Friday marks the last day for the department of mineral resources to receive written submissions on a draft mining charter which was gazetted for public comment in June.
This follows over three months of consultations with stakeholders, including organised labour, organised business and communities in eleven areas across the country's nine provinces, which culminated in a summit in July.
Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said a task team overseeing the process would now consolidate all inputs on the charter before it was taken through the relevant Cabinet processes and was subsequently gazetted.
"It is envisaged that the final mining charter will be published for implementation by November 2018, in order to entrench the necessary regulatory certainty," Mantashe said.
“The engagements with stakeholders have been invaluable not only for the charter, but for our work as a whole as the regulator of this industry. We remain committed to continue engagements with all stakeholders on issues affecting the industry."
The draft charter has a requirement of 10% 'free carry' interest for mining communities and employees on new mining rights as part of the proposed 30 percent black equity ownership target, something that the industry opposes even though it acknowledges that the current document is an improvement on the previous one published by Mantashe's predecessor.