[miningmx.com] – KUMBA Iron Ore said it was delighted with a judgement handed down by the Constitutional Court today in which it acknowledged that the firm’s subsidiary, Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC), was the only entity that could apply for a residual 21.5% share in its mining rights.
This follows a Supreme Court of Appeal judgement in March in which it set aside the award of the 21.5% share of the mining rights to Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), an award that had been made by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).
The DMR appealed that decision earlier this year with the Constitutional Court which responded today saying that SIOC was the exclusive mining right holder when it converted its old order mining rights to new order mining rights.
The former holder of the residual 21.5% right – ArcelorMittal SA’s (AMSA’s) – had lost the right as it had failed to convert its old order rights, the court decided.
Although the DMR was entitled to reallocate the rights, the Constitutional Court found that based on the provisions of the Minerals & Petroleum Resources Development Act, “the opportunity to apply for the residual 21.4% undivided share of the Sishen mining right is open to SIOC only”.
“We have at any rate already applied for the residual share of the mining rights in January 2011,” said Gert Schoeman, spokesman for Kumba Iron Ore. “We are naturally delighted with this outcome,” he said.
