* Govt to review state owned mining assets
* Move may lead to formation of state mining firm
By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, Aug 13 (Reuters) - South Africa's cabinet agreed a suspension of the disposal of mining assets held by state entities, a move that may lead to the creation of a state mining company, government spokesman Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
Maseko said at a post-cabinet briefing that the moratorium was intended to provide the minister of mineral resources adequate time to conduct and finalise an audit of mining interests held directly or indirectly by the state.
"This audit will enable the state to decide whether to consolidate, retain or dispose of such interests," he said.
"Any exceptions to this moratorium will require discussions with the minister of mineral resources and final approval from cabinet before finalisation."
Maseko said it was too early to suggest the moratorium would lead to the establishment of a national mining company, an idea mulled by the ruling ANC but criticised by mining analysts as unworkable.
"At this particular time there is no decision to set up a state mining company, however the review may actually lead government to set one up," Maseko said.
He said a lot of state mineral assets were owned without being registered on a central data base.
According to the 2008 annual report of the government-owned Central Energy Fund group, one of its subsidiaries was the African Exploration Mining and Finance Corp Ltd, whose mandate was to acquire and hold all exploration and mineral rights on behalf of the state while engaging in mining.
It was awarded prospecting rights at three sites, mainly for coal but also torbanite.
The company was also in talks with Botswana to explore for coal in an area with in-situ reserves estimated at 30 billion tonnes, as well as coal bed methane and uranium resources.
African Exploration Mining Corp was also looking at joint ventures in Zambia and Zimbabwe, to allow it to diversify its portfolio away from coal resources and "therefore spread to other commodities," said the report.
South Africa's cash-flush Industrial Development Corp (IDC) also owned a mining subsidiary, Foskor, which last year grew its profit before tax by 520 million rand ($65.20 million) to just over 1 billion rand in 2007/08 and mentioned the possibility of a public offering in 2009.
"We are trying to consolidate and get all the information with a view to take decisions about what is the best way of marketing these assets," Maseko said. (Editing by James Macharia and Peter Blackburn)