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Mining Weekly reports that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) will “amend and relax” some of its conditions in issuing mining permits to small-scale miners, Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Godfrey Oliphant said on Friday.
He was speaking after a one-day workshop on illegal and artisanal mining, hosted by the DMR in partnership with the Mine Health and Safety Council under the theme ‘Combating illegal mining and promoting artisanal mining in SA’. Oliphant indicated that the DMR would facilitate access to funding from State-owned financial institutions, such as the Industrial Development Corporation, for small-scale miners. Earlier, Oliphant said that, while government was committed to finding a reasonable solution to regulate the artisanal mining sector, this would only apply to surface projects, and not to those undertaken in underground areas by the many illegal miners referred to as zama-zamas. “There is no ways that we, as the DMR, can in good conscience grant permits to artisanal miners for deep-level mines that in most cases are being accessed using old, abandoned shaft infrastructure, which are unsafe.”
- Read this report in full at Mining Weekly
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