One size doesn’t fit all
Khumalo says that there is a clear lack of understanding and appreciation
of how junior mining companies operate. “The one-size-fits-all principle,
where all junior mining companies are required to comply with the same
regulations as the big mining houses, is still the biggest challenge emerging
miners face today,” he says.
www. africanmining.co.za
African Mining Publication
Small scale diamond mining
companies typically only mine a
portion of one farm. Expanding
the operations, would mean
Errol Smart, CEO of Orion Minerals
extending onto the adjacent
and chairman of the Minerals
farm and that’s a problem.
Council Junior and Emerging
Ancient Rivers and terraces
Miners’ Leadership Forum.
never followed farm boundary.
Every new permit carries a
cost of more than R500 000, which is a huge amount for a junior miner.
Bristow suggests a simple change of ownership system that will allow
established operators and particularly contract miners (with a track record
and legal license of course) to carry on mining through the fence and being
able to change the name of the permit without an additional financial
burden would provide considerable benefit to optimising exploitation of
the deposit, and retaining and expanding job creation. An effective and
efficient DMR mineral tenure and permit or licence processing system
would also greatly improve matters.
a river for example, so the sites
are not fixed, which mean they
have to move around quite often.
“Regulations require of them
to apply for a new mining right
from the DMR every time they
mine in a new area, and that
process can take up to four years,”
says Bristow.
Minerals
MINING IN FOCUS
Grant Mitchell, head of the Junior
and Emerging Miners’ Desk at the
Minerals Council of South Africa.
Alex Khumalo, head: social
performance at the Minerals
Council of SA.
Errol Smart, CEO of Orion Minerals and chairman of the Minerals Council
Junior and Emerging Miners’ Leadership Forum, says that the junior mining
sector has to deal with rules and regulations developed for deep level gold
mines more than 100 years ago. “I’m not saying junior miners should not
comply with the rules, of course they have to. What I’m saying is that you
can’t expect them to be judged in the same way that big mining operations
are – they don’t have the same resources, and the risks for them are far
more extreme. Entrepreneurs need some flexibility to be able to do things
differently,” says Smart.
The three biggest challenges identified by juniors in a survey conducted
by the Minerals Council, were, according to Mitchell, the management of
mining rights, delays in permitting and a lack of information. But despite
the clear obstacles, Smart is of the opinion that there have been significant
improvements after Gwede Mantashe took over as Minister of Mineral
African Mining
African Mining September 2019
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