[miningmx.com] — THE department of mineral resources would commence to cancel the prospecting rights of non-compliant holders on Tuesday, according to Mines Minister Susan Shabangu.
Announcing the lifting of the prospecting rights moratorium together with the launch of the online rights application system on Monday, Shabangu said the department has issued 434 notices in term of Section 47 (the intention to cancel an issued right) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).
The moratorium – announced in August last year – coincided with an audit of all prospecting rights that have been issued since the implementation of the MPRDA.
The moratorium would remain in place in Mpumalanga until end-September.
Shabangu said the Section 47 notices related to holders who did not commence with prospecting activities under the stipulated 120 days, cases of severe environmental degradation as well as deviations from the implementation of approved prospecting rights programs.
It also included instances where distorted or inaccurate information had been submitted with an application.
“We’ve served these notices and some have been ignored,’ said Shabangu. “The first operations to be closed down will happen from tomorrow.
“I am not at liberty to disclose the identity of the affected entities.(they) know who they are and the law is very clear in terms of the processes to be followed in this regard.’
The audit has further uncovered 713 cases where rights holders did not comply with their own environmental management plans. Shabangu said notices has also already been issued on these companies, which would be given time to rectify problems.
“I regret very much to state that some established companies are also guilty of the same issues,’ said Shabangu. “We find it odd that listed entities are not prone to notifying their shareholders about such notices as they do when they attribute delays to the regulator, especially during the period when applications are being processed.’
The audit set out to do 3,507 inspections, of which 3,266 were eventually conducted.
DOUBLE GRANTING
The process also uncovered 120 instances of double granting. Shabangu said most of these have been resolved, as many cases involved an irregular or non-compliant application process. Some parties have also managed to resolve the dispute amicably.
“Of the reported cases, 11 are of a complex nature and four are a subject of litigation,’ she said, defining “complex’ issues as instances where both applications have been fully compliant.
Referring to policy and regulatory issues which came to the fore during the audit, Shabangu said the department would conduct a critical review of past practices and approach things differently.
“We need to ask the question; should we not enhance the quality of applications by introducing a competitive process in respect of new prospecting rights applications?’
She said that to this end, internal policies are being put in place to ensure there is better management of applications that relate to strategic minerals (coal, rare earths, manganese and iron ore) in order “to best serve the interest of South Africans’.
“The first come first served principle is all well and good when it comes to allocation of new rights, but the interests of optimal utilisation that serves the interests of both the state and applicants are not always achieved,’ she said.
