[miningmx.com] – ATTORNEYS in South Africa are sceptical the Department of Minerals (DMR) can narrow the waiting time for mining and prospecting licences to 300 days as the authority to prescribe timelines is an amendment.
Amendments to the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act were referred back to Parliament’s National Assembly by President Jacob Zuma in January ostensibly because they were considered unconstitutional.
The current MPRDA “… is still good law and none of these sections nor the regulations provide the minister with powers to prescribe when and for how long such application can be made,” said Sabelo Dlamini, an attorney at Fasken Martineau.
“However, the Amendment Act is not law, hence the minster does not have the powers to begin the “300 day application process” until such time that the Amendment Act is gazetted into law,” he added.
Matthew Burnell, a partner at Fasken Martineau added, however, that once timelines are prescribed for licensing, there will be benefits.
“This means that the state is committing themselves to these timelines which must be good for business,” said Burrell. “If the state fails to meet the specified deadline, legal action can be taken immediately,” he said.
Mines minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on February 4 that a decision had been taken on December 8 to begin the 300 day process which would be a vast improvement to the three-and-a-half process of which some mining firms have complained.
“We have introduced an integrated licensing dispensation for water use, mining and environmental management,” said the minister at the IHS South African Export Coal Conference. The state had “committed” to a maximum of 300 days for issuing of a mining right and 180 days for a prospecting right, he said.
“The streamlining of our licensing regime seeks to, inter alia, enhance the ease of doing business and strengthen cooperative governance,” he said.
Asked at the conference for clarity on his comments, Ramatlhodi said there had been agreement to begin the streamlined 300-day process. “It is done,” he said.
Chris Stevens, a director at Werksmans Attorneys said the delay in promulgating the amendments would not have any impact on shortening the time line on permit applications. “In fact I believe opposite will be true,” he said.
“The application procedure is being replaced entirely from a first‑come first‑served application process to a tender type of process the details of which will be prescribed by Regulations.
“In my view the tender process will not speed up the application process and may serve to delay it especially if there are disputes between competing tenderers,” said Stevens.
