JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The mining cadastre under development by South Africa’s Department of Minerals and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) must be rolled out “effectively, rapidly and transparently”.

That was the emphatic response of Minerals Council South Africa president Paul Dunne to Mining Weekly during question time at this week’s 136th AGM of Minerals Council South Africa, which represents more than 90% of annual mineral sales for South Africa’s 470 000-employee mining industry, which in 2025 contributed R477-billion to GDP, exported R816-billion worth of minerals, and generated R124-billion in taxes for the fiscus.

The DMPR is carrying out a phased implementation of a new digital mining cadastre, which enables users to identify mineral investment opportunities online.

"Fundamental to globally competitive mineral rights management is a modern, world-class mining cadastre that removes human interference, streamlines applications, makes geological information easily accessible from anywhere in the world, and delivers the utmost transparency," Dunne had remarked earlier, during the official AGM proceedings.

As reported by Mining Weekly on May 15, implementation of Botswana’s Department of Mines’ mining cadastre portal has seen an increase in exploration activity owing to users being able to apply for an exploration licence from anywhere in the world.

Botswana’s portal provides mining licence holders, prospectors and mining right seekers with an electronic platform that enables them to engage directly with Botswana’s Ministry of Minerals and Energy.

Once registered, users of the Botswana cadastre can manage the complete process of handling representation, including requests, approval and cancellations of person, company or syndicate representation.

In addition to this, users can manage and submit licence applications through the portal to ensure the accurate reporting of all exploration data, while being able to submit payments, reports and documents for review, including the necessary approvals and feedback, online.

Moreover, to promote transparency in governance, the portal provides the public with access to searchable licence records, enhancing engagement and communication. Users can also rely on interactive maps to visualise cadastre data and validate spatial information in real-time.

In all, this enables users to manage their licences through streamlined processes, ensuring compliance, while facilitating the easy tracking of renewals and audits.

In his response to Mining Weekly on the expectations surrounding South Africa's upcoming systems, Dunne positioned cadastres at the same ultrahigh level as that occupied by policy certainty – “right at the top” of the attractiveness or otherwise of mining investment destinations, which is why it is essential that South Africa's new cadastre system is effective.

Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane added that South Africa’s DMPR had been asked to come and present an update of implementation progress of its cadastre last seen being demonstrated to Parliament.

“But that did not give us an opportunity to be able to be interactive in terms of asking questions, so we continue to inquire with the DMPR to come and engage directly with ourselves, so that we can get a real understanding of the nature of the success that they report in terms of where they've implemented in the Western Cape.

“That’ll give us a good basis to understand potential challenges when they roll out the cadastre in the more complex mining regions,” said Mthenjane, who had earlier outlined the Mineral Council’s encouragement at the nature of the engagements with the DMPR since the draft Mineral Resources Development Bill and spoken of the possibility of “greater exploration and mine development”.

“We must seize this opportunity to unlock the potential inherent in South Africa’s unique mineral endowment to catalyse economic and industrial investment, growth, and, of vital importance, to create jobs to lift South Africans out of poverty,” Mthenjane urged.

PLATINUM GROUP METALS

The Minerals Council was also subjected to a question on the steps being taken to ensure that platinum group metals (PGMs) continues to be in demand in the long term, in view of the changes taking place in the automotive sector, which represents the biggest uptake of PGMs by far.

Mining Weekly: What are you doing to ensure that PGMs continue to have solid market demand for the long term?

Dunne: Firstly, on a broader front, the Minerals Council has embarked on a piece of work which will formulate a critical mineral strategy for the South African mining industry. We're in midstream of that work piece. We have our strategy session coming up shortly. When it comes to PGMs, it falls to the platinum companies themselves. We are able to work together on the neutral item of marketing, and there are market initiatives, such as the Platinum Guild International jewellery initiative, the World Platinum Investment Council, the International Platinum Group Metals Association, and there's a recent technical initiative through Johnson Matthey in the UK. So, the companies are working hard on future demand. We are concerned about the potential decline of automatic automotive offtake, although it has been stronger for longer than we originally expected. We did all attend Platinum Week last week, which is the annual place of discussion, and you can be assured that the companies are just as concerned about the future demand and the future demand balance and there’s still work to be done.