Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has sought to reassure mining industry stakeholders concerned about certain provisions of the proposed new Mining Charter, describing the draft as “just a proposal by government” and stating that “nothing has been cast in stone”.

The Minister recently visited gold mining major AngloGold Ashanti’s TauTona mine, in western Gauteng, where he was questioned about the draft charter, which was released for public comment last month.

Zwane noted that the Department of Minerals Resources (DMR) was in discussions with all the industry's stakeholders, including mining companies and labour unions, to address con-cerns that the parties had raised about the pro-posed new Mining Charter.

However, Zwane emphasised that transforma-tion was a fundamental part of the South African Constitution and the National Development Plan and, therefore, would be the guiding principle in any new industry charter.

“We have to ensure our people are represented throughout the mining industry. This is the only way to ensure we have a strong, united country rooted in social and economic justice and fairness,” he stated.

The 30-day consultation period started when the draft charter was published last month; how-ever, mining companies have said that this was too short a period for comprehensive discussions to be undertaken among all the industry’s stakeholders.

However, Zwane stressed during the site visit that the consultation period would be extended if required and that mining companies should not “panic” about the timeframe.

Regarding the suddenness of the announce-ment of the new draft Mining Charter, Zwane explained that the DMR released it as there was a need to engage stakeholders based on clearly articulated positions.

AngloGold CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (Venkat) said that the release of the new draft charter did come as a “shock”. He said this was because the mining industry had done a lot even before the original Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act was implemented to transform the sector.

“If you look at AngloGold, for example, we were pioneers in terms of black economic empowerment and the implementation of progressive social and labour programmes; this is going back to the days of our former CEO, Bobby Godsell,” he stated.

Venkat added that, while he understood that other industries had progressed faster in terms of transformation than the mining sector, he believed that the sector should be given credit for what it had achieved to date in terms of transformation.

He further asserted that there were certain aspects of the draft charter that had aspects of “double jeopardy,” which Venkat explained meant that companies would in essence be punished for abiding by historical regulations.

“These are issues that we need to discuss and reach a fair compromise. I am, however, confident that we will be able to strike a balance between the demands of the DMR and the needs of the industry,” he affirmed.

On the issue of theincrease in Section 54 work stoppage notices being issued by the DMR, Zwane pointed out that there had already been 21 fatal- ities in the local mining industry this year, which was up from the 19 fatalities that had been recorded during the same period in 2015.

“This is a concern to all in the mining industry and a clear sign that a lot more needs to be done to ensure we reach our goal of zero harm,” he said.

Venkat concurred with the Minister that one fatality was one too many. “However, he proposed that instead of Section 54 that Section 55 be used by the DMR as this only shut down a particular work section where a problem had been identified and not the entire mine.