South Africa’s mining industry is the backbone of the country’s GDP, proving that the future of the economy lies in the energy and natural resources sector. With the mining industry being central to this sector, SNG Grant Thornton is focused on helping this industry grow and ensuring that the country can continue to reap golden treasures and prosperity.
South Africa is the largest producer of platinum and gold in the world, and the mining industry accounts for 7.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. Thus, investing in the mining industry and ensuring its functionality could be central to growing the economy. As a 34-year-old company born out of the township, SNG (SizweNtsalubaGobodo Grant Thornton) is wholly committed to the prosperity of local businesses which can contribute to economic growth.
“It was the energy and natural resources industry that possibly carried South Africa through the pandemic,” says Yugen Pillay, National Head of Business Consulting within Advisory at SNG Grant Thornton.
MINING FOR SUCCESS
Having collaborated with some of the most experienced niche mining companies and individuals, SNG Grant Thornton understands that successful businesses require an integrated operating model design. Therefore, they’ve identified four areas in the mining industry that they believe, if addressed properly, can serve to benefit the business and the industry.
The first of the four areas identified is asset management, which Pillay acknowledges is critical when you’re doing any 4IR applications, which is exactly where the world is moving towards. SNG Grant Thornton’s strategy is to provide practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges that affect asset management. The next area that SNG Grant Thornton focuses on is digital, which they believe is a central pillar in the future of the mining industry. Now, while the use of technology in place of humans may raise fears about the rising unemployment rates, Pillay points out that the more digitized the world becomes, the more opportunities for people to learn and grow. “With a digitized industry, mundane things can be taken away, and this then allows us to train our people to do other things. “Why can’t we train our people to learn more about data? To know about how to make decisions using digital tools?”
The next area is ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). SNG Grant Thornton understands the importance of ESG, especially with the changing climate and the mining industry’s impact on the environment.
Not only is SNG Grant Thornton focused on collaborating with mines that will ensure the protection of the environment where they are located, they also view climate change as an opportunity to explore better ways of energy consumption. SNG Grant Thornton being born from communities understands how important the Social element of ESG is and having played in this space for over 16 years with many successful sustainable Social projects under their belt. SNG Grant Thornton’s Governance Advisory solutions are second to none and thus places us as the perfect ESG partner.
HIDDEN TREASURES
Despite the treasures that you may find underground, SNG Grant Thornton understands that there’s no better value to a company than the people involved, which is why the final area they focus on is people. “The people agenda needs to start with the organization strategy. You need to make sure that there’s a culture of caring,” says Pillay. SNG Grant Thornton believes that you should be able to invest in people in such a way, so that they can learn more skills and grow as individuals, which in turn, can benefit the organization.
“You want employees to create this culture of health and safety, where yes we can do bigger and better sustainable things together”, concludes Pillay.
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