Johannesburg - Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane helped save 3 000 jobs following his decision to approve Lonmin’s application to acquire Anglo American Platinum’s (Amplats) 42.5 percent stake in Pandora, a joint venture between Lonmin and Amplats, he said on Wednesday.
“Lonmin came and presented its case to us, and one of our primary considerations when assessing their application was how we were best going to prevent retrenchments at the mine,” Zwane said.
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“The granting of the consent is further subject to Lonmin presenting a plan to the Department of Mineral Resources within five days, on how it will address its empowerment compliance, as we cannot afford a situation where transformation is compromised,” he added.
Zwane also defended his decision for a moratorium on granting of new mining rights saying the Department of Mineral Resources was a reasonable regulator, and applied laws consistently to all right-holders.