South Africa’s mining cadastre is taking shape, with 37 rightholders having registered with the system in the Western Cape as part of its Phase 1 rollout, Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources deputy director-general Tseliso Maqubela confirmed this week.

“It is taking long but we are being methodical,” he said during a panel discussion hosted at the Joburg Indaba conference.

The mining cadastre comprises a modern digital system to replace government’s outdated South African Mineral Resources Administration System (Samrad), with the aim to improve transparency, efficiency and accuracy in the mining rights application and management process.

The system, also known as Project Indwe, aims to streamline mining right applications, reduce backlogs and provide real-time, geospatial data on mining areas and rights.

The rollout started in the Western Cape owing to its manageable mining jurisdiction and limited mining right application backlog, but will be rolled out next in the Eastern Cape and then to other provinces before a nationwide launch.

A significant challenge had been the accurate migration of existing data from the Samrad system to the new cadastre, Maqubela said, adding that some regions would be more complex to manage as the system was fully rolled out.

For Maqubela, finalising the cadastre is key to promoting more investment in the mining sector. He also emphasised the importance of uniformity in how government departments and entities interpret mining regulations. He explained that there was not a lack of policy certainty, but rather that the interpretation of regulations differed too much across government.

He recommended that a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach was needed to preserve the mining industry.

African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation CEO Lemogang Pitsoe agreed with Maqubela on this point, saying an intentional countrywide effort was needed to support the sustainability of the mining industry.

Pitsoe added that a critical minerals strategy alone was not enough and that deliberate and intentional actions were needed to position the country as a key global supplier and beneficiator of critical minerals, perhaps with the support of a Presidential committee.

With a similar sentiment, Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane said government departments, particularly those governing the environment and water sectors, must work together more effectively to reduce timelines for administration and costs for companies.

He suggested that South Africa’s mining industry could also benefit from a flow through share model, such as that being used in Canada. Such a scheme allows resource-based companies to transfer the tax deductions for certain exploration and development expenses to investors, who can then use these deductions to reduce their personal or corporate taxable income.

Anglo American South Africa chairperson Nolitha Fakude called for a cohesive policy framework aligned with the country’s industrialisation strategy. 

She pointed out that the sustainability of mining largely depended on well-maintained logistics, energy and water infrastructure, as well as partnerships between multiple stakeholders.