Pretoria - Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu says jobs that were lost in the mining industry during the recession will be created during the course of this year.
About 40 000 jobs were lost during the recession.
Speaking at the Mining Indaba currently underway in Cape Town, Minister Shabanga said the mining industry was expected to grow at an average 4-7 percent during this year.
She said the New Growth Path has identified both mining and mineral value addition as one of the key contributors to economic growth and job creation.
"The mining industry's absorptive capacity of jobs to meet the demand and availability of expertise to respond to the emerging growth in mineral demand is currently in place," Shabangu said.
"South Africa is in an enviable position in that we have a meeting of minds between the three critical stakeholders of this industry, namely government, business and organised labour, as evinced in the tripartite task team under the auspices of Mining Industry Growth Development and Employment Task Team.
In a bid to fight corruption and ensure transparency during the application and granting of mining rights, permits and prospecting licences, Minister Shabangu yesterday launched an online mining cadastral system as an instrument to ensure consistency, transparency, accountability, and introduce uniform application of licensing evaluation procedures.
Shabangu said the launching of the system was a culmination of an extensive and detailed audit undertaken by her department during the standing moratorium on lodgment of new prospecting right applications.
"This audit revealed that despite a huge number of prospecting rights that we have issued since the promulgation of the MPRDA, there has not been a reciprocal exploration activity in the country," she said.
