When the Covid-19 contagion hit, mining export earnings declined by 55% within three months from January 2020, but then took just one month to recover. According to the Minerals Council, from that low point the industry recovered within six months by 190%, or 31% higher than the pre Covid-19 level. Minerals Council chief economist, Henk Langenhoven, said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, had been felt quite differently by the various commodities.“There was some correlation between commodity-specific production and its export trends, in other words, when physical production lagged, physical volumes of exports also (generally) lagged. It was also quite clear that the improvement in the world price of gold, PGMs and iron ore had a major impact on the overall export performance ( by v a lue).”Minerals Council president Mxolisi Mgojo said the industry had, from the onslaught of Covid-19, not let its guard down.“Apart from the core basics of sanitising, social distancing and the wearing of masks, the very stringent screening and testing protocols remain in place and are our very first defence against the disease. Each and every day, close on 400 000 employees are screened and, where necessar y, tested. To date, we have performed more than 104 000 tests – often through our internally enhanced testing capacity – resulting in a testing rate of 22%, well above the international testing rate, and more than 60% higher than the South African average.”As an industry it was also essential to get to grips with vaccinations, he said.“We believe that as an industry we can vaccinate between 60 000 and 80 000 people a day – so around three million in two months. And that’s not just our own workforce of 450 000 people. For every employee vaccinated we would envisage vaccinating at least five more people – be they employee family members or community members.”It is estimated the mining industry will be spending around R300 million to vaccinate three million people.As an industry we can vaccinate between 60 000 and 80 000 people a day − so around three million in two months.– Mxolisi Mgojo“Demand for copper is on the rise – especially in China.
