Minerals Council's challenge throws mining into disarray
Move to get court to resolve 'problematic' clauses in the Mining Charter risks undoing positive mood
SA’s tenuous mining policy certainty has been thrown into disarray after the Minerals Council SA lodged a review application in court to set aside certain black ownership clauses in the recently gazetted Mining Charter. The council, which represents 90% of SA mineral production, said while the charter gazetted in September 2018 was a vast improvement over the previous iteration, it still had major unresolved concerns about the need to top up black ownership levels to 30% from 26% when renewing or transferring mining rights. It said these imposed “onerous re-empowerment obligations” on companies. It argued mining companies could not be punished by having their mining rights revoked or cancelled for noncompliance with the new charter that was introduced after they were awarded their rights. The department of mineral resources, under the leadership of minister Gwede Mantashe for the past year during which the fresh charter was drafted, said any delays to implementing the charter would ...
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