[miningmx.com] – PROPOSED amendments to the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) have been put on hold following a request by the newly appointed mines minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi that he wanted to review them.
Articles by Bloomberg News and BDLive, citing the minister, said he asked South African president, Jacob Zuma, not to sign the amendments into law. The amendments were approved by parliament in February ahead of national elections.
One of the controversial aspects of the amendments is that the South African government will be permitted a 20% stake in gas and oil projects, and then the right to buy control – a clause that is said to have dampened the investment enthusiasm of companies such as Exxon Mobil, Anadarko Petroleum and Total.
Ramatlhodi told BDLive on June 19 that he was studying the minerals bill. “I have sent a request to the Presidency via my director-general to hold onto the act. I am studying it,” he said.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, he said: “We’ve got to simplify the laws to make things easy for investors to move in. We make the processes easy so that we encourage people to invest by creating a proper climate.’
Peter Leon, an attorney with Webber Wentzel, said of the affect of the proposed amendments on exploration for petroleum and gas: “Certainly it created a real damper on exploration activity, the bill, and we heard from a lot of clients that everything was being put on hold.
“I think government has realized that, hence the about-turn by the new minister.’
Bloomberg News article
Click here to read the full article
BDLive article
Click here to read the full article
