[miningmx.com] – THE time it takes to grant mining and prospecting
permits has increased in South Africa in 2012, compared to 2011, with most
applications taking longer to process than planned by Government.
Peter Leon, head of Africa Mining and Energy Projects for Webber Wentzel, an
attorney, said that mining permits and prospecting licences failed to meet deadlines
set internally by the mineral resources department (DMR) 82% of the time in 2012.
This compares to statistics in 2011 from the DMR, in which internal deadlines were
missed 67% of the time. The DMR has set a maximum six-month waiting period for
the granting of mining licences.
“Unfortunately, the MPRDA (Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act) does
not specify how long it should take to grant a mining permit,’ said Leon. “But
Botswana has a 60-day time limit on granting permits.’ Leon was speaking at the
Junior Mining & Exploration conference in Johannesburg.
Responding to questions in Parliament, mines minister Susan Shabangu said that it
took an average of nine months for her department to grant applications.
The problem of bureaucracy in South Africa’s mineral industry was also the target of
criticism by Michael Spicer, vice-president of Business Leadership SA, who said that
the current mining right application process was “process-rich’.
“I prefer an outcomes-based approach to minerals compliance rather than the
process-rich system where incentivises the process rather than focuses on what we
are hoping to achieve,’ he said.
