MINING NEWS relatively reasonable balance between the interests of the state and the private sector”, the industry was suddenly thrown into turmoil in 2012, when the government announced drastic reforms. �ese included increasing the state ' s free carry from 5 % to 30 %, doubling royalties on copper, cobalt and gold to 6 %, and imposing local bene ciation quotas.“ In the face of strong industry resistance, these reforms were never implemented, and at the 2016 Mining Indaba, the DRC ' s mines minister announced they had been formally abandoned,” says Leon. �e prolonged investor uncertainty“ hobbled investor con dence”, and saw the DRC plunge in the Fraser Institute rankings, from 54th place in 2011 to 75th in 2012 and 2013. It recovered to 67th in 2014 and 60th in 2015.“ Similar dynamics played out in Guinea, Tanzania, Zambia and, of course, South Africa, where amendments to the Mineral and
Petroleum Resources Development Act proposed in 2013 have entered the fourth year of legislative limbo …,” Leon said. Leon ' s reference to Zambia relates to the numerous changes made to the country ' s mining legislative framework and mining-tax regime in the past decade. �ese changes culminated in the ill-fated 20 % Mineral Royalty Tax proposals of 2014 / 15, which nearly brought the Zambian mining industry to a standstill and threatened its very existence. Leon argues that for African countries to get the best out of their mining industries, they should heed the guidelines of the Africa Mining Vision. �is vision was adopted by the African Union heads of state in 2009 as a roadmap to“ transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development”.
�e African Mining Vision Guidebook recommends collaborating with the private sector and other stakeholders to develop“ clear, transparent, predictable and efficient legal and regulatory frameworks”, which would require“ adequate protection of property rights, an effective judicial system, and independent enforcement and oversight bodies”. Following these guidelines would yield better results than the“ hasty and haphazard adoption of bolt-on reforms with which many African governments have experimented in the past ve years”. Leon further said:“ If African governments begin to embrace the essential conditions for investment in the mining industry, and if mining companies accept the principle of mining-led sustainable development, there is no reason to think that mining cannot signi cantly transform the economies of Africa ' s key mineral producers.” www. cmscepcor. com