Canadian firm takes on state over mining rights
About 1 000 applications for prospecting and mining licences have been turned down, and about 50 have resulted in court action, the Minerals and Energy Departments Deputy Director-General, Jacinto Rocha, said yesterday.
He was responding to questions after Monroe Minerals, a Canadian-listed company exploring for diamonds in SA, said it would take legal advice because the department had refused to grant it a mining licence for one of its projects. A Business Day report says Rochas comments are the first indication of the number of licence applications refused by the department. The refusal relates to Monroe Minerals London Mine, south-west of Johannesburg, for which it submitted an application 12 months ago. It said the reasons given by the department were failure to submit evidence of BEE and inadequacies in the companys social and labour plan. Full Business Day report