BL Premium reports that mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday that SA’s mining industry better prepare for protracted court battles on the Mining Charter if it did not accept the document outlining transformation of the sector.  

The Minerals Council SA (previously called the Chamber of Mines) has lodged court papers contesting aspects of the third charter gazetted by Mantashe towards the end of 2018.  It has contested the clause that demands renewed empowerment deals of up to 30% black ownership on mining right renewals and asset sales with the argument that value had already been created for empowerment partners in the original deals to secure mining rights and it was unfair to expect them to continue topping up ownership levels once those partners left.  Mantashe rejected the council’s arguments at the Joburg Mining Indaba on Thursday.  “They want once-empowered always-empowered.  You want us, the department, to say they [the empowerment partners] are still there because they were once there.  It’s a strange principle,” Mantashe stated.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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