Across Africa, there is an increasing urgency for different sectors to embrace competitive processes to improve quality, safety and productivity. Similar to oil and gas, Africa’s mining industry commands huge value addition potential to Africa’s economy. There however has been a very slow pace in the embrace of standard processes and practices in this industry.
It is no longer subject to debate that unlocking the full spectrum of Africa’s socioeconomic prowess rests in the belly of its mineral resources, the market potentials they command and the pace at which Africa advances her mining value addition capabilities. The growing global push and pull for energy transition further complements value propositions associated with Africa’s mineral wealth, but as well mounts more pressures on not just the need for local content, but as well the pace and effectiveness of its development.
An African Development Bank (AFDB) publication claims “global mining industry is undergoing unprecedented changes, including high volatility of commodity prices and rising exploration costs. Africa, is home to more than 60 metal and mineral products i.e., about 30% of world’s mineral, which has huge economic potential with respect to mineral reserves exploration and production. “
Whether Nigeria, South Africa, Niger, Democratic republic of Congo, Algeria, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Sudan, Gabon, Rwanda, there is almost no belt in Africa without some type and measure of minable mineral resources. Gold, diamond, uranium, platinum, cobalt, copper, bauxite is some of the worlds most priced mineral resources and they are all in Africa.
In recent time, value associated with Africa’s mines might be rivalling if not surpassing values from oil and gas. Especially with the unprecedented challenges associated with oil and gas industry operations and the politics of its association with climate change and or forced energy transition regimes.
Unlike the decades of local improvements across several member states in Africa’s oil and gas industries led by Nigeria’s Nigerian Content Development Board (NCDMB), with huge commitments made in human capacity building and competitive policy formulations on quality and safety demands, the situation in mining is not necessarily similar across board.
The coming years might hold the worse, if Africa does not launch from her point of negative experiences to purge out solutions that create and increase values from its mineral resources to her continent. Finding solutions from shared experiences i.e., African content
Ayo explains, mining is complex, it requires enormous patience and capacity investments across its value chains to harness more values. Africa ‘s best path to pace up this progress is African content (i.e., continental reviewed and driven solutions), no longer necessarily local content which in recent time, might be evolving into more of a limitation than a solution in some sort. Due to misunderstanding by different countries.
While the lack of overboard commendable progress in mining industry as a continent might be disappointing, there is a need for empathy, rather than criticism in the review of efforts by most member states in Africa. There critical missing piece it seems has remained the consistent lack of technical capacity whether built or procured to explore and to produce or process the minerals to increase values associated along the value chain of opportunities- This is simply where manufacturing comes to play in mining.
Ayo Adeniyi, claims, “The need for innovative industrialization of Africa’s mining industrialization, one that embraces critical quality and safety essentials in mining exploration and production, is urgently required. An innovative approach that marries the use of modern practices with age old need to create employment opportunities for a high number of Africa’s idle hands.”
In Africa’s mining space, South Africa commendably leads the pack. Although its mining industry is thriving, considering the current escalating cost of minerals in the international market, and the place of gold in the rising battle to rebrand and recalibrate international trade frameworks (BRICS), South Africa needs to do more to harness more value from her industries.
The recent development by the South African mining industry to specify that welding fabricators and associated suppliers must obtain ISO3834 welding certification to ensure the quality and safety of the products and services that they supply is a most commendable move that it noteworthy. It is expected that Africa’s other 54 members countries will follow through by specifying ISO 3834 as a basic requirement for welding fabricators and related suppliers to this important economic sector. The benefit of this one swift move is multifaced and with a lot of potential to push more innovative capacity into that space.
SAIW Executive Director and President of TWF, John Tarboton says; “This is a welcome and overdue development given that suppliers to a variety of other safety-critical sectors – including the power, petrochemical and rail industries – have all moved to mandatory ISO 3834 requirements for companies seeking to obtain contracts with them.”
According to Ayo Adeniyi, “South Africa’s proposed adoption of ISO 3834 as a basic requirement for all welding fabricators in the mining industry, is indeed a demonstration of leadership position to show Africa the right path to building and managing a competitive mining industry. ISO 3834 is the most comprehensive management system that effectively complements and validates manufacturing capacities across all sectors. The professionalization of welding practices in the mining industry by adoption of ISO 3834 requirements will certainly attract best practices, increase safety standards, promote awareness of the industry and attract more interest in terms of both funding and partnerships to develop processing plants where opportunities exist, increase taxes for government etc
Cost Saving – Health & Safety – Personnel and Litigation from Safety Incidents
Post covid experiences has ramped up quality and safety concerns like never before in different industries. The state of health of workers have never been more fragile than it is now, and this is correspondingly being complemented by a heightened awareness for safety concerns by all parties.
Adequate concern for safety and safety issues as it pertains to mining personnel, processes and related activities is captured in necessary mining regulations. However, in the core area of quality in equipment or parts manufacturing, asset life management of process plants and related activities there is need to increase safety culture by advancing reliability benchmarks.
In the event of a mining safety incident due to a weld defect, as against the norm for mines to be held liable for such safety incident, the mines can be free from litigation if some sort of compliance with appropriate levels of ISO 3834 has been mandated on service providers. Welding service providers whose task it is to produce welds of appropriate quality requirements, and when such a weld fails, the contractor/ welding service provider is liable.
Cost Savings – Asset Reliability and Life Cycle Management
Although the size of global economy has expanded from the very last data published in 2023, there is increasing financial constraints in terms of access to funding both for private and corporate bodies. The import of this reality is the absolute necessity to avoid avoidable expenditures. Asset reliability from manufacturing and asset life cycle management in service are huge cost-based activities in the mining industry.
Welding is one of the key areas where producers have been able to initiate cost savings. This is because the use of ISO-compliant standards and procedures results in an improvement in quality with increased asset reliability, fewer failures, less downtimes and overall avoidance of losses in production revenue.
Tarboton comments; “The benefit for ISO 3834 certified fabricators and mining suppliers, is that they operate at a globally recognised level which in turn increases their new business opportunities in a far broader range of markets. “In addition, ISO 3834 is an excellent way to develop start-ups by ensuring their quality management is up to scratch and they can fabricate at a higher level for larger, better paying clients.”
The Welding Federation through its channels offers ISO 3834 guidance and certification services towards the development and sustenance of sound manufacturing quality management framework to bodies and companies across Africa. Added to the quality, safety and or overall cost management in manufacturing edge, the seal of ISO 3834 places the holder recognition as a custodian of best practices.
