A new draft of South Africa's controversial mining royalties bill will be released to the public after it is approved by the cabinet on June 28th.

According to Reuters, chief government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe told waiting reporters: "The processing of that bill has been completed by national treasury, which means that it will go to the cabinet committees next week and then to cabinet the week after."

He added that cabinet agreement over the document, which has been the subject of years of negotiation, "shouldn't be a major problem".

The announcement follows the recent comments by finance minister Trevor Manuel, who said that official word on the revamped bill would come "very soon".

Opposition to the bill has come from the mining sector, which argues that the royalties should be charged in relation to profits, rather than sales.

In the original proposals, it was suggested that a rate of 4.0 per cent should be levied for the mining of platinum.

South Africa is the world's biggest producer of platinum.

Ÿ Adfero Ltd