In the news

One of the companies to have benefitted most from a recent High Court ruling on the principle of “once empowered, always empowered” is DRDGOLD, followed by Sibanye-Stillwater and, in the pure-play platinum sector, Impala Platinum (Implats). Read More

The Compensation Commission for Occupational Diseases (CCOD) has steadily increased the number of payouts to injured miners over the past three years, a trend that suggests the reforms instituted by commissioner Barry Kistnasamy have turned the troubled fund around. Read More

The IMF has given SA a vote of confidence, revising its growth projections, but also warned that progress would be slow unless structural reforms were implemented. Read More

Mining is expected to detract from first-quarter GDP, despite a 3.1% increase in February. But economists say an amended Mining Charter, to be released in May, should revitalise investment in the sector. Read More

If SA’s efforts to deliver an improved Mining Charter in coming weeks are successful, Business Monitor International (BMI), a unit of FitchGroup, will upgrade the country’s low score on the regulatory sub-Saharan mining risk/reward index. Read More

Mines minister Gwede Mantashe says that’s he’s aiming to finalise the third version of the industry charter by May and it may ask the requirements for black ownership levels and other targets. I had a conversation with Peter Major who is an analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions about the comments by the minister and also about the state of the platinum industry in South Africa. Read More

It would be difficult for South Africa to recover the ground it had lost in platinum market share because of the high cost base of many of its remaining producers. Read More

South Africa mines minister, Gwede Mantashe, declared the negotiating team discussing changes to the country’s Mining Charter was “80% there”, and would be concluded with the process of shaping an improved regulatory framework for the sector by end-May. Read More

Talks on a new Mining Charter are about 80% completed and the new document guiding transformation of the South African mining sector will be ready and gazetted in May, giving the industry greater policy confidence, says Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe. Read More

THe first report back from the stakeholders negotiating the Mining Charter is due on April 10 so it’s probably worth setting down some preliminary observations from the first round of negotiations over the last few weeks. Read More