President of the Minerals Council South Africa Paul Dunne has argued that the high cost of electricity is eroding the competitive advantage of the local mining industry.

He says deregulating the electricity grid to allow for the participation of more grid suppliers will help to cut the cost of energy.

Addressing delegates at the Joburg Mining Indaba in Sandton, Dunne also emphasized the importance of a stable and enabling regulatory, policy and labour environment to encourage investment in the mining industry.

“The mining industry has been constrained in the past three decades by regulatory uncertainty, weak administrative processes, unnecessary delays in licensing authorization as well as the severe repercussions that state capture had on electricity supply and rail and port disruptions. The mining industry has enormous untapped potential in the minerals that we already mine and the minerals of the future.”

Paul Dunne, President of the Minerals Council South Africa, delivered a keynote at the @joburgindaba on “Trade-offs between growth and transformation”

📄 Read his full speech here: https://t.co/3cEm0dpDvz
▶️ Full video here: https://t.co/OfinK74Gdd#MiningMatters #JoburgIndaba pic.twitter.com/JJiFSfyO4e

— Minerals Council South Africa (@Mine_RSA) October 8, 2025