The job description of in-house mining counsel is fast evolving – from being only a legal adviser and setting up compliance and risk indicators to being a generalist who assists in developing long-term company strategy, says diversified mining and exploration company Bauba Resources group legal counsel Aviona Mabaso.

Mabaso will take part in a panel discussion on risk as part of the inaugural General Counsel Forum at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, and is also a member on the event’s conference advisory board.

The forum will discuss compliance and risk across departments, managing legal developments and executives’ expectations, and managing relationships with interested parties such as local communities, employees, vendors, the board, shareholders and the regulator.

Mining companies operating in Africa face failing or corrupt administrations that aggravate working in a highly regulated environment with legal requirements that are impossible to adhere to and are sometimes badly written, states Mabaso.

“Enforcement is inconsistent, everything happens slowly, and the execution of projects is always characterised by good intentions and poor execution, owing to a lack of support and protection from the administration, as well as unrealistic expectations.”

Mining is a “long game”, she highlights, noting that strategic guidance is necessary to enable companies to plan for the unknown for years to come.

In providing strategic guidance, legal counsel should lay out all the legal requirements that apply to each of a mining company’s departments or business units to find similarities and differences.

Legal counsel’s role has generally been that of putting out fires instead of providing mining companies with strategic guidance, says Mabaso, who advises to insist on being present for the planning stages of projects.

She says the introduction of a collective compliance culture could help mining companies avoid obvious pitfalls if all staff are aware of the consequences.

This entails every person being responsible for ensuring that operations are fully compliant with the law and company policies. Legal compliance will translate to a safer working environment, less downtime and an overall more efficient use of resources.

This includes constantly training employees and conducting refresher courses, especially when new laws come into effect.

To improve the ease of introducing collective compliance, the industry should collaborate on best practice methods through various bodies to

enable the development programmes relevant.

Additionally, general counsel should take advantage of technology to advance collective compliance culture, as it plays a significant role in collating information to facilitate the creation of a risk analysis system.