The Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources (the Committee) decided to undertake a study tour to Chile and Bolivia because these are two countries with a long history of state involvement in mine ownership. The Committee therefore thought that South Africa could learn a lot from them on consolidation of their shares in the mining industry and be able to conduct an information gathering pertaining to the establishment, operations and disbursement of revenue from the State Owned Mining Companies and relate it to the South African context in order to make sound recommendations to the National Assembly on these matters.