SA diamond producers welcome ruling on Mining Charter

The South African Diamond Producers Organisation (SADPO) has supported a High Court ruling that the country’s Mining Charter is an instrument of policy, not binding legislation.
Mining Weekly quoted SADPO chairperson Gert van Niekerk as saying that the judgement brings legislative certainty and will kindle the much needed foreign and local investment into the mining industry at large.
He said the ruling set aside provisions in the 2018 Charter related to the targets set out for licence holders under the Diamond Act and the Precious Metal Act.
“While SADPO remains committed in its support to the transformation process, we remain adamant that our side of the industry – small and junior diamond mining – will have to look at achieving this in a different way,” he said.
“[The judgement] clearly indicates that Mineral Resources and Energy Minister [Gwede Mantashe] is of the opinion that the transformational process has not been successful and therefore the need for the Charter to be seen as subordinate legislation to rectify the situation.”
Van Niekerk said it is impossible for small diamond businesses that are traditionally owner-operator type of businesses to be sustainable when they are forced to get a partner.
“If you then must start sharing with a partner it becomes impossible to stay financially viable, and hence the decreased numbers.”
South Africa’s small and junior diamond mining operations dropped from 2000in 2004 to 220 in March 2020, according to a report written by Nelson Mandela University geology graduate Sinazo Dlakavu published in August by the Africa Earth Observatory Institute.
The decline was linked to the introduction of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished