BL Premium reports that in extraordinary remarks in parliament on Thursday, Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE) Minister Gwede Mantashe threatened Sibanye-Stillwater with the removal of its mining right because the company — in its 10th week of a bitter and prolonged strike in its gold division — is no longer engaged in gold-mining activities.

The minister threatened to take action against Sibanye in terms of section 47 of the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act. The act requires the holder of a mining right to actively conduct mining, while section 47 empowers the minister to suspend or cancel a mining right if the holder fails to fulfil its obligations in terms of the right, among other things. Before acting in this way, the rights holder has to be given the opportunity to make representations as to why the right should not be revoked. In addition, the principles of administrative justice have to apply. In his remarks. Mantashe referred to a comment by Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman that the company had enough money to run the strike for years. “In other words, the message he is sending to us is that he is not ready to actually mine gold. He has enough money to fight a strike and stop production for years and years. And that actually sends us a message that says the department, relevant officials look into the possibility of the application of section 47 ... so that we can give that property to companies that want to mine gold,” Mantashe said. Sibanye’s James Wellsted said the fact that the company was in a labour dispute was not an indication that it did not want to mine.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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