Consultations on S. Africa's draft mining charter can be extended: minister

The 30-day period of consultations with industry players over a new draft of the Mining Charter can be extended, Minister of Minerals Mosebenzi Zwane said on Friday.

If there are issues with the charter that require the ministry to go beyond the allocated time, it will do so, Zwane told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

The minister published the draft mining charter last week for a 30-day consultation before submitting it to Parliament for approval.

The draft charter is designed to ensure that black people hold at least 26 percent of mining shares even after those stakes were sold, giving rise to concerns among mining companies.

The charter also sets targets for companies to boost the number of black people in management and improve training and benefits for communities near mines.

The plan, known as the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Charter, seeks to strengthen the efficacy of the Mining Charter developed in terms of section 100 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) as one of the tools for effecting meaningful transformation of the South African mining and minerals industry, Zwane said when publishing the draft.

He said the charter further seeks to integrate the government's transformation policies and legislation in order to enhance the ease of doing business, create regulatory clarity, predictability and certainty.

During the 30-day consultation, Zwane will engage with organised business and organised labour in the mining industry, to get their inputs on the draft.

Other interested and affected parties are hereby invited to submit written inputs and comments as per the Gazette notice, no later than May 31, 2016.

In response to the publication, the Chamber of Mines said it is committed to constructive engagement with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and other stakeholders in pursuit of ongoing transformation.

The Chamber, the biggest organization of mining companies in the country, said its member companies continue to be committed to the achievement of all the transformation objectives of the Mining Charter and, for the most, have met the targets set by the 2010 Mining Charter.

The Chamber is currently seeking clarity through the High Court on the interpretation of black economic empowerment ownership transactions carried out by the industry between 2004 and 2014. This decision, which is only expected later this year, will undoubtedly influence both the assessment of the industry's historical performance in terms of ownership and the way forward and could significantly influence this version of the Charter.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has been pushing for increased black ownership of the mining industry, which accounts for almost half of the country's exports. Endit