Miningweb: John Matisonn - SA mining’s cadastre catastrophe continues

Key topics:South Africa’s cadastre system delayed, raising corruption concerns.Local firm Spatial Dimension outperforms, used in 24 African countries.Mining growth driven by prices, not new exploration or mines..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.Amid fears in the mining sector of more delays in implementing a Canadian cadastre system at the department of mining resources, DA shadow mining minister James Lorimer says there is a South African firm that would have done it much faster.A cadastre system provides software that ensures that mining claim applications are transparent for competitors to see, and prevents corruption by insiders who find out about applications and then lodge rival claims.The ministry resisted requests to introduce one for decades, but eventually contracted a consortium to provide one which was due to be in place already but has suffered several delays.Spatial Dimension, based in Pinelands, Cape Town, has installed its cadastre system in 24 African countries, including Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo – all of which score higher in the latest Fraser mining investment attractiveness index than South Africa. .Read more:.New mining bill raises investment concerns over expanded BEE mandates and regulatory powers.South Africa came in 68th in the world last year. Botswana was 15th, Zambia 28th, Namibia 30th, Tanzania 37th Zimbabwe 57th and even the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo was ten places higher than South Africa at 58th.“I find it extraordinary that South Africa didn’t go to them first,” Lorimer said. “They’ve provided very competent systems all over Africa and could have done it much faster, yet despite being South African they didn’t get it. This has led to speculation that speed was not what the government was after.”The new cadastre system will be provided by a consortium of three companies – Canada’s Pacific GeoTech Systems, MITs Institute and a small South African firm Gemini GIS and Environmental Services. Promised start-up dates have been postponed from July to October this year.Though the company installed its first cadastre system in Mozambique in 2003, South Africa doggedly stuck with a less transparent system that fuelled allegations of systemic corruption.“Spatial Dimension is an amazing company,”said geologist Dr John Bristow in an interview. “They have worked across the world and employ South Africans of all races.” “When we found alluvial diamonds we identified we went to the offices and lodged applications, then waited,” Bristow remembered. “They were lost, but we anticipated that so we submitted the back-ups.“Then we’d find someone else pop up with an application that used some of the same data and even the same language as ours. We had no problem with BEE, but the system was so corrupt.”The latest country in the region to contract the South African Spatial Dimension system is Angola, which has convinced major mining groups Rio Tinto and De Beers to return to the country. “Customers will soon be able to submit applications online as well as undertake all other statutory processes such as making payments, submitting reports and undertaking renewals,” Spatial Dimension president Bill Feast said in a media release. “In addition to these productivity wins, the system will significantly enhance revenue collection.” Last week the government was relieved to see Q2 growth come in at an above-expectations 0.8%, with mining the best sectoral contributor at 3.7%, the fastest pace since the first quarter of 2021 (4.4%). Platinum, gold and chromium ore were the main contributors. These growth figures provided relief to some politicians with little good news to trumpet, but rising commodity prices rather than new mining activity explain the increase. Our mining growth does not come from exploration and new mines, as it should, but from old, mostly apartheid era mines that benefitted from rising commodity prices while our annual output in volume continues its decades long decline.Last week Deputy mining resources minister Phumzile Mgcina wrote in Business Day that on a recent trip she learnt the lessons from mining progress in Egypt and Ghana, and praised their cadastre systems which long predate South Africa’s plans.

Miningweb: John Matisonn - SA mining’s cadastre catastrophe continues

Key topics:

Related Stories