WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-09-09 Time: 13:00:03 Posted By: News Poster
By Allan Seccombe
Johannesburg – LONMIN CEO Ian Farmer last night urged Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu to show strong leadership to help settle investors’ nerves and reverse the damage done to SA’s mining industry by a blend of ambiguous laws, empowerment demands and a vague Mining Charter.
At a Gordon Institute of Business Science forum last night, it became clear that the regulatory environment must change to give investors and mining firms confidence in SA as a business destination and contribute towards the transformation of the sector.
This is important given the strident calls from factions in the African National Congress and its alliance partners for greater state involvement in mining to ensure benefits are more widely felt.
Mr Farmer and Peter Leon, a mining regulations expert at the law firm Webber Wentzel, both criticised the regulatory environment for holding back the mining sector. They listed ambiguities and gaps in the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and a lack of administrative capacity.
Mr Leon raised the question of whether the administration of mineral rights should not be depoliticised and taken out of the department and handled by a separate body.
“The law is imperfect, we have a weak administration, yet you have a degree of reliance on individuals to do the right thing. That’s not necessarily a good formula,” Mr Farmer said. He singled out the Mining Charter, which laid out a number of social, labour and equity empowerment requirements that companies are obliged to comply with to get new-order mining and prospecting rights.
“The Mining Charter presents challenges to every single mining company in SA. Once again the charter objectives are not clearly defined,” he said, pointing out there were often differences of opinion between mining firms and the Department of Mineral Resources. “If there is a deemed noncompliance with a social and labour plan, that can result in threat to a mining title, therefore mining companies often feel vulnerable,” he said. Mining companies that felt vulnerable would rather try find compromises with the department than go head-to-head with it, he said.
The department ran the risk of putting empowerment ahead of creating a “nurturing and competitive environment” for existing title holders.
“That potential conflict of interest is the recipe for a perception of bias and corruption, which is in no one’s interests. If you take a combination of those three issues you’ve got a fairly unhealthy recipe in my view.
“If we allow that to continue the sector will continue to underperform and not realise the full potential of the industry,” Mr Farmer said. Transformation of the sector would follow naturally from the creation of a vibrant industry, he said.
Jacinto Rocha, a former deputy director-general at the department and now an industry consultant, said while the act was not perfect there were mechanisms to correct shortfalls and this was being done.
Laws could not be overly prescriptive, he said.
Ms Shabangu said last month her department was aware of ambiguities and gaps in the act and it was preparing a number of urgent amendments to push through Parliament before the end of the year to rectify these.
She has spoken of drawing up a comprehensive set of amendments to all legislation pertaining to the mining sector, to be introduced early next year to end confusion and encourage growth.
A perception that title in SA may not be secure sprang up recently because of the granting of prospecting rights for base metals over part of Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine to an unknown company called Keysha Investments. Controversy has raged around the awarding of a prospecting right to politically connected individuals in Imperial Crown Trading over a portion of the Sishen Iron Ore mine after ArcelorMittal’s rights to that stake lapsed. Mittal has subsequently made an R800m bid for Imperial despite that company doing very little with the right.
Mark Cutifani, CEO of AngloGold Ashanti , one of the world’s largest gold producers, agreed there were weaknesses in the regulatory structure, but the company regarded SA as one of the globe’s top five mining jurisdictions. He said work on a review of the charter would be completed in the next three months and it was critical it was done properly.
Mr Farmer said: “I’d recommend the minister herself give a clear sign of visible leadership to the marketplace by intervening to correct as many as possible of the 100 cases she has referred to. The market needs to see common sense prevailing.”
Original Source: 
Original date published: 9 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009090327.html?viewall=1