South Africa’s ‘historic dumps’ – mine dumps created prior to the promulgation of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) which took effect in 2004 – do not appear to be regulated under the MPRDA, and the common law owners of such dumps do not require a right under the MPRDA to process them, Herbert Smith Freehills Patrick Leyden and Aobakwe Mametse state in an oped written for Mining Weekly. They point out that the MPRDA failed to incorporate historic dumps, and an attempt by the Department of Mineral Resources to bring historic dumps within the ambit of the MPRDA in 2008 was unsuccessful.
