Comparing sustainable development potential of metal beneficiation industries by using publicly available sustainability information

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa has the largest mineral endowment in the world, yet the valueit derives from these vast resources remains below potential. This is a directresult of the lack of local beneficiation of these resources (i.e. local valueadditionto resources) . This has led the South African government, andgovernments of other countries facing similar challenges, to pursue increasedlocal beneficiation of its resources. As a result, policy-makers in South Africaand abroad are now faced with the expensive and time consuming process ofselecting viable industries that can be developed to increase local beneficiation.The advent of mainstream corporate sustainability reporting and the subsequentflood of sustainability information into the public domain has nowproduced an opportunity to make use of this information to effectively selectpotential industries for which detailed feasibility studies can be done. Morespecifically, this project aimed to investigate the possibility of developing aframework that makes use of publicly available sustainability information torapidly, and at a high level, compare potential metal beneficiation industries.This allows prioritisation of feasibility studies on industries showing the mostlocal development potential.The framework is composed of 18 equally-weighted indicators; 6 for eachof the three dimensions of sustainable development. The indicators are constructedfrom 30 sub-indicators selected from the GRI G4 sustainability reportingguidelines and 10 sub-indicators developed specifically for the framework.The indicators are aggregated using non-compensatory multi-criteria aggregationto produce a single index value for each sustainability dimension, thus allowing comparison of industries in terms of only three index values. Table3.4 presents a summary of the indicators used in the framework.In order to test the utility and shortcomings of the framework, platinumbeneficiation was used as case study. More specifically, the local productionof catalytic converters and platinum jewellery was compared. The catalyticconverter industry was found to be superior in the economic and social dimensionswith 92 per cent and 81 per cent confidence, respectively. The platinumjewellery industry was found superior in the environmental dimension with 71per cent confidence. The confidence intervals were calculated from 10 000 iterationsin a Monte Carlo simulation conducted to quantify the impact of inputuncertainty on the outputs generated by the framework. The superiority ofthe catalytic converter industry in two of the three dimensions supports thecurrent development policy priorities in South Africa with much focus beingplaced on further development of the automotive industry.Based on the results generated by applying the framework to the platinumindustry, it was concluded that the framework successfully facilitates thecomparison of potential industries. The ease-of-use of the framework, rapidgeneration of results and hierarchical indicator structure (which allows efficientanalysis of the results) were identified as some of the strengths of the framework.Some weaknesses identified included the possibility of subjectivity andembedded effects in input data that may distort the results generated and thedependence of the framework on publicly available information.It is recommended that further testing of the framework by application tomore case study industries be done to ensure the framework indeed captures allnecessary effects and adequately compares the industries. Further, broadeningthe framework to more explicitly include important and unique local factorsis cited as a possible improvement that can be investigated in further studies.Finally, based on the successful comparison in this study, it is recommended that the framework be applied to more potential industries as to identify new opportunities and promote their development in South Africa.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University