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South Africa: African Mining Partnership Wants Permanent SA Secretariat
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BuaNews (Tshwane)
3 February 2008
Posted to the web 4 February 2008
Shaun Benton
Cape Town
The African Mining Partnership, which held its fifth meeting in Cape Town on Friday and Saturday, has recommended that a permanent secretariat be established in South Africa.
This secretariat's is to be tasked with, among other matters, developing an African mining policy framework along with a sustainable development charter for mining.
This would then serve as a yardstick for all mining and mineral policy development in the continent, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Buyelwa Sonjica, told the delegates.
This initiative of the African Mining Partnership would be consistent with Nepad (the New Partnership for Africa's Development), which captures a common vision for African growth and development, the minister said.
The two-day meeting drew government ministers from 14 African nations, including South Africa, as well as officials from another eight African countries as well as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Officials from Canada, representatives of the Communities and Small-Scale Mining (CASM) as well as Europe - in the form of EuroGeoSurveys - were also present, as were officials from the Southern East Africa Mineral Centre (SEAMIC).
South Africa led presentations on mineral beneficiation, while another key element of African mining - artisan and small-scale mining, was jointly led by Nigeria, Ethiopia and Mali.
South Africa also co-led a session on environmentally sustainable development in mining, along with Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A previous meeting of the African Mining Partnership, held in Abuja, Nigeria, in August last year, endorsed the formation of a working group that would address the "perennial challenge" of funding for African Mining Partnership projects, said Ms Sonjica.
In line with this, discussions included the promotion of foreign investment and indigenous or local participation in mining ventures, in a session led by Namibia, Senegal and South Africa. Namibia is the vice-chair, along with India, of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, and will be assuming chairmanship of the scheme from next year.
Set up in November 2002 following a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2000, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is joint initiative involving governments, the diamond industry and civil society groups to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
It is known as the Kimberley process after southern African diamond-producing states met in Kimberley, South Africa in May 2000, to ensure that the trade in conflict diamonds - rough diamonds, or "blood" diamonds, used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments - is stopped. Ms Sonjica called for broad support for Namibia's leadership of the KCPS and added that several other African states have been re-accepted into the scheme, while several others have expressed their intent to do so.
This, she said, indicates that "Africa is taking its rightful position in global mining". The executive committee meeting of the African Mining Partnership recommended in Cape Town that the framework being drawn up by the secretariat work to "optimise" the benefits from mining undertaken in Africa.
Also on the agenda was the role of women in mining. A proposal to establish a 'Women in Mining' desk that would promote the participation of women in mining was adopted in this latest round of meetings of the AMP. The participation of women in the mining sector in Africa would act as a catalyst to poverty alleviation in Africa, said Ms Sonjica. Ghana's Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines, Esther Obeng Dappah, told reporters that women, whose engagement with mining is usually on a small scale, need to be encouraged to get into large-scale mining.
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Overall, Ms Sonjica said she found that the high level of support and response from African states on the need for the continent to put in place an efficient and integrated mining programme is "indicative of a continued resolve to put Africa on the economic map of the modern world".
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