The South African government is steeling itself for a battle with platinum and gold miners in the country over its new precious metals legislation.

According to Reuters, miners across the country are opposing new rules which are designed to boost the local processing of precious metals.

Mining companies are claiming that the legislation will merely succeed in increasing the bureaucracy surrounding the mining industry and will in fact have very little effect on the promotion of more local processing.

In a written statement to the South African parliament, mining giant Anglo American claimed that it considers the Precious Metals Bill to be "unnecessarily restrictive".

The company explained that the new law "may disrupt markets that have been set up for the disposal of refined precious metals, especially bearing in mind that a major portion of gold and platinum refined in South Africa is not intended for jewellery making process".

Mining companies had hoped that the Bill would go some way to reducing the regulatory burdens placed on them, after the September draft had proposed to cut the red tape in the precious metals industry.

An excessive regulatory framework has been blamed by mining companies for South Africa's precious metals market falling from 21 per cent of the country's gross domestic product during the 1980s to 17 per cent today.


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