The modern cadastre, a publicly available online map of a country's mineral resources and mining, prospecting rights and permits, is finally taking off a decade after it was touted by the department of mineral resources.
The department said this week it had signed a service level agreement (SLA) with its Canadian service provider, the PGM Consortium, comprising Pacific GeoTech Systems, MITS Institute and Gemini GIS & Environmental Services.
South Africa has often been criticised for its lack of a modern and credible cadastral system, which has been a hurdle for mining exploration. Last week the Fraser Institute, a global index which assesses mining jurisdictions according to attractiveness as investment destinations, rated South Africa 64th out of 86 countries. Investors surveyed in the index flagged the delay in implementing a cadastral system as a problem.
Tseliso Maqubela, the deputy director-general for mineral & petroleum regulation told the Junior Indaba hosted by Resources4Africa that the department had taken time to sign the agreement to avoid cost overruns.
“When you procure using state funds you need to ensure that at the end of the process, you have what you have procured, and you do not have cost overruns.”
He dismissed claims that South Africa signed the agreement under pressure, saying the department's counterparts in Botswana had more than a year to implement its cadastral system following the announcement of the service provider.
“So, we are expected in this country to do it in half the time. It doesn't work like that. There is an inception process, there is training that needs to take place. That SLA had to be tight,” he said.
Errol Smart, chair of the junior and emerging miners leadership forum at Minerals Council South Africa, told Business Times the signing of the SLA was a positive move in the regulatory environment, particularly for juniors and explorers.
The fact that the DMRE is finally saying OK we are putting in a system so that we can be measured and managed is a big win
— Errol Smart, Minerals Council
“The fact that the DMRE is finally saying OK we are putting in a system so that we can be measured and managed is a big win. I think we are going in the right direction; I sense there is a genuine wish and a will to get things right.”
He said although Botswana and Namibia were attracting exploration investment, South Africa had 20 times the number of applications. “That tells the story of the opportunities. There are people that want to do stuff, they have been struggling to get it financed, and the biggest hold-up in financing is getting it properly licensed.”
Maqubela said the processing of mining applications had been prioritised and 2,900 applications for mining and prospecting rights were processed during the 12 months to end of March last year. The majority of the applications were for mining permits in Mpumalanga, he said.
“When we talk about backlog we are talking about Mpumalanga in the main, it constitutes two-thirds of what we have as backlog. There is no chance that those mining applications will be approved, because they are on somebody else's land, on top of someone else's right. I am hoping the cadastre will help us, because we will reject those outright”.
The CEO of the Council for Geoscience, Mosa Mabuza, said the council was making geological data available for mining to take off. “I have seen in excess of 50,000 requests for data in the last two years and that gives me hope that junior miners are on the right track.”
The department was criticised for over-regulating the industry. Hulme Scholes, director at Malan Scholes Inc, told delegates at the conference the government needed to improve enforcement of environmental laws in mining.
“We have bad enforcement, and we have a functionally useful government. We don't need more law. We need to enforce what we have got. If you go to Mpumalanga, the environmental impact of illegal coal mining is worse today than mining under any legislative system even prior to the Minerals Act. There are communities that are suffering from underground spontaneous combustion, unrehabilitated open-cast coal mines. The sector doesn’t need more laws, we need better enforcement.”
In a push to have an inclusive mining industry, the government is revamping its licensing regime to make it easier for artisanal and small-scale miners to operate. Scholes said the plan should be reconsidered.
“With a stroke of a legislator’s pen you try and make something that is inherently unlawful, lawful. You first have to deal with the unlawfulness before you can open it up to artisanal mining,” he said.
Despite laws to include small-scale miners, the mining industry is yet to transform. Nosipho Pambuka, chair of Qinani Mining, told Business Times there are too few women in mining.
“The mining industry is very male dominated. It is white male dominated. When they see a black face they think there is nothing you can offer when you come to the room.”
She said access to funding remains a stumbling block for junior miners. “People feel you need to be a particular entity to be able to access those funds. When you come in you are a no-name brand; it becomes more difficult.” Qinani aims to mine anthracite in KwaZulu-Natal.
