South Africa risks driving away new investment and crippling its mining sector if “reckless” new rules are implemented, according to AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. Chairman Sipho Pityana.
The latest Mining Charter, which is aimed at sharing the benefits of the country’s mineral wealth more equally among South Africans, doesn’t provide solutions to the industry’s challenges and will make it difficult for companies to buy and sell assets, Pityana said Thursday.
Much of South Africa’s mining industry is struggling with rising costs and faltering metal prices that have forced producers to slash thousands of jobs and shrink production.
“When the industry says to you that what you are proposing will kill the industry, you should sit up and listen,” Pityana said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office. “Layers and layers of these things make mining an uninvestable proposition and you are talking about an industry that basically has its back up against the wall.”
South African Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe issued a new draft Mining Charter last month for public comment after a version published last year by his predecessor drew strong opposition and legal challenges from the industry.
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