Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter has announced a possible rebound of the South African junior mining and exploration industries.
The CEO said the moves aims to establish “reliable infrastructure” and “competitive information”, the latter generated by the Council for Geosciences (CGS). He also says that role-players like the Minerals Council and CGS require access to properties in an effort to engage with land owners and “others” in terms of exploring previously unexplored areas.
As part of its efforts to revive the junior mining industry and the willingness of private investors to fund exploration projects, Baxter says a new exploration plan will encompass the ideas the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and the Minerals Council have been talking about.
Modern and transparent cadastre system
Part of this plan is the phasing out of the DMRE’s dysfunctional Samrad system and replacing it with a modern and transparent cadastre system, which many in the industry have lauded as providing the administration and transparency needed to attract investment back into South Africa’s exploration arena. This information would enable potential explorers and even junior miners to more easily determine their next area of focus and spur investment into broader-scale exploration throughout South Africa.
“This is an important part of the process, and having a mining cadastre system that provides the extensive exploration information and enables investors to track their applications in a very transparent system, will help improve confidence in processes,” said Baxter.
In addressing the fixing of the DMRE’s mining and prospecting right application database, DMRE director-general Thabo Mokoena said that the department was looking at releasing a request for proposals for a new cadastre system.
The system is set to increase transparency and reduce administration times, as well as automate some processes that are backlogged.
“This should help standardise procedures; it will be a lot more user-friendly, be reliable and secure and will enable companies and government to manage the full lifecycle and understand it.We absolutely have to get this system operating as quickly as possible,” said Thabo.
