THE Congress of SA Trade Unions should use workers' pension funds to exert its power in the mining sector. This is a suggestion contained in the ANC task team report on how government can intervene in the mineral sector.

The report says Cosatu has already invested workers' pension funds in a number of mining companies but has given its power away by having the private sector to manage these investments.

It encourages the labour federation to work together with the state using the pensions of the workers to control key mining companies.

It says the combination of government and union pension holding already represents a significant holding in many mining companies.

"Such state and union special purpose vehicles (SPV) could be reinforced with the BBBEE (broad based black economic empowerment) holding where appropriate."

The report says many countries were using state and pension schemes to control key mining companies such as Brazil and Finland.

It says ideally black economic empowerment companies, government and union holdings should be consolidated into SPVs that would have a greater influence on the company in balancing shareholder returns with developmental goals.