JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Tuesday welcomed a new Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) initiative to ensure safety compliance at mines, but also called on the department to be even more proactive in its approach.

Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu last week launched the DMR’s online mineral rights application system, in terms of which companies would be compelled to produce safety reports on a quarterly basis. From Monday, all applications for prospecting rights, mining permits and mining rights would have to be submitted in electronic format through the DMR website.

While this was seen as a positive step forward, the NUM also called on the DMR inspectorate to consistently and regularly inspect mines to gain first-hand experience of mine's safety statuses, rather than reacting to the result of negligence.

The South African Mineral Resources Administration (Samrad) system was meant to be implemented at the end of March, but was delayed to allow more time for final test runs. The online system would make information available about areas applied for, granted, and still available for prospecting and mining right and permit applications.

The DMR said the new system would make the application process more transparent because access to information on the processing of applications would be available and that it would seek to reduce turnaround times for finalising applications.

Shabangu imposed a moratorium on new mineral right applications in September, which would be lifted with the launch of the new system.

The NUM added that the DMR must continue to uphold the rule of law as before and ensure strict compliance with the Mine, Health and Safety Act.