Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mineral industries – finance – history'

Elinor Ostrom (2005: 238) assumes that in understanding the make up and behaviour of institutional systems governing natural resources: “Resource users are explicitly thought of as rational egoists who plunder local resources so as to maximise their own short-term benefits. Government officials are implicitly depicted, on the other hand, as seeking, the more general public interest, having the relevant information at hand and the capability of designing optimal policies.” This thesis examines the validity of this assumption through an historical analysis of the deep-level gold mining industry of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The main focus of the assessment is on the institutions of ownership – that is, the development of mining rights and title legislation between 1886 and 2008. The study looks at the legislations’ transformation and implementation from the perspective of the gold mining industry – made up of the mining finance houses and the Chamber of Mines of South Africa – and that of the state. The transformation of the mining industry’s institutional framework was both a choice by government as well as that of the firms in the mining industry. The theoretical framework is constructed from four areas of economic thought. These include: the neoclassical and Keynesian schools of macroeconomic thought; industrial organisation and its relevance to the relationship between firms and the market; institutional and new institutional economics; and finally property rights. The determinants of policy design and the impact of such design on firms and industry is examined. The development, implementation and use of the aforementioned legislation is examined from two perspectives, namely, that of preserver or exploiter. Throughout the history of this prominent South African industry, the motivation for action from the industry or government has oscillated between the two extremes of preserver or exploiter over the time period examined. The conclusion is drawn on an overall and broad focus of actions – with a strong focus on the most recent developments in mining legislation – post-1992.

This dissertation examines the evolution of the mining industry in three British dominions during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Adopting a case study approach, it describes the establishment and growth of mining in Rossland, British Columbia; Broken Hill, New South Wales; and Waihi, New Zealand. Separate chapters trace developments in each area, focussing on the emergence of organised labour, the growth of mining companies and the sophistication of mining operations. These underline the need to consider diverse themes, maintaining that the mining industry's pattern of growth can be understood only by adopting such a broad approach. Following the three case studies, the final chapters of the dissertation offer a comparative analysis of Rossland, Waihi and Broken Hill. The study emphasises the similarities of these three communities, especially the cycle of growth, and identifies a crucial common denominator. Despite differences in climate, in the type and nature of the ore deposit and in the scale of mining activity, all three areas experienced a common trajectory of initial boom followed by subsequent retrenchment. The changing character of the resource base forced this fundamental alteration of productive relations. In each region, the mineral content of the ore declined as the mines went deeper. In addition, with depth the ore tended to become more difficult to treat. Faced with a decline in the value of the product of their mines, companies had to adopt sweeping changes in order to maintain profitable operations. This re-structuring was accomplished in a variety of ways, but the most significant factors, common to Rossland, Broken Hill and Waihi, were the heightened importance of applied science and economies of scale. Both developments underlined the growing importance of the mining engineer and technological innovations, principally in milling and smelting operations. In addition, new non-selective extractive techniques reduced the significance of skilled underground labour. The re-structuring of the industry not only had similar causes but also had a similar effect. The comparative chapter on labour relations, for example, argues that these managerial initiatives were closely associated with militant episodes in each community. While the leading companies in Rossland, Waihi and Broken Hill successfully reduced their working costs, they all faced the same ultimate end. Their long-term success or failure reflected the skill with which they coped with the inevitable depletion of their ore body. The common experience of Rossland, Waihi and Broken Hill demonstrates the importance of placing colonial development within a larger context. Regional historians should make greater use of the comparative approach, rather than continuing to focus on the unique and the particular.
Arts, Faculty of
History, Department of
Graduate

Mining companies are large capital intensive enterprises that generally trade in the international commodity markets. The finite nature of resources and the need to maintain international competitiveness presents specific challenges to mining companies. This paper reviews the economics of mining and attempts to relate these to the strategic choices available to mining companies. To support this analysis, the work of major writers in strategic management is reviewed. The interrelationship between strategic management and economics is considered and a series of generic strategies for mining companies developed. These strategies are then compared with the actual behaviour of four major mining companies over the past decade. This analysis supports the general propositions advanced in the review of both the economics of mining and the strategic management literature. It also identifies organisational issues that impact on the effective implementation of strategy.

Thesis (MDF)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
The continent of Africa is often recognised more for its problems and conflicts than for its successes. Blessed with an abundance of natural resources, the continent has also suffered from the ‘resource curse’ with many of its troubles directly linked to resource conflicts. Project-finance provides a unique opportunity for unlocking the continent’s resources by structuring arrangements which can allay investor concerns. This report contributes to the discourse on Africa’s development by unpacking some of the key issues which will enable and fast-track future investment on the continent. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how subjective risk analysis and decision making affect risk-based lending. Tied to this was the examination of five risk categories and how these influence the decisions of project-finance loan officers. The particular focus of this study was in the mining sector. This study reviewed a comprehensive body of the literature which found that corruption and political risk were of great influence on lenders’ perception of risk. This study also reviewed the cognitive psychology literature in order to understand how decision makers process information cues. A quantitative method was then employed in order to understand how project-finance lenders respond to project-finance risk information cues. The results of the study were that, when considering mining projects in Africa, political and market risk have significant influence on the decisions of lenders. This finding confirms that there remain key issues which must be recognised and addressed if the continent is to generate and sustain long-term wealth.

Privatization is a debated topic for decades now. This study assesses the results of the Egyptian privatization programme. The study assess the impact of privatization on 61 IPO privatized companies for a period of 16 years. The objective of the study is to examine two key aspects; first, the impact of privatization by comparing pre to post privatization performance. Secondly, to relate the impact of privatization to the transaction itself, the performance of the privatized companies is compared to a fully private set of companies. The analytical framework used examined the profitability, operating efficiency, the sales, employment level and leverage. By applying various statistical models, the results of the study indicated that the privatized companies post treatment examined a significant positive change in profitability, and operating efficiency and a negative impact on the leverage and employment level. Further, by comparing performance to that of private companies, it showed that privatization brought significant increase in EBIT and ROE with no significance for ROS, and ROA. There was insignificant change for Sales Efficiency and significant for the Income Efficiency; While the results of the leverage measures indicated that the privatization treatment Total Debt/Total Equity are not significant and on the contrary to the Total Debt/Total Equity. The Employment measures and Sales were significant. The comparison relative to the private showed that the DID coefficient was significant for the EBIT, ROE, the employment, sales, the leverage and the Income Efficiency; While the results was not significant for ROS, ROA, Sales Efficiency.

This thesis found that the three communities of Midvale, Murray, and Sandy were the center of the smelting industry in the Salt Lake Valley. These communities became the center of smelting because of their central location, the readily available water supply, and the availability of an inexpensive, efficient transportation system to ship the bullion. The smelters were surrounded by two major mountain ranges which provided a ready supply of good lead, silver, and copper ore.The development of the smelting industry followed three separate phases or periods. The first phase was one of experimentation or period of discovery, in which the smelters operated without the technological skill necessary to be financially successful. The second phase was highlighted by the emergence of skilled German mining engineers who enabled the smelters to be financially successful. Phase three was ushered in during the late nineteenth century by the industrialists who consolidated the smaller smelters and built larger, more efficient plants.

This thesis addresses the problem of the cultural change in the Israeli Kibbutz, its relevance to the Kibbutz ideology and its implication on Management patterns in the Kibbutz. The thesis is based on four hypotheses. Two of the hypotheses address the cultural changes and two address the changes in management patterns. The cultural change is hypothesised by assuming a change in life style and a change in the attitude to work as a value. The change in management patterns is hypothesised by assuming a change, at a policy level, of resource allocation and a change in the decision making process. The research includes several stages: • A literature research which established the historic cultural and ideological roots of the Kibbutz movement. • A collection of general statistics of the Kibbutz movement. • Five case studies - An in depth analysis of five individual Kibbutzim. A model of the Kibbutz values and principles is developed and used in analysing the changes in values and principles in the Kibbutz. The outcome of the research reveals that the Kibbutz is changing from an ideology based commune, which prefers values over matter and is ready to sacrifice individual freedom for the ideals, to a more bureaucratic organisation alming for profits that prefers individual freedom on equality and communality. The Kibbutz movement is turning from an agrarian closed system to a technically advanced community with open economy and culture. The research outcomes enhance Bertalaruy's claim that a culture within a culture has to change in order to survive. It also demonstrates that a cultural change is an incremental change. What seems to be a radical change is an aggregate result of several incremental changes. It is suggested that a radical change can not be implemented successfully in an organisation unless broken to incremental changes.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the relationship between the state and mining capital in South Africa since the beginning of gold mining. It provides a historical analysis centered around the notion that neither state nor capital have been able to dominate each other wholly but retained their respective relative strength and independence. By applying a qualitative approach, this thesis seeks to determine whether this notion still holds true today, how the relationship between the state and mining capital has evolved over time and by what factors was it determined. I suggest that structurally the nature of the state-capital relationship continues to endure fifteen years after apartheid. Accordingly the thesis is organized in terms of two critical junctures, one in the 1920s and one in the long 1970s when the balance of power between the state and mining capital experienced a number of shifts. Recent developments in post-apartheid South Africa seem, as of now at least, to represent more of a continuation of the shift that materialized in the long 1970s rather than a new conjuncture of its own or one in the making. Contrasting these findings with the adamant calls of the ANCYL for a nationalization of mines indicates that nationalization as the ANCYL foresees it does not seem to be informed by a historical understanding of the mining capital-state relations and that it is ceteris paribus unlikely to materialize.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die tesis ondersoek die verhouding tussen die staat en mynbou kapitaal in Suid-Afrika sedert die begin van die goudwedloop. Op grond van ’n historiese oorsig word daar aan die hand gedoen dat nòg die staat nóg mynbou kapitaal mekaar oorheers het en dat hierdie tendens vyftien jaar na apartheid steeds voortduur. Die magsbalans tussen die staat en kapitaal word egter gekenmerk deur twee uiteenlopende periodes, naamlik die Twintiger jare en die langdurige Sewentigs. Verwikkelinge in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika suggereer ’n voortsetting van die dinamika van die Sewentigs. Volgens onlangse uitlatings deur die ANC Jeugliga blyk dit asof die beweging nie bewus is van die kompleksiteit van hierdie historiese verhouding nie en dat dit dus hoogs onwaarskynlik is dat nasionalisering in terme van ANC Jeugliga beleid die lig sal sien.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science,
In 2004, the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME, predecessor to the current Department of Mineral Resources - DMR) published a guideline to calculate the amount that a mining right holder would require for financial provision at mine closure. This research report reviews the guideline, specifically focussing on the “rules-based approach” for determining the quantum of financial provision. Some authors have recorded the misapplication of this guideline in practice and their research supports a conclusion that the guideline does not provide adequately for the real costs of mine closure. This research report makes a comparison between the DME guideline master rates for mine closure costs and actual tendered prices for those same elements of mine closure in the period from 2009 – 2016. The analysis of the actual tender prices for the various master- and component rates in comparison with the DME guideline rates delivered mixed results. While the actual tender values exceeded the guideline master rates in most cases, there were notable exceptions where the actual tender results lagged the master rates. The data obtained from the actual tender prices for mine rehabilitation projects by a third party suggests that the use of CPI to escalate mine rehabilitation costs was very quickly overtaken in reality by higher annual costs and rate increases for most of the DME guideline master rates that relate to surface mining. It means that the DME guideline master rates were not reflective of actual rehabilitation costs by the time that the use of the DME guideline was superseded by the publication of new regulations by the Department of Environmental Affairs in November 2017. Whilst no perfectly linear and distinct relationship could be deduced, the results broadly support the findings of several authors that the actual costs to rehabilitate a mine are much more than the DME guideline document would lead a mine to provide for. The application of a rules-based approach remains an exercise mired in controversy and with many potential inaccuracies. The new NEMA regulations for financial provision completely negate the need for a guideline and relevant State Departments and mining companies alike are consequently dependant on third parties to prepare closure cost estimates.
E.R. 2019

Earnings in the South African and Zimbabwean mining industries have been severely impacted by these countries' socio-economic and political changes in the last decade. News reports and international research publications consistently rates Zimbabwe as a country with the highest political risks in the world. In South Africa (SA), the initial mining charter requiring 51% Black Economic Empowerment, was leaked to the press in 2002 before promulgation making international investors weary. The currency, the Rand (R) has strengthened from the US$ from R13.85 in 2002 to R 7.17 in 2007, significantly impacting on returns as investors to shift their portfolio to other sectors. The purpose of this research was to explore the implications of country risk and investor sentiment for Impala Platinum's valuation and provide strategy recommendations to improve its market rating whilst sustaining its competitive advantage as a platform for achieving its 2010 vision. In this study, a brief environmental scan of the mining industry was undertaken focusing on the platinum sector as well as a background review of the industry and a five year performance comparison between Impala and Anglo Platinum. It also reviewed corporate strategy literature as it relates to the research problem as well as theoretical models of investor sentiment and decision making processes. The specific research design was primarily exploratory in nature. The Implats valuation conundrum appears to be a phenomenon and the best way to achieve the main research objective was to identify any new ideas, preliminary explore some possible hypothesis and provide strategy recommendations to the board. The research adopted both quantitative and qualitative designs to focus on understanding the values, attitudes and perceptions of investors, which is interpretive and inductive in nature. A holistic case study was the specific vehicle used to conduct the research. The research population was made up of all investors in different regions of the world. Given that the study specifically related to the Implats valuation relative to Amplats, the sampling was tailored to their common investors. Data was collected using a questionnaire; the likert five scale was used to design the questionnaire. The following recommendations were made as a result of the research. Implats should implement measures to build its value chain and attempt to move to a cost quartile not easy to replicate without significant investment and time. In the short term Implats needs to continue improving on its fundamental values whilst crafting a take over defence strategy. It also needs to improve on its investor relations program to robustly communicate its political risk management strategy.
Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering
The purpose of this research is to provide a comprehensive understanding of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and its impact on the mining sector of a developing economy. The ideology and principles discussed aim to assist economists, investors and governments in understanding the need for FDI and how to set up a viable and conducive framework. The research links development economics to FDI as a means to creating and sustaining economic growth.The results of the analysis indicated that there is a direct relationship between development economics and FDI. Political, social and economic risks pose a direct threat to the levels of FDI that a country attracts. A study performed in this research revealed that the higher the perceived risk level, the lower the investment levels. Africa is a resource rich continent; however it ranks low on the investor attractiveness scale. This is due to authoritative political leaders that control corporate and fiscal regimes, ethnic unrest between local tribes and political warfare that is played out in the media. Despite these drawbacks certain African countries are taking steps to improve their attractiveness. Ethiopia is one of them and was selected as the main case study for this research. A benchmark acid test was performed on the policies implemented by government. The Growth Transformation Plan (GTP) I and II (plans set by the government to transform Ethiopia) were reviewed and analysed for feasibility due to the Ethiopian government setting ambitious growth targets. The results of the analysis reveal that investors were attracted to Ethiopia through policies that safeguarded investors’ interests, geological attractiveness, afforded tax and duty havens and allow for the repatriation of profits. The research also highlights the negative impact that social unrest and political violence had on mining FDI. The research concludes on its findings that government policies play a key role in attracting investment. Monetary and fiscal policies must be set to alleviate poverty and create economic growth through the attraction of foreign investment.
NG (2020)

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Johannesburg 2015
Regardless of the strategic role that mining plays in South Africa‟s economic growth and development, there are perceptions that mining benefits are still enjoyed by a few elite individuals. This is partly due to high expectations from lower level workers in the sector and communities where mining takes place. Failures in the implementation of some of the policies that are social in nature are making people question the wisdom of the current mining legislation, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). The main question of this research paper is whether the MPRDA, in its current form, is a suitable mining legislative framework that can usher a better dispensation for all or whether there is a need to overhaul it in order to deliver the desired end results that are expected by the majority of South Africans. It is against this background that this research was undertaken, by studying best practice in other mining jurisdictions and conducting a survey of those involved in the South African mining sector. From the research and surveys, recommendations are proposed on what amendments could be effected on the MPRDA to make the South African mining sector more attractive and simultaneously, meet the citizens‟ expectations.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2016
The Precious Metals Industry in South Africa is highly-regulated compared with other mining and trading countries in the western world which have either deregulated their precious metals industries, have only partial controls or have never seen the need to regulate gold and platinum-group metals specifically. South Africa has a specific Act of parliament, the Precious Metals Act, 2005 (a modification of Chapter 16 of the Mining Rights Act, 1967), that regulates possession, trading and manufacture of precious metals. Apart from the Russian Federation, no other country in the world regulates gold and platinum-group metals possession, trading and fabrication to the extent still done in South Africa. The requirement for such stringent controls was based on the country’s pre-eminence in the production of gold and platinum over the past fifty years, exchange controls (in the case of gold) and the contribution of gold and platinum-group metals to foreign exchange earnings and to the country’s economy as a whole. However, much has changed in South Africa, in the world and indeed in the precious metals industries domestically and globally and this work is the first attempt to discuss and analyse developments and proposals that are impacting on the regulation of the precious metals industries in South Africa. Of these, the World Gold Council’s Conflict-Free Gold Standard provides a case for industry self- regulation to complement, or substitute for government regulation in future. The hypothesis at the Proposal Stage of this study was that the precious metals industry in South Africa is over-regulated and should be deregulated. In this study, this hypothesis is explored and debated. The Resource Nationalism -motivated proposals, including Producer-Country Price for Platinum, OPEC-type trade bloc for platinum, precious metal exchange and single-channel marketing of platinum, were analysed in this study. It was concluded that these are wanting in terms of cost/benefit or problematic in terms of international agreements and trade and competition laws. iii The Precious Metals Act, 2005 itself was also critically analysed with a view to evaluating what could be regulated better or deregulated in the light of recent developments and proposals. It was found, ironically, that the old problem of illegal mining and trading needs to be brought under control before deregulation of the precious metals industry can begin. Nevertheless, in the run-up to deregulation (in an estimated 10 to 15 years), industry self-regulation, co-regulation (with industry) hallmarking, and a re-examination of how beneficiation is promoted should be considered.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Environmental Science). Johannesburg, 2017.
South Africa’s SDFIs have potential to play a critical role in fostering environmental compliance in the mining industry. Their role is particularly important in the small-scale and junior mining sector which is usually shunned by private finance institutions because of high environmental credit risk. Equipped with knowledge and experience of working with clients across different sectors and their potential leadership role in technology transfer, SDFIs can leverage their position in acting as trusted third party environmental regulation enforcers. Financial institutions have long been criticised for showing little interest in environmental impacts of their clients while concentrating on profit maximisation. This study sought to investigate the response by financial institutions to this criticism through evaluating the role of SDFIs in fostering environmental compliance by small-scale and junior mining companies which are generally viewed as having a poor environmental compliance record. Through the twin qualitative research methods of interviews and document analysis, the role of three state-owned development finance institutions in fostering environmental regulation compliance by small-scale mining enterprises in South Africa was evaluated. The study revealed that SDFIs explicitly and implicitly provide a wide range of products and services which help small-scale and junior miners in complying with environmental regulations. The study also found that, while SDFIs are beginning to adopt market-based mechanisms to encourage environmental compliance, they still heavily rely on command and control mechanisms as a way of mitigating environmentally related risks arising from financing mining companies.
LG2018

A thesis submitted to the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, February 2013
Decades after the commencement of modern mining in the 1870s, the South African mining industry addressed the impacts associated with its mine waste deposits. In this, it followed the pattern its international peers had set. This study aims at chronicling, for the first time, the mining industry’s efforts to develop scientifically sound and replicable methods of mine waste rehabilitation. Mindful of the limitations in accessing official and public written sources for such an applied science, the study seeks to take a broader approach: It considers factors beyond pure experimental results (of which only patchy records exist), and considers the socio-economic context or the role of certain personalities, in an effort to understand the evolution of the applied technology between the 1930s until the passage of the Minerals Act in 1991. The bulk of this mine waste rehabilitation work during this period was done by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and its members, the gold and (later) coal miners. The focus will therefore be on these sectors, although other mining sectors such as platinum will be covered when relevant. Following decades of ad hoc experimentation, concern about impending legal pollution control requirements in the 1950s spurred key gold industry players to get ahead of the curve to head off further regulation. Their individual efforts, primarily aimed at dust suppression, were quickly combined into an industry initiative located within the Chamber of Mines. This initiative became known as the Vegetation Unit. Well resourced and managed by a dynamic leader with horticultural training – William Cook – the Unit conducted large-scale and diverse experiments between 1959 and 1963 to come up with a planting and soil amelioration methodology. The initial results of this work were almost immediately published in an effort to publicise the industry’s efforts, although Cook cautioned that this was not a mature methodology and that continued research was required. The Chamber of Mines, however, was trying to head off pending air quality legislation and in 1964/65, the organisation publicly proclaimed the methodology as mature and ready for widespread application. With this decision, the Unit’s focus shifted to widespread application while its ability to advance the methodology scientifically effectively collapsed in the 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to this shift of focus and resources to application rather than continued refinement, the Unit was constrained by non-technical and non-scientific factors: Key among them was the industry’s implicit belief, and hope, that a walk-away solution had been found. The Unit’s manager Cook stood alone in driving its application and refinement for most of his time in that position. In his day-to-day work, he lacked an industry peer with whom to discuss rehabilitation results and he compounded this isolation through limited interaction with academia until very late in his career. This isolation was amplified by the lack of relevant technical knowledge among the company representatives on the committee tasked with the oversight of the Vegetation Unit: As engineers, all of them lacked not only technical understanding of the botanical and ecological challenge, some even questioned the legitimacy of the Unit’s existence into the 1980s. In addition, the concentration of all rehabilitation efforts in this single entity structurally curtailed the individual mining companies’ interest in the advancement of the methodology, creating a further bottleneck. Indeed, as late as 1973, the key metallurgy handbook covered mine waste rehabilitation only for information purposes, specifically stating that this was the responsibility of the Chamber’s Vegetation Unit alone. To some extent, the presence of a champion within the Chamber – H. Claussen – obscured some of these challenges until the early 1970s. Indeed, the Unit had acquired additional scientific capacity by this stage, which gave it the ability to renew its research and to advance its methodology. That it failed to do so was mainly due to three factors coinciding: the retirement of its internal champion Claussen, a lack of succession planning for Cook, which left the Unit on ‘auto-pilot’ when he retired, and a rising gold price, which turned industry attention away from rehabilitation towards re-treatment of gold dumps. During this period of transition in the mid 1970s, the Chamber’s approach was thus somewhat half-hearted and vulnerable to alternative, potentially cheaper, rehabilitation proposals such as physical surface sealing advanced by Cook’s eventual successor – Fred Cartwright. Though not grounded in any science, Cartwright’s proposal gained ascendance due to his forceful personality as well as the industry’s desire for an alternative to the seemingly open-ended costs associated with the existing rehabilitation methodology. During this time, the Chamber’s structures singularly failed to protect the industry’s long-term interests: The oversight committee for the Vegetation Unit, remained largely staffed by somewhat disinterested engineers, and relied heavily on a single individual to manage the Unit. Not only did the oversight committee passively acquiesce to Cartwright’s virtual destruction of the Unit’s grassing capacity, it also allowed him to stake the Chamber’s reputation with the regulator by championing an unproven technology for about five years. Only Cartwright’s eventual failure to gain regulator approval for his – still un-proven – technique led to a reluctant abandonment by the Chamber in the early 1980s. Cartwright’s departure in 1983 left the Unit (and the industry) without the capacity to address mine waste rehabilitation, at a time when emerging environmental concerns were gaining importance in social and political spheres in South Africa and across the world. The Unit sought, unsuccessfully, to build alliances with nascent rehabilitation practitioners from the University of Potchefstroom. It furthermore failed to build mechanisms for sharing technical rehabilitation knowledge with fellow southern African or international mining chambers, leading to further stagnation of its method. At the same time, up-and-coming South African competitors such as the University of Potchefstroom seized the opportunity to enter the mine waste rehabilitation field as commercial players during the mid 1980s, at a time when the Unit had been reduced to grassing dumps for a single customer, the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs (DMEA). Using its status as a part of the Chamber of Mines, the Unit gradually regained its position of prominence through the development of industry guidelines for rehabilitation. Yet, it would never again occupy a position of pre-eminence in practical fieldwork, as industry players, academic capacities and commercial players entered the field in the mid-1980s in response to a growing environmental movement worldwide. When the passage of the Minerals Act in 1991 formally enshrined not merely rehabilitation but environmentally responsible mine closure in law, the Unit had been reduced to a prominent but no longer dominant player in this sector. This lack of pre-eminence ultimately caused the Unit to be among the first Chamber entities to be privatised when the Chamber began to restructure. This ended its role as a central driver of applied rehabilitation techniques for the South African mining sector once and for all. As this privatisation coincided with the broader opening up of South Africa’s society and economy after the unbanning of the ANC, there would never again be an entity (commercial or otherwise) that would dominate the rehabilitation sector as the Chamber’s Vegetation Unit had done in its day.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Conventional interpretations of WWII hold that the war brought the United States out of the Great Depression and laid the path for future economic prosperity. However, this was not the case for all businesses and industries. During WWII, unprecedented production output was required of U.S. industries to supply the great “Arsenal of Democracy.” Industrial mobilization required the creation of new agencies and commissions to manage the nation’s resources. These organizations created policies that deeply impacted U.S. industries involved in war production. Policies governing such areas as the allocation of raw materials, transportation of finished goods, and distribution of war contracts created challenges for businesses that often resulted in lost productivity and in some cases, loss of profitability. Government regulation of the labor force and labor problems such as labor shortages, high absenteeism and turnover rates, and labor disputes presented further challenges for businesses navigating the wartime economy. Most studies of WWII industrial mobilization have focused on large corporations in high priority industries, such as the aircraft, petroleum, or steel industries, which achieved great success during the war. This thesis presents a case study of The Real Silk Hosiery Mills of Indianapolis, Indiana, a company that is representative of small and mid-sized companies that produced lower priority goods. The study demonstrates that the policies created by the military and civilian wartime agencies favored large corporations and had a negative affect on some businesses like Real Silk. As such,the economic boost associated with the war did not occur across the board.