Thank you very much, Chairperson. The NEMA will be applicable to all operations affecting the environment, including those winning minerals from dumps. This would be in the same vein as it would be for all prospecting and mining rights.
The department also has a major duty of collecting mineral production and sales statistics for the calculations used in economic indices such as the CPIX, GDP and the others. If, therefore, for any reason it happens that the DME cannot account for any minerals produced and sold from the mines in this country, the world will regard our indices with disdain and as having no integrity, because there could be no integrity attributed to our numbers. How can we even think of doing that when there is the Kimberly process certification that we initiated ourselves? So it is important that we should be allowed to regulate this area also. Thank you very much. [Applause.]