Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Should the South African Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) not finalise diversified junior Aquila Resources’ internal appeal by May to set aside an alleged overlapping prospecting right regarding its Avontuur manganese project, in the Northern Cape, and its mining right application over the Gravenhage manganese deposit, adjacent to Avontuur, the company will take all necessary actions to protect its rights, Aquila executive chairperson Tony Poli said on Tuesday.
The alleged overlapping prospecting right was held by the Pan African Mineral Development Company (PAMDC), which is owned by the governments of South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The DMR had suspended this right pending the decision on Aquila’s appeal.
Aquila said in a statement that the DMR had deferred the deadline for deciding the internal appeal, which was initially expected to be finalised by mid-January, after which Aquila’s mining right application for Gravenhage would be decided within 15 days.
The DMR indicated that it could not meet the agreed mid-January deadline owing to the PAMDC’s delay in responding to Aquila’s notice of internal appeal and the lodgment of a cross-appeal by PAMDC, Aquila explained.
The DMR indicated that it would adhere to the regulatory time periods for deciding the appeals; however, it had, to the best of the company’s knowledge, already failed to meet the first regulatory deadline for responding to PAMDC’s cross-appeal by March 4, Aquila stated.
“Aquila is disappointed that the DMR was unable to meet its original deadline of mid-January 2014. Failing a positive response to this matter by the end of May 2014, Aquila will take all necessary action to protect its rights,” Poli stated.
The company pointed out that it was granted a new-order prospecting right over the Avontuur tenement in 2006 and made the mining right application for the Gravenhage manganese deposit in 2010.
However, the PAMDC prospecting right was only granted in 2011, five years after Aquila’s prospecting right was granted.
The Avontuur project has a resource of 147.8-million tonnes at an average grade of 38.2% manganese. A definitive feasibility study into the Gravenhage deposit identified a reserve of 20.2-million tonnes, at an average grade of 40.1% manganese.