JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Fresh from her international road show, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu on Friday announced her intention to strip the newly formalised State mining company of the regulatory advantage it has thus far enjoyed as an organ of State.

Up to now, African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC) has qualified for exemption from several sections of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) by virtue of it being State owned.

However, the Minister says in a media release that a Government Gazette notice to be placed on Monday withdraws the exemptions in terms of section 106 (1) of the Act, that has a bearing on sections 16, 20, 22 and 27 of the MPRDA concerning prospecting right applications, mineral disposal permits and mining right applications.

Both before and during her North American road show, Minister Shabangu has repeatedly stated that the AEMFC will not receive any preference.

In her latest communiqué she adds that there is “no need” for AEMFC to be exempted from the Act’s provisions.

This is because the exemptions were “prompted by the coal crisis of October 2008 which was graphically demonstrated by the dreaded load shedding of the time”, she says.

Accordingly, it was aimed at facilitating access to coal resources by AEMFC in a bid to deal with the national emergency of the time, Shabangu adds.

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said at President Jacob Zuma’s official AEMFC launch this month that “it would also be wrong of us not to have any particular bias towards a State-owned mining company”, which would ensure energy.

Zuma used the platform to outline that the role of the State will not be confined only to regulation of South Africa’s R18-trillion worth of mineral resources, but that the State “must actively participate in the mining industry to ensure that our national interest is protected and advanced”.

This positions the State as being both player and referee, unless an independent regulator is introduced as part of the new overhaul of the MPRDA, which Shabangu is currently leading.

The first sod has been turned at AEMFC’s new R130-million 120-employee Vlakfontein coal mine, situated 100 km east of Johannesburg.

CEO Sizwe Madondo says that his vision for AEMFC is for it to be a top-five coal-mining company by 2020.

Also, it plans to produce synthetic crude oil from coal, and mine uranium, platinum-group metals and base metals, beneficiate the metals and minerals it mines and acquire large, long-life, high-quality mining assets on the continent of Africa.