The Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, has amended clauses in the draft Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDP) relating to the imposition of BEE in mining exploration in South Africa.
Given the recent disappointing results for the mining GDP in Q1, contracting by 4.1%, further exploration may be key to ensuring the growth of mining in SA. However, experts believe that state involvement may be a major hindrance.
“The bill in its current form does not encourage or sustain the growth and investment that the mining industry needs to realise its full potential to create employment, stimulate the economy and fulfil its social mandate,” said the Minerals Council South Africa (MCSA) in a statement.
Summarised by the Bowmans law firm, the MRDP draft bill, gazetted in May 2025, is centred on:
- ensuring policy and regulatory certainty and enhancing investor confidence
- reducing bureaucratic inefficiencies and improving turnaround times for mining rights, permits and regulatory approvals
The draft bill remains open for public comment until 13 August 2025 and Miningmx warns this may even head back to court. Speaking to the digital publication, Hulme Scholes, a partner at Malan Scholes, said “a likely outcome is that new Black Economic Empowerment regulations will follow the bill’s implementation."
Additionally, the inclusion of the Mining Charter in the draft bill is particularly quarrelsome for the industry. The Daily Maverick’s Ed Stoddard writes that the charter’s inclusion brings the ‘once empowered, always empowered’ principle back into debate, which the industry has already contested and overturned in court. Stoddard: “‘Once empowered, always empowered’ means that once a company meets a threshold for Black ownership, it does not have to keep topping up endlessly if Black shareholders sell their stakes.”
The draft bill remains open for public comment until 13 August 2025.
