The government is insisting that the mining industry has failed to comply with the Mining Charter’s black ownership requirement, despite the Chamber of Mines proving that its members – who make up 90% of the industry – have more than complied. Rather than celebrating the achievement, the Department of Mineral Resources has opted to dilute the overall statistics by including the errant non-chamber component in them. But in doing so, the Department of Mineral Resources has exposed its own failure to enforce charter compliance among the relatively small remaining percentage, even though it has the powerful ‘use it or lose it’ tool at its disposal.