Newly appointed Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, in his first media conference last week, emphasised that government would not begin developing the new Mining Charter from scratch, despite criticism from various organisations. He said that Mining Charter III would be the basis of negotiations for a new charter with industry, despite hope from key players that he would start discussions using Mining Charter II as a baseline. Mining Charter III deals with transformation, specifically ownership, control, management and meaningful participation by the black majority in the South African mining industry.