Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman has opted to stick with the market he knows best by searching for cheap mining assets in South Africa, as and when other mining companies throw in the towel. Sibanye, the country's largest producer of gold, has also become South Africa's fifth-largest producer of platinum, but Froneman says this is a by-product of his strategy, not the strategy itself.He says he is simply applying skills learnt in gold mining to other commodity operations to return value to shareholders - the key, he thinks, to Sibanye's 100%-plus share price rise in 2016."We see opportunity in South Africa. There are still lots of resources here - lots of gold that has not been mined, platinum reserves that are still considered the largest in the world, high quality of skills and infrastructure. Where can we apply the skills we have?"block_quotes_start We have good infrastructure, good resources and an abundance of skilled people block_quotes_endAccording to Froneman, while the gold mining industry has already gone through its consolidation phase, platinum mining in South Africa remains highly fragmented and offers opportunities to buy assets at the bottom of the cycle."We don't see further low-cost entries in the gold industry, where most operations are marginal and already quite well run. Overheads have come down, there are synergies from regional management. But we do see opportunities in platinum," he says.story_article_left1"There's a need for a new South African mining champion. The previous ones are stressed and leaving. A lot of companies don't want to be here. We are buying the assets cheaply, and politically you get kudos for doing that. We're one of the only mining companies investing in projects."He says the goodwill created by sustaining and possibly even growing jobs in mining provides a favourable quid pro quo from the government on issues of regulatory uncertainty, and has allowed Froneman to concentrate on value for stakeholders."South African and even international resources companies have not done the right things for many years. They've been focusing on growth and forgetting that the ultimate business model is to return cash to shareholders to complete the cycle."Buying assets at the right price is phase one, he says. "If you adopt that kind of discipline, everything else falls into place. Companies have lost control of their costs. We've worked hard to turn that around ..."Yes, we have regulatory uncertainty and industrial relations issues, but we also have good infrastructure, good resources, an abundance of skilled people - all the right things."..