South Africa to look for new mining opportunities, minister says

Feb 7, 2012, 10:41 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa will be looking for new sources of minerals to mine, in order to create jobs and bring investment into the country, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said on Tuesday.

'There is significant potential for the discovery of other world-class deposits in areas that are yet to be thoroughly explored,' Shabangu told a mining conference in Cape Town, according to SAPA news agency.

'(The) government is now embarking on an effort to support exploration,' she added, noting that the Treasury had already allocated funds for research over the next three years.

South Africa has uniquely high reserves of gold, manganese and platinum. The mining sector has been identified repeatedly by government ministers as an area with the potential to produce job growth.

South African unemployment hovers near a whopping 26 per cent and among the country's youth, the jobless rate is even higher.

Shabangu also told the conference that she remained opposed to the idea of nationalizing the country's mines as a way to abolish poverty and wealth gaps between race groups.