Ntsiki Adonisi

Ntsiki Adonisi is an Executive and Head of ENS's Natural Resources and Environment practice. Her practice focuses on Mining Law, specialising in all aspects of mining law.

She has a holistic perspective on mining matters due to her former position as general counsel for a leading mining group, where she was responsible for the group's entire legal function and related corporate affairs functions. Ntsiki acts for a wide range of mining companies in all mineral commodity sectors, including the base and precious metals, coal, rare earths, sand and diamonds sectors.

Her experience covers a broad range of areas, including mergers and acquisitions; conducting mining and oil and gas due diligences; execution and registration of mining and petroleum titles; advising on the integrity, security of tenure and variation of mining titles; and structuring, drafting, negotiating and reviewing various types of agreements, from project inception to execution. She has experience in disputes in the mining and petroleum sectors, including judicial review of administrative decisions. She also advises on aspects of mineral royalties, environmental aspects of mining law, and stakeholder aspects in the mining sector.

Ntsiki is an expert in all aspects of local development, including local content regulations, community development, local economic empowerment and black economic empowerment in the mining sector across the African continent, in accordance with The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (MPRDA) and the Broad-Based Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter for the Mining and Minerals Industry (Mining Charter).

She holds a BA, LLB and LLM from the University of the Witwatersrand, along with numerous postgraduate certificates including in Prospecting and Mining Law, Mining Tax Law and Advanced Company Law I and II. She is admitted as an attorney, conveyancer and notary public of the High Court of South Africa.

She is recognised by Chambers Global Guide for Energy & Natural Resources: Mining in South Africa, by The Legal 500 EMEA as a Leading Partner for Mining in South Africa, and by IFLR1000 as a Notable Practitioner for Project Development. She was part of the team awarded Energy & Natural Resources Team of the Year at the 2021 African Legal Awards.