The Minerals Council South Africa had offered to contribute to a new system in March after estimating some R20 billion worth of projects were stalled in a backlog, despite president Cyril Ramaphosa's October promise to halve licensing timeframes.
"As of March 2021, we have set six months to ensure that a new, modern system is put in place," Mantashe told parliament yesterday as he delivered the department's 2021 budget.
"The system seeks to ensure provision of reliable and precise information on the location of exploration and mining rights.
"In addition the system will be transparent and easily accessible to investors and the public."
He said there were also plans being made to make it easier to do business in South Africa, which ranks poorly in investment risk surveys and was "slowly recovering from the ravages of COVID-19".
Mantashe said the South African economy had experienced its worst economic recession in 2020 and mining had contributed to the negative growth, however it was stabilising thanks in part to interventions developed during the nationwide lockdown last year.
He noted the mining sector had registered a 21.3% year-on-year growth in March 2021.
"This performance is a confirmation that mining remains the bedrock of our economy and that our interventions are yielding great results in the economic reconstruction and recovery journey," he said.
Mantashe reiterated an exploration strategy was being developed to boost the country's share of the global expenditure within the next three to five years.
He also outlined measures to address the country's power supply issues and "noted with delight" the mining industry's steps towards self-generation.
Fatalities increase
Mantashe also officially confirmed South Africa's number of mining fatalities had increased in 2020 from the record low of 51 in 2019.
He said there had been 60 mining fatalities in 2020, with fall-of-ground among the main causes.
"What we should remember is that our objective is not a record but zero harm in the mining industry," he said.
However he referred to an improvement in injury statistics, down from 2,452 in 2019 to 1,747 in 2020.
