Kgosietsile Mmoloke, RCPM Industries

The outlook for mining in South Africa is a gloomy one. Production continues its inexorable slide, and every year sees a decline in the workforce. The country was the world’s top gold producer in 1995. Now, it’s slid to 12th place. But the sector is resilient, bringing R430bn into the economy last year and there have been marked improvements in mine safety. Meanwhile, it’s thought digitalisation can unlock billions in additional value in the local mining sector using initiatives like autonomous operations and real-time data analytics and monitoring.

Johan Laas, CIO, Rand Refinery, says digital transformation in mining needs to be accelerated. “There’s a lot of action, but there’s no traction,” he says.