SIBANYE-Stillwater has delayed the approval of its 120,000 ounce a year Mpumalanga gold project Burnstone citing the board’s capital approval process.While there are no technical or strategic problems with the project – which is expected to absorb R2.7bn in pre-production capital – uncertainty over its mining licence regulations is a concern, said Richard Stewart, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater.“Burnstone will require renewal,” said Stewart at Sibanye-Stillwater’s capital markets presentation in Johannesburg today. “There are a lot of rumours around what might come out in terms of renewals of new mining licences.“Historically, Burnstone has been an empowered asset. So in terms of the numbers and the valuations that is the way we continue to look at it,” he said.The South African government gazetted the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Bill in May last year which seeks to amend the MPRDA of 2002 in certain key respects. Critically, the Bill does not contain express transitional provisions recognising previous empowerment transactions for purposes of empowerment compliance.Stewart said that Burnstone had “a long build time” so commiting to its development over five to six years required regulatory uncertainty.“I think this is a good example of something which we’ve still got to go to our board for capital approval, and an uncertainty like what’s going to happen with mining regulations does come into discussions around project capital like this,” he said.“When we’re asked about examples of where regulatory certainty matters, in terms of driving growth in South Africa, here’s a project that’s going to employ 3,000 people for 20 years. And that’s the kind of uncertainty that doesn’t help a conversation around this kind of commitment,” he added. The post Sibanye’s R2.7bn gold project may be stymied by MPRD appeared first on Miningmx.
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