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Dosman Mangisi Mining Correspondent
THE government has forfeited about 600 mining claims of base metal minerals in the Midlands province in terms of the Mines and Minerals Act (Chapter 21:05).

According to a forfeiture notice No.1 of 2015 signed by the acting provincial mining director in the Midlands, a K Mlangeni, the concerned mining locations “have on this 10th day of September 2015 been forfeited in terms of section 260 of Mines and Minerals Act (Chapter 21:05) and will subject to provisions of section 31 and 35 of the said Act open to relocation on 15 October 2015 unless revoked on or before 1st day of October 2015”.

The forfeited base metal mineral claims range from chrome ore (391), copper (109), nickel (50), quartz (19), platinum (13), emeralds (6), iron (5) and other base minerals, which include talc, marble, antimony, sheelite, redoxide, zinc, silica, vermiculite, ileminite, kaolin and limestone, reads the notice.

Section 260 of Mines and Minerals Act provides for forfeiture of claims on “failure to obtain inspection certificate for block, failure to obtain an inspection certificate within the period prescribed, therefore shall unless a protection certificate has been obtained under section 217 in respect of such block, render liable to forfeiture the block in respect of which such failure has taken place”.

A majority of forfeited mineral claims were owned by small scale miners who were holding them for a number of “speculative” reasons.

It is understood most owners held the claims in anticipation of selling them to Chinese investors interested in base metal minerals.

The ban on raw chrome ore exports in April 2011, for instance, resulted in many claim owners running out of cash and subsequently failing to pay for claim inspections.