Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe says his Department will roll out the regularisation of illegal mining throughout the country if the two pilot projects in Kimberley in the Northern Cape and Tubatse in Limpopo are successful.
He says while illegal mining should not be condoned and should remain a criminal offence regularising it is one important option.
Mantashe was answering questions in the National Assembly.
In Kimberley, various miners who were classified as illegal miners have been given permits to mine some of the Diamond City’s old mine dumps.
“To try and address the question of illegal mining, we have also considered that we regularise illegal mining into small co-operatives. We have two experiments, one in Kimberley and one in the Tubatse Valley. We want to see how those works. If it works well, we will actually roll it out to all the other areas. But the solution is that small scale mining must be supported, must be licensed and actually produce and their product must go to the formal market of that particular mineral,” says Mantashe.
