South Africa Wants Black Ownership of Mines Maintained at 26%

South African Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said mining companies should maintain 26 percent black ownership of their assets in the country or risk losing their operating licenses.

The nation, which has the world’s biggest reserves of platinum, chrome ore and manganese, enacted a Mining Charter in 2004, compelling operators to sell 26 percent of their local assets to black South Africans by the end of this year as a way to compensate for discrimination during apartheid rule, which ended in 1994. A number of investors that acquired the so-called empowerment stakes at discounts subsequently sold them, diluting the companies’ black shareholding.