DMRE announces preferred mining cadastre provider – the main partner is first class

And the winning bidder to replace the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE's) useless Samrad system for mining applications is ... the PMG Consortium. 

“PMG Consortium is a conglomeration of three companies, namely Pacific GeoTech Systems, MITS Institute and Gemini GIS and Environmental Services,” the DMRE announced on Wednesday, 31 January. 

Pacific GeoTech Systems is the partner with the most relevant experience in delivering online resource management systems. The Canadian-based company has more than two decades’ experience in several Canadian provinces, and mapping is among its services.

It is part of the Esri stable, which is behind ArcGIS – a globally recognised software system for geographic information. 

In short, there are no red flags on that front. 

The other two are both South African tech companies and presumably at least one brings the BEE credentials to the consortium. 

The consortium will have a titanic task putting together a proper cadastre for South Africa from the shambles of Samrad and the DMRE’s regional offices. 

But it is a welcome step in the right direction.

The lack of a transparent cadastre and applications system is seen as the key reason behind a mounting backlog of applications for mining and exploration activities of various stripes.

Three years ago, the Minerals Council SA estimated this bottleneck was holding up a pipeline of projects worth about R20-billion.

The issue was again thrown into sharp relief when Daily Maverick reported in mid-January that, as of December 2023, more than 2,500 mining applications had been received in the financial year to date, and that not a single one had been finalised. This was according to a response to parliamentary questions by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.

Read more in Daily Maverick: EXCLUSIVE — Mantashe reigns as the minister of no new mining as DMRE lacks admin capacity

A few days later, Mantashe contradicted what he had told Parliament – and what DMRE officials had said in response to our reporting – underscoring the need for a transparent system.

A functional mining cadastral system is an online portal that displays a country’s mineral and other forms of natural wealth in a way that is accessible to the public. It can serve the dual function of showing the state of play of mining activities while allowing companies armed with this knowledge to apply for various kinds of exploration or mining rights.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Explainer: A mining cadastre and public transparency

The DMRE, after years of foot-dragging, seems to have finally taken the plunge into transparency.

And it will allow Mantashe to tell the Mining Indaba in Cape Town next week that he has finally delivered. DM