Minerals Council blindsided by Govt’s MPRDA bill

THE reaction at the Junior Mining Indaba being held in Johannesburg to proposed amendments to the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) is that another government legislation disaster is in the making.Conference host Bernard Swanepoel – summarising reaction from various delegates – described the Bill as a “cut and paste from the Zwane Bill”.That’s a reference to the proposed redraft of the Mining Charter first published by former mines minister Mozebenzi Zwane in June 2017. The proposed Charter triggered an unprecedented negative response from the Minerals Council of South Africa (then called the Chamber of Mines) which challenged the revised legislation in Court.Then Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter said Zwane had acted in bad faith with the Minerals Council and refused to engage directly with Zwane saying future actions would be through the courts. The proposed Charter was eventually shelved and Zwane was replaced by current mines minister, Gwede Mantashe.Commenting in a statement today, the Minerals Council SA did not mince its words saying that while it was invited by the department of minerals and petroleum resources (DMPR) to provide input into the proposed amendments of the MPRDA, it was now left dismayed at the Bill’s contents.“The draft bill is not altogether optimal,” said Mzila Mthenjane, CEO of the Minerals Council SA. “We did have engagements with the department, but we cannot see where our inputs were taken into consideration.”“What we were exposed to in our two engagements was very high level and we were not given any access to the underlying wording of what we were shown and how it was being amended,” he said.The Council holds its annual general meeting tomorrow which will also be attended by Mantashe. That could trigger some fireworks assuming the council’s members have reached agreement by then over their reaction to the new Bill.Mthenjane said in April that the Minerals Council was hoping there would be no “unexpected surprises” in the new Bill and he singled out ownership of prospecting rights as a key issue.He has been disappointed.Speaking at the conference, Mthenjane said: “We made certain suggestions. One of them – based on the back of statements offered from the minister – was that there is no requirement for empowerment in prospecting rights.“When you read the amendment none of that was included. This puts a huge burden on prospectors. So, while we did have engagement, we are not seeing where those inputs were taken into consideration”.“Exploration is the highest risk part of the mineral value chain and imposes an unnecessary burden on prospectors who must sink every rand into drilling and data interpretation. Yet in this draft bill, none of that is included,” said Mthenjane in the council’s official statement.Lili Nupen – a director of legal firm NSDV – commented:  “My view is that we have a piece of legislation. What we are lacking is the implementation part of it. Why do we need to go and change dramatically what we currently have?”Nupen said many of the changes required could be done more simply through regulation rather than changing the legislation.The Minerals Council SA said it continued to review the Bill and would “further engage” with the DMPR on it.The post Minerals Council dismayed after Govt ignores input on MPRDA bill appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com