Pretoria - The Department of Mineral and Resources has placed a six-month moratorium on all new applications for prospecting mining licences, said Minister Susan Shabangu on Tuesday.
She said the moratorium, which will take effect from 1 September, will allow her department to review gaps and inefficiencies in the administrative process.
"This will further enable us to clean up our database, thus paving the way for the incorporation of uncorrupted data into our new integrated electronic application administrative system," the minister said.
She said her department was busy developing a totally new, integrated system of 'license-process-tracking' which will be ready for public access within the next six months.
This follows reports of growing investor concern over the country's mining regime.
"I have noted with increasing concern the growing negative sentiment regarding South Africa's mining sector, specifically in relation to our regulatory framework.
"Various media reports and comments from analysts and other observers on these issues have combined in recent weeks to create an environment in which companies and investors alike are facing some uncertainties.
"There is no doubt that clouds have been gathering over our country's mining reputation and I want to reassure all our stakeholders that South Africa is indeed a mining jurisdiction worthy of future investment," she said.
The minister expects this process to take six months to complete.
Shabangu said all applications that were already received would be processed according to existing law.
Minister Shabangu explained that when the new system is in place, prospecting rights will no longer be issued at regional office level instead they will be issued at the Head Office.
The implementation of the new system by the department is set to ensure easy regulation of the mining sector as well as faster processing of new applications.
Also as part of the new system, as from 1 September, Chief Directors will be deployed to regional offices to strengthen leadership and oversight at the coalface of service delivery.
