Cape Town - Black empowerment in the mining industry would not only be judged on equity stakes but also on social plans and investments in beneficiation, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the minerals and energy minister, said at the weekend.
She was mapping out her approach to the increasingly touchy issue following the leaking of the empowerment charter for the industry, which sent mining shares tumbling, as she prepared to meet more mining chiefs this week on black economic empowerment.
She said she was due to meet the heads of Anglo American and De Beers at their request this week, but negotiations between the state, business and labour as a were already under way.
Last week she met Barry Davison, the executive chairman of Anglo Platinum and the president of the Chamber of Mines, to iron out their dispute on new licences and announce two major empowerment deals.
"We have been very anxious to make sure that we work with the companies to try and reverse whatever negative consequences that may have resulted," the minister said.
She said she would be working directly with the chief executives of mining companies from now on, cutting out any intermediaries or legal teams, to finalise the charter.
"We will do our best to incorporate everybody's concerns. But the thing is that we are not that far apart."
The charter and the accompanying social plan to cater for workers and communities that supplied labour to mines or were affected by mining operations, which were provided for in the recently passed Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill, would run parallel to the pending empowerment legislation planned by government to cover all sectors of the economy.
"Different sectors are going to do different things ... is easiest for them to administer," she said.
But she did not see empowerment as having only to do with equity percentages owned by black companies, but also with "what companies could do in relation to beneficiation because this should be a big opportunity to boost investment in beneficiation, which is something we have really struggled to get going".