SOUTH Africa's mining has completed at least a quarter of its required empowerment-related equity transfers - about R25bn in transactions. However, it has much work to do in other aspects of the Mining Charter, including employment equity.

That's according to data compiled by research company Empowerdex, which makes the additional point that of all the empowerment-related transactions between 2000 and 2004 three-quarters were completed after the charter was written. That will put paid to some claims that there was no need for Government to regulate empowerment.

Empowerdex data also shows that black individuals hold a mere 15% of managerial positions in SA's mining industry, which employs around 380 000 people. Startlingly, a mere 1% of total employees are female managers. However, there's a high level of interpretation required because there's no broad agreement on defining managerial roles.

Con Fauconnier, CEO of Kumba Resources, says that his company has assumed that managerial status can be conferred on a first-line supervisor and upwards. On that basis, roughly 22% of all the company's managers were previously disadvantaged.

The charter, which is contained in Section 100 of the recently promulgated Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act, states that previously disadvantaged South Africans, excluding white women, should hold 40% of total managerial positions by 2009.

While some mining companies have taken strides towards meeting employment targets, there's still major work needed to achieve the balance. At the executive level, signs of improvement in employment equity belie the lack of advances made in black appointments. The total number of black individuals appointed to the boards of listed companies doubled between 2002 and 2004. They now represent roughly 16% of total board positions. However, 87% of these appointments are nonexecutive positions.

'Though there's no specific target for executive management, it will be difficult for black directors to have meaningful participation and control of the economic resources if most of the black directors are nonexecutive,' says Chia-Chao Wu, executive director of Empowerdex.

On the transactional front, there have been 131 different empowerment transactions in SA's mining sector over the past four years. Of these, 93 disclosed a transactional value and have therefore been included in Empowerdex's figures. That means the data is conservative and that a larger portion of the equity transfers might be complete.

In addition, De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), an SA registered company, is yet to complete its transfer equity. That could lift the value of empowerment deals by R8bn, depending on the value of the rand/US dollar exchange rate and the degree to which DBCM adds value to its mines.

The rand is a factor affecting the value of all empowerment deals in the mining sector. Government's assumption that R100bn was required in equity transfer - equating to 15% of the total mining industry that had to change hands - now appears unrealistic because the value of the mining industry has declined substantially.

The effect of the rand also extends to the definition of sustainable empowerment. Government has discouraged so-called 'cherry picking' of assets by white-owned companies, such that shares in lower value mines are earmarked for empowerment. However, yesterday's mine is today's dog given the eroding margins caused by the rand.