The time has come for mining companies to have a dedicated permit team to ensure optimal project success in the current challenging mining environment, De Beers external and corporate affairs executive head Sakhile Ngcobo said last week.

Speaking at Resourceful Events’ Streamlining Mining Permit Approvals Africa conference, in Sandton, he stated that the challenges facing the mining industry, and the permitting space, in particular, included concerns relating to social and labour plans, safety stoppages, union activism, regulatory compliance and transformation in mining.

“These are complex issues that need a better understanding and we have to be more proactive in understanding the issues, the requirements, who the stake- holders are and how government views the mining company and the operation,” said Ngcobo, who is also a South African Dia-monds and Precious Metals Regulator nonexecutive board member.

He emphasised the need for a better understanding and a better management strategy relating to permitting, pointing out that most mining project delays could be attributed to permitting issues.

“In some areas in Africa, there are up to 1 000 permits that a mining project has to comply with, and often various permits are handled by different departments in companies. But these have to be pulled together,” he said.

Ngcobo further outlined a suggested strategy that companies could follow to deal effectively with the issue of permits.

In oder to create a proper mining permit system, he said, companies firstly had to form a multistakeholder forum to deal with the company’s permit requirements.

Further, the roles with regard to permit management had to be clearly defined on a mining level and a corporate level.

After this was done, a company should conduct a baseline study of all permits required, through which the company should seek to “fully understand what each permit asks and means”.

Once this was done, a gap analysis should be conducted, after which a permitting stakeholder engagement strategy could be developed, he explained.