The 10-point plan adopted by the government, mining houses and trade unions to stem a flurry of retrenchments in the embattled industry is a significant first step. Between 11700 and 19000 mining jobs are on the line as companies battle plummeting commodity prices, increased costs and electricity constraints.The initiative, a product of weeks of talks between the three parties, has not achieved a moratorium on retrenchments but it does include proposals to retrain and reskill workers, improve productivity, transfer employees between companies and sell distressed mines instead of closing them.Efforts will be made to strengthen the flagging platinum sector by trying to convince the Reserve Bank and the central banks of other Brics countries to buy the metal as a reserve asset.Though not to everyone's liking, the emergency measures will go some way to mitigating the effects of the current crisis.The jobs-saving accord has not yet been signed by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which staged a crippling strike in the platinum sector last year, but the talks might have gone some way towards cooling the often antagonistic relationship between the state, the big mining houses and the unions.There is nothing like a crisis to clear heads in the search for sensible, practical solutions.Though a shadow of its former self, mining is still pivotal to this country's economic wellbeing - as is amply demonstrated by the ailing manufacturing sector, which gets a sizeable chunk of its business from the mines.In the longer run, though, more substantive interventions will be required to save mining.These include a change in government policy to promote investment, regulatory certainty, a stable power supply and, critically, a permanent linking of wage hikes to greater productivity...