Diversified miner Anglo American and its diamond arm De Beers will meet South African ministers on August 14 to discuss government plans to give black business a bigger role in mining, a government representative said on Wednesday.
”We have tentatively set next Wednesday for the talks,” said President Thabo Mbeki’s representative Bheki Khumalo.
Mbeki would not be at the meeting, he said, but Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, Minerals Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana and Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin would attend.
Khumalo said Anglo chairman Julian Ogilvie Thompson had written to Mbeki asking for the meeting, which Anglo and its diamond arm De Beers announced on Tuesday.
The announcement from the country’s biggest company was seen as a move to soothe market nerves over the controversial draft charter which has spooked investors.
Details of the charter, which first emerged almost two weeks ago, sent mining shares tumbling and wiped out as much as a fifth from Anglo’s value.
”We and the government at the highest level have agreed to meet in the next few days to set the scene for a constructive debate on the negotiation of the mining industry charter,” Anglo chief Tony Trahar and De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer — the country’s most senior miners — said in a statement.
On Tuesday, news of the planned talks and a US stock market rally put fire under Anglo’s share, which extended its early gains to 12,6%, taking it up to R130. On Wednesday, Anglo added 3,6% or 445 cents to R127,75. It is still way off its year high of R216 hit in February.
South Africa has already approved a Minerals Bill that aims to give blacks a greater role in one of the mainstays of the economy, but the draft put out for industry discussion caused alarm with its clear targets and timetables.
It proposed that control of all new mining projects would have to rest with black business within 10 years.
It also suggested that up to 30% of equity in existing operations must be given to black-owned miners before licences to mine an expansion-related project were issued.
The government has distanced itself from the proposals, saying they were not government policy, but rather a starting point for lengthy discussions.
Eight years after the end of white minority rule, the South African economy is still largely in the hands of whites. But government policies aim to give black people a bigger role. – Reuters