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The Minerals and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act (MPRRA) became effective on 1 March 2010. This legislation may have a significant impact on employment, foreign investment and future exploration in the South African mining industry. This article reports on a critical analysis of the MPRRA prior to its implementation in order to identify aspects that may impact adversely on the South African mining industry and would require further research after the implementation of the MPRRA. Based on the findings, the authors recommend that the impact of the level of royalties levied as well as the mechanism to promote downstream beneficiation be researched to establish whether the legislators ought to reconsider these provisions in the light of their impact on the mining industry.

The chapter considers the significance of the oil and gas industry for the Russian economy. The authors analyze the current state of the oil and gas industry, their specific weight in the structure of Russian GDP, and tax revenues from this industry to the Russian budget that was estimated. We give scenario analysis that considers the problems that the Russian economy may face because of the sanctions, the price fluctuations at the commodity market, and the crisis phenomena in the world economy. The chapter points out that localization of technology production and development of technologies for offshore oil and gas production in the Arctic zone may become an incentive to further ensure import substitution for Russia. At present, the experience of Arctic defense enterprises in the production of equipment for oil and gas production and processing is becoming increasingly popular. The chapter elaborates the most significant examples of the creation of new industries in the Arctic zone, the prospects of seismic exploration on the Arctic shelf, and that localization of production capacities and service bases will allow obtaining a multiplicative incentive for a qualitatively new industrial and infrastructure development of the northern territories. Also, we provide an assessment of the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, which makes economically attractive use of natural gas on a regional level as LNG opens the way to fuel high-power needs and to long-distance transport.