A new draconian mining industry Bill, which threatens jobs and investment – and can even impose a penalty of 10% of turnover on a mine company, along with corporate manslaughter charges – must be “very, very strenuously opposed", top South African mining industry lawyer Willem Le Roux urged on Thursday. The long-serving and highly experienced Le Roux – who is the author of the authoritative loose-leaf Mine Health and Safety Law published by LexisNexis – has an illustrious career which dates back to the industry-changing Leon Commission of Inquiry into mine health and safety of 1994/5, when he served as lead lawyer for what is today Minerals Council South Africa.