Director-general for the department of mineral and petroleum resources Jacob Mbele said the department was making progress on the Cadastral system, but not as fast as it would like.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday afternoon. He said challenges were emerging in the rollout of the system due to issues regarding the integrity of the system’s underlying data.
“For various reasons, we are finding that there were issues with some of the data. But we have since sorted out those data issues in the Western Cape. We have now launched what we call Map Viewer. So, the rights that we already have in the Western Cape, we have plotted them.
“Those who go onto the system now, live, will be able to see who has which rights. So, that level of transparency has come through. What the team is now finalising is ensuring that the switch on the models that allow those who want to process and apply for licences will be able to do so.”
He said that, in the past year, the department issued more than 300 prospecting rights and 32 mineral rights. He said licensing is proceeding.
The department was listening to industry concerns regarding the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and will work to improve the legislation in due course, he said.
Mbele said the department has had productive engagements with critics of the policy, including the Minerals Council, to improve its ability to draw investment to the sector.
“We went on a public consultation. We received the comments. After we received the comments, we continued engaging some of the stakeholders, including the Minerals Council, to get to a better understanding of the issues they are raising.
“The team has now incorporated the proposals that came from the various stakeholders. We are now at a point where we are consulting with the … State Law Advisors’ office in terms of the proposals we have put forward.”
Minerals Council CEO Mzila Mthenjane said the bill was a work in progress with the department and that the council made it clear in May last year that it found the initial iteration of the policy to be “disappointing”.
“We made a firm statement that it did not, in its current form, encourage or sustain investment in the mining industry to realise its full potential to create employment, stimulate the economy, and fulfil its social needs.
“And this is what the mining industry encouraged. And understanding that the lifeblood of mining is exploration, without which the mining sector has no future. We’ve seen exploration levels of R781-million in 2024. This is significantly down from the R6.2-billion we saw in 2006.”
Mbele said the department would continue to engage with the industry through platforms such as the Mining Indaba on the MPRDA.
“There is a detailed session this week — if not tomorrow, then on Wednesday — where a colleague of mine will participate in a panel where she will delve into the details in terms of some of the changes we are implementing.”
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