For several years now, the South African mining industry has been trying to come to terms with the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), a difficult Act that changed the law to a great extent.
The proposed changes to the MPRDA put forward in 2007 and 2008 were just shelved indefinitely.
But just when everyone thought they had died on the vine, they were suddenly brought into force a couple of months ago.
At the same time, further amendments were proposed under the 2013 MPRDA Bill, which is now before Parliament.
Lawyers are predicting that the 2013 Bill is going to have an equally arduous passage through the Parliamentary process, owing to many of the amendments and proposals which are fairly complex and far-reaching.
Many representations are expected to be made about the various proposals, specifically those relating to the transfer of rights, mineral beneficiation provisions and mine dumps.
As far as dumps are concerned, the 2013 Bill vests the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) with the power to take control over who can process dump material.
What has taken everyone by surprise, says Fasken Martineau mining law partner Matthew van der Want – who conducted a seminar on the MPRDA on Friday – is the Act that everyone thought had gone away is back.
“Now we’re sitting with the situation where we are effectively amending the amendments of a difficult Act as it was,” says Van der Want.
Implementation has had to take something of a backseat while all this goes on.
Like poor old Michael Finnegan, some now fear a long drawn out begin ag’in, and having to come to terms with a whole lot of new provisions.
There is a need to get the legislative backbone of the economically key South African mining sector implemented properly and efficiently to give certainty to investors, particularly around the time it will take to get an operation up and running.
Particularly in the wake of certain environmental provisions being accidentally deleted, implementation is again going to be difficult.
The deletion leaves potions of the MPRDA’s environmental regulation unregulated for the next 18 months.
There will be problems if a dispute arises that relates to those sections in particular.
One wonders why South Africans continue to make it so hard for themselves and their potential investors, given the country’s worrying levels of unemployment.