[miningmx] — Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu has extended a moratorium on new applications for prospecting rights, her department said on Monday.
“This means that the moratorium in all regions of our country, except Mpumalanga, is being extended until 31 March 2011,” said departmental spokesperson Bheki Khumalo in a statement.
The new date was published in Monday’s Government Gazette.
The moratorium for Mpumalanga had been extended to September 30 2011.
“The minister has indicated that more work will still have to be undertaken in this region with regard to the twin challenges of mining and the environment.”
The moratorium does not affect the processing of existing prospecting and mining right applications received before September 1 2010.
The moratorium was imposed at the beginning of September last year to allow Shabangu’s department to conduct a full audit of all mining and prospecting licences granted since 2004.
At the time the moratorium was imposed, there was a backlog of 26 000 applications.
Earlier, Shabangu said that bribery, intimidation, non-compliance and a lack of co-operation from the holders of mining and prospecting licences are some of the challenges that the mineral resources department has faced during licence audits.
The department was encountering major problems with rights holders who were not honouring site inspections.
Often officials would arrive to find no one present.
She said there appeared to be a major problem with black economic empowerment (BEE) entities. Many did not keep the required information on site for inspectors to check.
