SOUTH Africa’s Chamber of Mines said it had had two detailed meetings with senior members of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) this year, including mines minister Mosebenzi Zwane, with discussions focusing on the practicalities of the department’s mining charter redraft.
“This year we’ve had a couple of detailed discussions,” said Roger Baxter, CEO of the Chamber of Mines. “We hope those discussions will end up as something that is workable and mutually acceptable to all stakeholders.
Baxter, who was speaking at a press briefing at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, said however the chamber would resort to court action if it didn’t get its desired outcomes.
“We mustn’t be shy about court processes,” said Baxter. “The courts are there to play a role and sometimes you need the courts to play that role,” he said.
The chamber has prepared an application to seek a declaratory order from the High Court on the principle of ‘once-empowered, always-empowered’ which it will impose if mining charter discussions are not successful.
The DMR said mining companies should always seek to have a minimum of 26% empowerment even if their original black-owned partners had traded their shares. The chamber’s response is that mining companies ought to receive credit in perpetuity for past empowerment deals.
Asked if the chamber feared retaliatory action from the DMR after two of its members – Sibanye Gold and AngloGold Ashanti – sought legal matters to counter DMR safety closures at their mines, Baxter said: “If the government is going to backlash on those taking them to court, then we will deal with that in the courts.
“We will engage in robust and frank way and hope get outcome,” he said.
In November, Baxter said the mining industry could not accept draft changes to the mining charter which would impose additional levies and taxes of between R2bn to R3bn a year whilst R2bn already contributed by the industry for human resource development would be diverted into a new tax collection entity.
