The Junior Indaba has highlighted that South Africa’s one-size-fits-all approach to minerals legislation is ill-conceived. What the legislation purports to suggest is that the mining majors are on all fours with the junior exploration startups, which is by no means the case. The huge difference between the established wealth-creating majors and the incipient wealth-consuming junior exploration startups needs to be acknowledged. Big majors rely on small juniors to take the high risk associated with greenfield exploration. However, this penny is taking a very long time to drop in South Africa because of the past history of private-sector dominance in mining before 1994. The State is now the custodian of the mineral rights and needs to realise that it has a responsibility to ensure sustainability.