the
mining industry. No doubt, even without the mining industry, there
would have been some secondary and tertiary employment: no country can
subsist without minor repair shops, some marketing organization of
dealers and traders, shopkeepers and shop assistants, clerical labour,
police and other governmental employees, doctors and educators.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that 'mining has been the touchstone of
economic development in most of Africa, and the areas most advanced
economically are those whose main activities rest on mineral
exploitation. In fact, the large part which mineral products form of
African trade is, as a rule, not sufficiently stressed.'11 This was written about a quarter of a century ago. The same point was made some twenty years later:
In
1959, South Africa's exports totalled £632,000,000 of which the
products of the gold-mining industry, including uranium oxide,
accounted for £292,000,000. Diamonds and other mining contributed
£73,000,000. Manufactures, which were in their infancy in 1910, last
year exported goods worth £96,000,000. Exports of raw agricultural
produce amounted to £107,000,000 and the manufactures of agricultural
products to £64,000,000.12
In
other words, the mining industry is still responsible for one-half of
the exports of South Africa. Fifty years ago it contributed 80 per cent
of the exports, in itself the most significant indicator of its
importance in the evolution of South Africa.
Moreover,
though some exports based on the mining industry, such as copper and
diamonds, are highly sensitive to variations in world demand, gold is
not—in fact, falling world prices, due to recession or other causes,
make gold-mining more profitable while the market for gold remains
unchanged. Gold exports thus act as a stabilizing influence of the
greatest importance, both as regards the national income and the
balance of payments. Further, since gold-mining is subject to
differential treatment as regards income taxation and the State, in
addition, is a participant in the profits (though not in the risks) of
gold-mining through the mining lease system, a stabilizing factor of
great importance13 is also introduced into the revenue
11 H. S. Frankel, Capital Investment in Africa, p. 210 (published in 1938).
12 Dr.
W. J. Busschau's address at the 70th annual general meeting of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines (27 June i960).
13 Of the total receipts from the mining industry, part is credited to revenue, part to loan account. In 1913 total mining
revenue from taxation amounted to -£1,040,000: 'other sources' of
income amounted to .£881,000: a total of nearly £2,000,000. In 1958, a
mining revenue amounted to £25,744,000 and 'other sources' to
£4,702,000— a total of £30-1/2 million, to which gold and diamond
mining contributed £21 • 7 million.
