Governments warned over mining industries: Tread carefully

High share prices for mining companies do not represent the actual profits these companies are making. Image: Anglo American Platinum.

In SA‚ the amendments to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act will mean mining companies will have to supply a percentage of their production of minerals‚ if they are considered strategic‚ and discount the prices to government. If a designated mineral is exported without meeting the domestic quota for local beneficiation‚ or without the written consent of the Minister‚ an offence that could result in imprisonment or a penalty of 10% of its annual turnover is committed.

Webber Wentzel partner Peter Leon‚ said a number of countries were implementing resource nationalism policies‚ but it was important that World Trade Organisation's rules were not flouted as this could violate international trade law. He believed the supply requirement in the draft law amounted to export licensing and may be illegal in terms of World Trade Organisation's rules.

African Development Bank's African Natural Resources Centre director Sheila Khama said the rise of resource nationalism within African countries was caused by the change in what governments considered fair‚ the heightened expectations from mining and the high visibility of the company brands themselves.

Reports confuse reality

She said that media headlines saying how a mining company's share had surged on a foreign stock exchange because its was mining a mineral in a certain country also gave the impression that the mining company was "flush with cash".

"However‚ the local communities do not realise that there is a major difference between the shares of the company‚ which may have been talked up so they can be traded‚ and the value of the asset on the ground‚" she said.

Lord Peter Mandelson‚ chairman of the Global Council said consumers of products in countries outside those that produced the mineral resources were also going to demand that sustainable practices were used‚ "otherwise they won't buy them".

He said: "I believe that miners (including the governments of mineral rich countries) see the profound sustainability attack which is coming their way. They will have to embrace rather than repel it as it cannot be repelled."

Khama said governments were under increasing pressure to deliver improved lives for their citizens.

World Bank senior manager Paulo da Sa said the term resource nationalisation implied a conflict of some kind between governments and the mining companies‚ but that this was not necessarily the case.

Ghana Chamber of Mines chief executive Toni Aubynn said Ghana's donor aid had dried up after it was reclassified a lower middle-income country‚ and this had forced the government to impose higher taxes on the mining companies.