[miningmx.com] — A LIMPOPO community won its case in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday to set aside a prospecting right over its land, after it claimed it had not been properly consulted, Business Day reported.
The ruling has profound implications for miners facing challenges from local communities, who could forfeit their rights unless the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act is strictly followed.
The case related to empowerment entity Genorah Resources, which had been awarded a right to explore for platinum group metals over land owned by the Bengwenyama-ye-Maswati people on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex. Genorah Resources is the majority shareholder in Australian-listed Nkwe Platinum.
The Constitutional Court ruled the community had not been properly consulted in terms of the act and that the department had not given the community a hearing, according to the report.
The court set aside the prospecting right awarded over the Eerstegeluk and the Nooitverwacht farms.
The act stipulates in section 104 that a community will have preferential rights to prospect or mine for minerals on land registered in its name – provided it can prove in its application it has the financial and technical ability to exercise the right.
