De Beers Outlines Plan For Transfer Of Mining Tech

Worlds leading diamond mining company De Beers of South Africa has identified three potential areas of collaboration between India and South Africa to facilitate transfer of technology in the mining sector.

Alan Campbell, De Beers India representative, outlined collaborations between Indian state-owned units and South African mining companies (especially for the mineral-rich states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar), joint ventures between private companies of the two countries, and technology contractual agreements between the Indian public sector undertakings and the research & development organisations of South Africa as the ways in which Indian mining sector could gain the latest technology from that country.

Campbells presentation came at an Indo-South African Trade and Industrial Cooperation seminar organised in New Delhi yesterday by the Northern Region Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Campbell stressed that, with the mining sector activities contributing 10 per cent to South Africas gross domestic product and 43 per cent to its national export earnings, the country had achieved comparative advantage in mining technology in comparison to most other nations of the world.

Responding to a request at the seminar by Ajay Sharma of DCM International regarding the trade surplus enjoyed by South Africa vis-