[miningmx.com] — IN a new incident involving South Africa’s mining legislation, Palabora Mining Company said on Wednesday a new order mining right for some of its assets has been awarded to a third party.
Palabora said in a Sens announcement it has already filed an appeal in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) with the director general of the department of mineral resources (DMR).
“The appeal is regarding the granting of a mining right to a third party to mine copper, magnetite, phosphate, apatite and baddeleyite, in an area in which Palabora holds an old order mining right to mine all base metals except phosphates.’
The group said it has lodged its old order mining right for conversion into a new order mining right under the MPRDA. Current mining operations are not affected by the matter.
This development is the latest in a series of highly controversial decisions taken by the DMR in recent months.
In August, Lonmin was temporarily banned from selling associated base metals after Keysha Investments were granted a prospecting licence for a small portion of the platinum group metals player’s property.
Another prominent issue was the decision to award a prospecting right to Imperial Crown Trading over a portion of Kumba’s operating Sishen Iron Ore mine. That is now the subject of legal action by Kumba.
In July, the DMR also ordered mechanised mines operating in the North West to stop mining until major alterations were made to the design of their board-and-pillar operations. That was dropped after protests by the mining companies – in particular Aquarius Platinum.
Following these incidents, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said government would overhaul the MPRDA, after it was found to contain “a number of ambiguities’.
She said in August that recommended amendments would be submitted to cabinet in the fourth quarter of 2010, with possible rewriting of the law commencing in 2011.
