Charter will harm crisis-hit mining sector, says chamber
The release in December of the final draft of the third iteration of the Mining Charter has pushed the Chamber of Mines’ patience to breaking point, prompting CEO Roger Baxter to deliver an unusually fiery attack on the Department of Mineral Resources, exposing rifts in the sector. Apart from reiterating Wednesday’s criticism that the process used by the department to come up with the third version of the charter was "seriously flawed", Baxter said the document, which will extend the racial transformation and ownership of the mining industry begun with the 2004 and then 2010 charters, would damage the sector. "The cumulative effect of all the [department’s] proposals, combined with existing corporate taxes and royalties, skills development levies and more would materially affect the viability of an industry already in crisis," Baxter said on Wednesday, pointing out South African mining companies made a loss of R37bn in 2015. The department's deputy director-general for mineral polic...
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