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Thabo Mothibi, Managing Editor, thabo@ncnn.live
Global mining company Vedanta Resources Plc is set create over 4 000 construction jobs in the establishment of its zinc smelter-refinery in the Northern Cape. Having already undertaken a feasibility study, Vedanta is set to develop South Africa’s first-ever integrated zinc manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Aggeneys in the Khai-Ma municipality of the Namakwa district.
Once operational, the smelter-refinery would also boasts a 1 400 permanent job opportunities.
The job opportunity details follows Vedanta Resources Plc’s announced of an investment of R21.4 billion in a zinc smelter-refinery at the South African Investment Conference held in Sandton in the Gauteng province last week. The company has already invested over R11 billion since the sod turning in 2015.
In responding to an enquiry from NCNN.Live, spokesperson for the company’s subsidiary Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) Marika Muller explained that the future job prospects relating to proposed facility are in addition to the “already created Gamsberg phase-one 3 000 construction jobs and 750 operational jobs and a possible phase-two Gamsberg 2 000 construction jobs and around 500 operational jobs.”
Vedanta acquired its flagship Gamsberg Project and Black Mountain Mining assets from another multi-national AngloAmerican in 2011 and has gone about to pursue what is to be southern Africa’s largest integrated zinc complex with its Namibian operations included.
“Gamsberg is more than a mine. It has the potential to trigger a whole new wave of industrial and economic development, some of which would give additional opportunities to Vedanta and the rest to others, in what is one of the least developed regions in South Africa,” asserted Muller.
Apart from the job opportunities that have mainly benefited locals, the Namaqua district’s towns of Aggeneys, Pella and Pofadder are set to experience a boom in mine housing construction. Infrastructure developments estimated at R420 million on the supply of water to residents of Pella which formed part of the agreement into the Gamsberg construction projects have also taken off.
“This will indeed go a long way to address the stubbornly high unemployment rate amongst the youth of the province. We will work with the private sector to ensure that all of us play a an effective role in the creation of decent jobs for all our people, and that we working together to turn the tide in growing the economy of the province,” said provincial government spokesperson Monwabisi Nkompela.
Gamsberg is believed to be South Africa’s largest mining project currently in execution and is based on an ore resource of 214 million tonnes (Mt), which is to be extracted from an open pit at an annual rate of 4Mt. Attempts at its initial resuscitation between 2000 and 2003 were met with fierce resistance by conservationists that complained about the destruction of threatened plant life of Gamsberg and surroundings. In its preservation efforts, the mining company collected 80 000 plants and 360 000 seeds, working with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
By Thabo Mothibi
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Thabo Mothibi is a former broadcast journalist (TV and Radio) – with specialist reporting experience; SABC Political/Parliamentary and TRC Teams over a period of five years (1995 to 2000).
One key foreign assignment - is the 11-nation African Connection Rally – overland journey from Africa’s northern-most pole in the coastal Tunisian city of Bizerte to the southern-most pole in South Africa’s Cape Agulhas. From the journalistic years, Thabo then delved into Government media liaison and serving two former Ministers and three MECs. He became the Northern Cape Provincial Government’s first department based Communications Director at Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development - 2008-2010 – where he also served as Head of Ministry from 2003 – 2008.
As a former anti-apartheid activist, his political background and professional training aided him in spearheading the Northern Cape ANC’s 2004 National Elections media and publicity campaign and that of the 2006 Local Government Elections.
Whilst based in Waterkloof in Pretoria -2010 to end 2011, he consulted for Manstrat Agricultural Intelligence, then returned to the Northern Cape in 2012 to date, to consult independently and pursue other entrepreneurial interests in media and communications through KwaVuko Communications and Marketing.
Thabo Mothibi obtained his NQF7 through Wits University’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM) in Johannesburg, a Unilever Mandela Rhodes Academy for Marketing and Communications Academy (UMRA). The goal of the NQF7 programme was to educate and train public and private sector professional communicators and marketers in government communications..
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