The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has enforced its freeze on new mining right or prospecting right applications a day before the closing date for comments on the proposal and a day before an urgent court interdict was to be heard, the Chamber of Mines said on Thursday.

Asked to comment on Thursday, a DMR spokesperson could not immediately confirm or deny the enforcement and asked to view the full statement by the Chamber of Mines before commenting.

The Chamber of Mines said in a statement on Thursday that it was informed that the DMR “instructed all its regional offices to stop processing any section 11, new mining right or prospecting right applications submitted by mining companies after July 19 2017.

“In essence, the DMR is implementing the DMR Minister’s proposed moratorium on new applications in terms of section 49 of the MPRDA (Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act) despite the closing date for comments on the proposal only being on 4 August 2017.

“This moratorium will effectively freeze investment, prevent many companies from restructuring and may lead to even more job losses in the sector.

“It flies in the face of the calls by the industry’s trade unions for the moratorium proposal to be withdrawn and in terms of the chamber’s urgent court interdict application to have the notice and proposed moratorium stopped from being implemented and thereafter reviewed and set-aside.”

The chamber called on Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane to “withdraw the notice and not apply any moratorium”.

The chamber’s urgent interdict application to prohibit Zwane from implementing the moratorium will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Friday.