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Pretoria - Only 6.3% of South African mining rights holders comply with all the requirements of the controversial Mining Charter.
This was one of the findings of the final report on mining companies' compliance with the Mining Charter in the past ten years.
The report was submitted to the task team on growth, development and employment in the mining industry (Migdett) in Pretoria on Thursday.
"The Department of Mineral Resources has therefore started to send notices to mining companies which do not comply with the Mining Charter's requirements," Adv. Ngoako Ramatlhodi, Mineral Resources Minister, said during a press conference in Pretoria.
Ramatlhodi is the president of Migdett, which consists of the Chamber of Mines, the South African Mining Development room (Samda) and trade unions in the mining industry - NUM, Amcu, Uasa and Solidarity.
"If companies refuse to comply with the requirements, the department may withdraw their mining rights," Ramatlodi said.
The Mining Charter, aimed at transformation in the mining industry, first became effective in 2004 and was amended in 2010.
"The Mining Charter will be amended this year, based on the lessons we have learned and the long term social economic objectives," said Ramatlodi.
The report shows for example, that only 45% of the mining rights holders managed to improve the living conditions of their hostels and implementing conversions so that there is only one resident per room, or by converting rooms into family units.
"Although the industry’s black economic empowerment target of 40% was exceeded by 2014, the industry is still dominated by white men in certain management positions," said the minister.
The minister on Thursday again expressed concern about the rate of retrenchments in the local mining industry taking place.
This is partly after platinum producer, Lonmin [JSE:LON], announced that it was considering 3 500 job cuts over the next few years.
