South Africa to Put in Place Online Mining Rights Portal in July

Mine workers walk through a tunnel in a gold mine in Westonaria, South Africa. Photo by Michele Spatari /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — South Africa plans to unveil a new online mining registry next month, a long-delayed move toward greater transparency that should help boost investor interest in funding exploration projects.

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The industry has long highlighted the lack of a registry — or cadastre — that displays all mining and prospecting rights, as a deterrent to fresh investment in the nation that is a major producer of gold, coal and platinum-group metals.

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The registry will likely begin operating at the end of July, Deputy Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Phumzile Mgcina said in an interview in London. Companies currently have “difficulties when it comes to getting licenses,” she said. “Once we go live with that system, we’ll be able to overcome those challenges and improve the sector.”

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South Africa’s gold output – which was the world’s largest for more than a century until 2007 – has shrunk by more than 70% in the past two decades. The production of PGMs is also expected to decline, though more modestly, in the coming years.

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To reverse this trajectory, South Africa wants to attract 5% of global exploration spending. It has received around 1% of the total worldwide budget each year for the past decade, down from between 2% and 4% in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to Kevin Murphy, a research director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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The government appointed a consortium, including Canada’s Pacific GeoTech Systems Ltd., in January 2024 to design and implement the registry, and bring South Africa in line with other mineral producers on the continent like Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

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The registry will only cover the Western Cape at first, because the province has the smallest backlog. “I can’t say how long it’ll take for us to go live all over provinces,” Mgcina said.

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Earlier this month, the country amended draft legislation to confirm that prospecting companies won’t be bound by the Black-ownership and advancement requirements which apply to mining firms that are in production.

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South Africa is also the world’s top producer of chrome and manganese ores, although many smelting facilities are lying idle due to an absence of affordable and reliable power. The cabinet has approved a plan for the government to negotiate new electricity tariffs with ferrochrome plants, as well as introduce controls and taxes for exports of chrome ore, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Thursday.

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