Ms Buyelwa Sonjica minister of minerals & energy of South Africa's has offered a helping hand to stricken mining companies.

Ms Sonjica said that "If the department is called to supply an enabling environment, we are happy to come aboard."

She urged that the impact of the global economic slowdown on the mining industry should be viewed as a short term scenario and she asked mining companies to prepare to respond quickly to another boom.

She said that "Every cloud has a silver lining and there are opportunities that will emerge from the global meltdown and we want those who are able to invest so that there is hope for our people, especially those losing their jobs."

The depreciation in the price of commodities to low levels was hurting South Africa. Access to finance had turned for the worse and lower demand had resulted in a downscaling of production. The biggest challenge with the meltdown was that it was still an unfolding process and nobody knew where it would end.

(Sourced from www.miningweekly.com)