[miningmx.com] – THE director-general of South Africa’s mines department, Thibedi Ramontja, has resigned effective end-January in a development that may be a reverberation from the shock change of mines minister in September.
The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) said in a statement today that Ramontja had decided to leave the department “for personal reasons”. He had served in the role as director-general for about four years.
“I am thankful to the government … for the opportunities afforded to me, including being the DG of this department,” said Ramontja. An acting appointment will be announced “in due course”, the DMR said.
On September 23, South African president, Jacob Zuma, appointed a new minister of mineral resources: the ANC MP, Mosebenzi Zwane. The incumbent, Ngoako Ramatlhodi who had held the position since Zuma assembled a new cabinet in May 2013, was moved to Public Service and Administration, replacing the late Collins Chabane as minister of that department.
The move was heavily criticised by the mining sector which believed that Ramontja had grasped many of the sector’s challenges and that by moving him, progress on key issues would be disrupted.
The same could be said of Ramontja’s resignation. For instance, it may dent Kumba Iron Ore’s hopes of speedily appealing conditions applied by the DMR to its consent to the amendment of the Sishen iron ore mining rights.
Kumba said today that a condition concerning the domestic supply of iron ore was one of the key sticking points holding up the granting of the residual 21.4% undivided share of the mining right to the Sishen Iron Ore mine to Kumba Iron Ore.
The Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Kumba and against the DMR on December 12, 2013 regarding the allocation of the residual 21.4% mining right in Sishen which was originally owned by Arcelor Mittal South Africa.
Arcelor Mittal failed to apply to convert its old order mining right into a new order mining right when the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act was implemented in May 2005.
The DMR then allocated the right to Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) through a process which Kumba described as fraudulent and challenged in court triggering a legal battle with broader implications which were potentially highly negative for South Africa’s investment image.
Kumba won its actions in the High and Supreme courts but the DMR/ICT took the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal and, eventually, the Constitutional Court both of which also ruled in favour of Kumba.
