategy “underwhelming” would be to pay it a huge compliment.

The strategy has just been put up on its website by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. It’s been promised for two years by Minister Gwede Mantashe and is supposed to be the key to unlock interest and investment in South African mineral exploration. It will do neither.

Many mines in South Africa are heading towards the end of their lifespans and new mines need to be discovered and developed if the industry is to continue. But the ANC government’s investor unfriendly rules have meant a continuing reduction in the amount of exploration.

This strategy was supposed to be a game changer and to signal a turnabout in the fortunes of the industry. Instead it is a mishmash of everything government has been claiming it’s doing for the last several years. It looks like something an intern was given to draw up over the weekend.

Most of the content of the document’s 12 pages consists of truisms and anodyne reflections on the potential of South Africa’s mineral endowment. It also contains meaningless gobbledygook like, ”There is an imminent need for the country to feature Industry 4.0 in the sector whilst striking a balance between socio-economic needs and technological advancement.”

Even worse is the claim that “According to investor perceptions, South Africa has developed world-class legislative frameworks that govern the sector.”

As the industry digests that howler the highly regarded Fraser Institute of Canada put South Africa into its ten least attractive mining jurisdictions for investment.

What this strategy really needed was a timeline for the rollout of a cadastral system which is a transparent public record of who owns what mining rights. It needed a credible plan to clean up corruption amongst departmental officials who put securing bribes ahead of developing the industry, and it needed a relaxation of the onerous BEE systems designed to grab investor’s money.

If this exploration strategy is the best the Minister can do after two years, then the industry is in real danger and so too are the livelihoods of millions of South Africans who depend on mining.

Issued by DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources, James Lorimer MP