SOUTH Africa’s depatment of mineral resources and energy on Wednesday announced it had appointed a consortium of three private companies to build a new minerals cadastre.
Canada’s Pacific GeoTech Systems, MITs Institute and, Gemini GIS and Environmental Services comprise the PMG Consortium. Its remit is to “design, implementation, maintenance, and support of the Mining Licensing System,” according to the DMRE.
“The DMRE is confident that the preferred bidder will be able to deliver the required mining licensing system that will heighten transparency in the application and processing of mining rights, permits and licenses,” the department said.
The Minerals Council welcomed the DMRE’s announcement. “We can anticipate a near-term positive turnaround in the prospects of the industry through increased investment and future growth of mining and stimulus to the economy,” said Mzila Mthenjane, the council’s CEO.
The announcement of PMG Consortium as a winning bidder brings more than three years of missed deadlines to an end for the DMRE. “It is receiving the highest level of attention that it deserves, but there is no time-frame,” said the then director-general of the DMRE Thabo Mokoena in October 2020.
But last week, Gwede Mantashe, South Africa’s mines minister said the announcement of the winning bidder to build the cadastre was imminent. Mantashe has set several deadlines for the cadastre. In October, he said the supplier appointed to implement the technology would be announced by the end of that month.
South Africa’s minerals licensing system for permits ranging from exploration to mining is in dire straits. According to Minerals Council estimates there is a backlog in applications for more than 3,000 prospecting and mining rights worth pent-up investment of more than R30bn. This has frustrated the creation of thousands of jobs, particularly in rural areas where there is little economic activity, it said today.
Who is behind the consortium?
GeoTech Systems is a globally recognised and respected company that has provided digital land resource management and permitting systems for Canadian provincial governments for more than two decades, the minerals council said.
Gemini GIS is wholly women-owned South African empowerment geological services company, led by Andiswa Silinga as MD. Silinga worked for De Beers and Ivanhoe Nickel and Platinum before starting Gemini in 2008.
MITs Institute has Robert Hill as a director, the founder of MITS Consulting for the last 20 years and who was once chief information officer for CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) housed in the department of trade and industry.
Only the beginning
The announcement of the winning bidder for the minerals cadastre is really just the beginning of the process as it needs to be implemented after incorporating data from paper records and complex permit awards and applications on the current SAMRAD system. The Minerals Council said it “looks forward” to meeting the department.
SAMRAD or the South African Mineral Resources Administration System was introduced in 2011 on a modest budget. However, it has a number of problems including a lack of transparency leading to corruption in exploration licence awards. It was critical SAMRAD was “scrapped”, the council said.
In addition to training staff and ensuring information systems in the DMRE could support the new cadastre there was also the task of unpicking previously contested rights.
Errol Smart, CEO of junior miner Orion and chairperson of the Junior and Emerging Miners Leadership Forum told Miningmx in October that the DMRE will most likely need to establish a tribunal to rule on duplicated and contested mining and prospecting rights.
“There’ll have to be an independent judge who will have to apply the wisdom of Solomon. Our courts will probably be overloaded and some of these babies will have to be cut in half,” said Smart.
