E Molewa: Launch of Platinum Beneficiation Cluster and Small Enterprise
Development Agency Platinum Incubator

2 December 2006

Programme Director
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Minister of Minerals and Energy, Ms Buyelwa Sonjica
Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mandisi Mpahlwa
North West MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Mr Darkey Africa
Executive Manager of SEDA Technology Programme, Mr Charles Wyeth
Captains of the Mining, Trade and Tourism Industries present
Our Small Medium and Micro Enterprises
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my singular privilege and honour to welcome all of you here to our
Platinum Beneficiation Cluster and SEDA Platinum Incubator launch today.

I would like to single out for special welcome Deputy President Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka and Members of the Cabinet, Ministers Sonjica and Mpahlwa, as
well as all the important role players in the Platinum Beneficiation generally
and the growth and development of our province in particular.

We in the North West are more than elated to have reached this critical
milestone in our visible efforts to grow the economy to address the common
challenges of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.

As you would probably know, we in the North West pride ourselves in the fact
that mining is one of the critical pillars of our economic growth and
development and as such it forms an important part of all our economic
development and growth initiatives, including the Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy (PGDS) and the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative
for South Africa (AsgiSA).

Specifically, more than any other province, the North West is the heartland
of platinum mining and therefore relies on this industry for the kind of
economic growth that will assist many of our people to have employment, food,
decent housing, access to economic opportunities and the possibility to live a
better life than in the past.

However, it would begin to ring very hollow for us to keep patting ourselves
on the back, referring to our province as the country's richest in minerals
when such abundance of platinum has not translated to real economic benefits
for the people of our province and the growth and expansion of South Africa's
economy in particular.

We believe that the Platinum Beneficiation Cluster and SEDA Platinum
Incubator that we are launching today presents us with precisely this
opportunity to have a mining and beneficiation industry that assists in
addressing the socio-economic challenges facing South Africa.

In particular, we are very pleased that the platinum jewellery manufacturing
facility that we are launching today will manufacture high quality platinum
jewellery for selected local markets and export markets. It will further, in
helping address the common challenges that I have spoken about, include a
training centre, leveraging off the infrastructure and working capital of the
facility, to ensure skills transfer to and upliftment of historically
disadvantaged South Africans.

Today therefore marks a turning point in the history of beneficiation in
South Africa. Whereas historically, South Africa's mining legislation was
designed to ensure that every ounce of precious metal produced in South Africa
was exported to guarantee an inflow of foreign currency, thus prohibiting a
culture of downstream beneficiation, the launch today is a step in a different
but most welcome direction.

We have reached a stage where we have successfully revisited the issue of
the ownership of unwrought precious metals and clarified the uncertainty around
the beneficiation process. As a result of all these measures, we are now
beginning to remove the barriers that previously inhibited the beneficiation of
precious metals.

We are most heartened that this Platinum Beneficiation Project will look to
amalgamating the skills and product offering of existing platinum miners, South
African jewellery manufacturers and if possible, an international jewellery
producer into a single South African entity that will produce platinum
jewellery.

As I have indicated, the idea of leveraging off the Key Players' skill to
produce a commercially viable project with positive social spin-offs is
revolutionary yet quite pioneering. We welcome this development and we are
certain that it will take all of us a step higher in our quest to have our
platinum benefit more of our people and our small enterprises.

Nevertheless my job here is not to dwell deeply into the details of this
critical stage we have reached in the history of our minerals industry. My job
was simply to welcome all our guests to the Platinum province and express the
general excitement of the people and the province of North West in reaching
this critical milestone in our growth and development.

I am certain that our Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) are more
than poised to take advantage of this development so that together as
government and the mining industry, we move quickly to bridge the gap between
the First and Second Economies.

Let me conclude by again welcoming all of you to the Platinum province and
to this launch of the Platinum Beneficiation Cluster and SEDA Platinum
Incubator.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
2 December 2006