MiningMX
Tim Cohen

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Tim Cohen

Tim Cohen is the editor of Business Day. He began his journalism career on Dome newspaper, the official student newspaper of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, whose production schedule was largely dependent on the availability of beer. He graduated to the last outpost, The Natal Witness, which was fuelled by tea, but was subsequently lured to the coffee-infused domain of Business Day. On Business Day, he was political correspondent, finance editor, London correspondent and editor at large, among a variety of other posts. It was probably the coffee.

MPRD in 2026: A maze of mineral policy

It is a cliché of effective industrial policy that developing an industry works best if there is “policy certainty”. It is also one of those clichés that becomes a cliché because…

Michelle Phillips, Group CEO of Transnet, addresses the crowd at the Joburg Indaba, a mining and resource conference, in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 2, 2024. REUTERS/Ihsaan Haffejee

Transnet is moving but a cash crisis looms

FOR most of the past decade Transnet has had an obvious problem: it wasn’t moving enough freight. Its latest results show good progress on that front, and suggest that the…

Miners doubt if Transnet’s rail reform is bankable

SOUTH Africa’s freight rail reform has moved past the stage of being dismissed as another policy aspiration without a timetable. The Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM)…

De Beers: Venetia diamond mine

Why De Beers opted to shut Venetia diamond mine

DE Beers is preparing to shutter South Africa’s largest diamond mine for two years, threatening thousands of jobs and removing roughly two-fifths of the country’s diamond…

Bruce Cleaver.

Anglo knocked as key De Beers bidder pulls interest

ANGLO American’s auction of its storied diamond division De Beers has turned out to be a bit of a dog show, with many of the potential bidders apparently dropping out amid…

South32-Alcoa deal exposes beneficiation myth

THERE are few words in South African economic policy more seductive than “beneficiation”. It has everything: moral uplift, industrial ambition, a pleasingly muscular rhythm and…

BEE’s gaming problem, not racism, is driving a backlash

AT the Nedbank Top Empowerment Conference in Sandton last month, trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau addressed the criticism that broad-based BEE (BBBEE) has…

Jacob Mbele, Director-general, department of minerals and petroleum resources. Source: Junior Indaba/Resources4Africa

Mining DG cool on DTIC’s forced mining beneficiation plan

IN a revealing exchange at the Junior Mining Indaba on Tuesday, reflecting inter-departmental tension over the idea of forced mining beneficiation, Jacob Mbele, the…

Childrens’ storybook character, Thomas the Tank Engine. (Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Can SA take Govt’s $121bn trains strategy seriously?

LATE last month, South Africa’s department of transport released for public comment its draft national master plan to revitalise, modernise and expand South Africa’s rail system,…

Duncan Wanblad, CEO, Anglo American. Pic: Joburg Indaba

Anglo American’s maple leaf temptations

THERE are few companies in the world that have struggled as much as Anglo American over its national identity, unwittingly predicted from the very start by choosing a name…