[miningmx.com] – ON Tuesday (October 29), the chairperson of the portfolio committee on mineral resources, Faith Bikani, will respond to proposals to amend mining law, the most controversial of which is the power to declare minerals “designated’ or “strategic’.
There was a flicker of hope this week in parliament after Bikani questioned details of changes to regulations to the law as proposed by the mineral resources department (DMR).
The hope lies in the possibility that Bikani will insist fundamental alterations to meaning of mineral law ought to be to the act itself, and not just to regulations to the act, the Minerals & Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), as currently proposed by the DMR.
As an attorney points out, regulations are meant to flesh out the meaning of the law, not replace it. By changing regulations, however, Government is taking a short cut, he says.
It’s only a flicker of hope, however. The likelihood is that Government will proceed with changes to how the MPRDA is implemented and give power to the minister to do things such as impose export quotas on certain minerals.
The mining industry is unified against such ministerial powers: presentation after presentation in parliament earlier this month warned of the impact on future investment such discretionary power would have. No use.
The only concession the DMR seems to offer is that it will follow a line of ‘guided discretion’, which seems to mean that it will consult with the industry when it wants to make changes to the MPRDA’s regulations. And this may only mean that the DMR will tell industry when it is going to make changes.
Two of the most important changes is that the minister can declare certain minerals ‘designated’ and others ‘strategic’. In the case of the latter, the minister will require the support of other ministers to take action.
It’s thought that designated minerals are likely to be steel feed items such as iron ore and manganese while energy products – such as coal – are likely to become strategic and where Government control is likely to be strongest.
As demonstrated this week in Transnet’s interest in challenging the control of coal export facilities, the Government feels extremely strongly about the country’s coal industry.
Transnet CEO, Brian Molefe, went as far as to express a sense of betrayal that having leased land to the privately-owned Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), the terminal’s shareholders hadn’t done more to accommodate Government’s empowerment agenda.
If this sounds unreasonable – shareholders in RBCT have ploughed billions of rands into developing RBCT over the years and have handed over entitlement to emerging black-owned companies – then wait for what the minister may elect to do when she or he has sway over coal as a strategic mineral.
