JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - There was no plan “at the moment” for the creation of a State-owned mining company as the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) proposed at South Africa’s mining summit, Minerals and Energy Ministry spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said on Monday.

Ratau told Mining Weekly Online that a plan to create a State-owned mine had not yet been proposed to the Ministry.

He said that “more concrete” comment might be forthcoming from the Ministry should discussion on the issue take place, “but at the moment it’s not government policy” to establish and control mines.

“If some people have got ideas, they would have to make a firm proposal, and then it can be looked at,” Ratau said.

It was incumbent on NUM to put forward such a plan, as the suggestion had come from NUM.

The State had ideas on the issue and any proposal “would have to be looked at in that vein”.

Though the diamond company Alexkor was already State controlled, that was part of a different history, though the history of Alexkor might provide a context for any decision in this regard.

But, at this stage, the government had no firm proposal to hand, but if one were received, it would be considered “on its merits”, Ratau said.

NUM president Senzeni Zokwana said at the mining summit: “Our call is clear and simple. It is for this government to create a government mining company”.

Zokwana said he was impressed on his recent visit to Norway that the Norwegian government owned more than 60% of every one of the country’s oil-and-gas operations.

If one went to Botswana, Namibia and Ghana, one would see significant State ownership of mines, and NUM wanted to see the creation of a mining company in South Africa that “not only cared for shareholders”, but also for workers.

Minerals were the preserve of all South Africans and the South African government could not continue as merely a referee deciding on who should get a mining licence and who not.

The establishment of a State-owned mining company was “very urgent”, Zokwana, who drew continual applause at the summit, said.

He was not, he said, proposing the nationalisation of existing mining companies, but where there was still an abundance of platinum, the State could take up a shareholding of 51%, and allow the private sector to take up 49%, in return for providing infrastructure, finance and know-how.

Diamond-miner De Beers was already in partnership with the State in Botswana.

Zokwana told the summit that the country was meeting at a critical phase of the reviewing of the Mining Charter, which was the cornerstone of mining industry transformation, but “we are very far from achieving the objectives we set for ourselves”.

He said that more than 60% of NUM members still lived in single-sex hostels and he could take those interested to see “18 males in one room”.

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