Review of the Mining Charter 2018

In March 2019, the Minerals Council released the following media statements regarding their application to review the Mining Charter.  For more information, please follow the link to the Minerals Council website.

______________________

MINERALS COUNCIL FILES APPLICATION FOR REVIEW OF MINING CHARTER 2018

Johannesburg, 27 March 2019: The Minerals Council South Africa advises that it filed an
application for the judicial review and setting aside of certain clauses of the 2018 Mining
Charter published by the Minister of Mineral Resources on 27 September 2018.

A decision to pursue this action was very reluctantly taken by the Minerals Council Board.
The Minerals Council has engaged in ongoing attempts to reach a compromise with the
Minister on certain provisions that are problematic for the industry, and which would be
detrimental to its sustainability. The Minerals Council has delayed bringing the application in
the hope that those discussions would be successful but, given the peremptory 180-day time
bar imposed by section 7(1) of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA), the
Minerals Council was obliged to launch the review proceedings on 26 March 2019, despite
the fact that the discussions are ongoing and may yet bear fruit.

Minerals Council CEO, Roger Baxter, notes that: “The Minerals Council and its members
remain fully committed to transformation of the mining sector in South Africa, with the aim of
achieving job creation, economic growth, competitiveness and social upliftment and
development. A transformed, growing and competitive mining sector would be a significant
catalyst for South Africa’s social and economic development and critical for the realisation of
the ambitions of the National Development Plan.

“But these goals will only be realised through a minerals policy framework that conforms to
the rule of law and principles of legality; and by administrative action which is lawful,
reasonable and procedurally fair and consistent in all respects with provisions of the
country’s legislation. The rule of law, regulatory certainty and the fair and even-handed
administration of laws are of the utmost importance in sustaining the mining industry, and
indeed the economy as a whole.”

For the full statement, go to the Minerals Council website and follow the links from there.

Review of the Mining Charter 2018

“PRESENTATION: ENABLING THE RENAISSANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINING SECTOR

Johannesburg, 6 March 2019. Minerals Council South Africa CEO, Roger Baxter presented at the
annual PDAC convention in Toronto, Canada on 5 March. Mr Baxter’s presentation, titled: Enabling
the Renaissance of the South African mining sector, outlined the important contribution made by the
mining sector, the vast potential that still exists and the steps needed to enable South African mining
to realise its full potential.

Mr Baxter said: “The economic and transformational potential of mining is vast. Even in the absence
of a greenfields exploration boom in South Africa, mining investment could almost double in the next
four years if the country was to return to the top quartile of the most attractive mining investment
destinations. Given the industry’s commitment to real transformation, this would also materially
advance the entire country’s transformation agenda.”

Mr Baxter commented on the most recent Fraser Institute perceptions survey: “The significant
improvement from being close to the bottom decile of the Policy Perception Index (PPI) league table
at 81st out of 91 jurisdictions, to about two-thirds of the way down at 56th position out of 83 can, we
believe, be attributed to the early impacts of the shift of political leadership of the country and of the
industry in 2018 of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe.”
Mr Baxter outlined the Minerals Council’s view on steps needed to restore the South African mining
sector to the top quartile of the most competitive mining jurisdictions, including:

• Developing a social pact for competitiveness, growth and transformation between key
stakeholders.
• Re-establishing trust with global mining and investment community.
• Significant crackdown on corruption and unethical leadership.
• Significantly improving licensing systems and turnaround times
• Creating a stable, predictable and competitive policy, regulatory and operating environment
that encourages long term investment in mining.
• Resolving Infrastructure constraints and uncompetitive costs.
• Developing a strategy to encourage exploration boom.
• Developing national strategies for each commodity.

The full presentation may be accessed at https://bit.ly/2VDCABR

For the full statement, go to the Minerals Council website and follow the links from there.

_______________________________

Dust Monitoring Equipment – providing equipment, services and training in dust fallout management to the mining industry.

Comments are closed.