BL Premium reports that the Minerals Council SA (MCSA - previously called the Chamber of Mines) has spoken glowingly of an easing of tensions between the industry and Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE), raising hopes that a legal battle over the Mining Charter could be resolved out of court.  

The third iteration of the document, gazetted in September 2018, outlines racial transformation requirements for the industry.  Of particular concern to the MCSA and its members is the lack of recognition of past empowerment transactions over mining rights being renewed or transferred in a sale.  After talks with the ministry failed, the MCSA lodged an application in court in March 2019 to review and set aside that clause and a few others.  At the council’s AGM on Wednesday, mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe pointed out that whoever lost the court case would take the matter on appeal and would continue doing so all the way up to the Constitutional Court, a process that would take years.  The best way to resolve the impasse was through direct talks, he said, because a court ruling would not resolve the underlying problems about transformation of an industry that had a long history of racial division.  Mxolisi Mgojo, the re-elected president of the council, said on Wednesday that there was a new spirit of co-operation between the industry and department as it dealt with the crisis forced on mining companies and the broader economy by the coronavirus pandemic.  He said the council fully agreed with the minister that talks had to restart to avoid a protracted court battle.

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

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