EDITORIAL: Signs are not good for mining
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s actions have already done huge damage to share prices and the sector
It is a shocking irony. Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane claims that transformation (of the radical economic kind) is top of his list of priorities and that the new Mining Charter, with which he shocked markets in June, is designed to achieve that. Yet the moratorium he seeks to place on new mining and prospecting rights and on applications to change the ownership of mineral rights could halt any and all of the transformative black empowerment deal making he has in mind. The risk was highlighted when it emerged that the moratorium on transferring mineral rights could block Anglo American Platinum’s sale of its Union mine to black-owned Siyanda Resources, along with another deal involving Amplats and beleaguered empowerment player Atlatsa Resources, which could help to bail out Atlatsa. The context is one in which 65% of SA’s platinum mines are unprofitable and a further 5% are marginal. Nor is the gold industry looking that much better. There isn’t that much deal making ha...
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