Illegal mining sparks ire of Kagiso residents

RESIDENTS of Kagiso in the West Rand are up in arms over illegal mining operations in their area, which they blame for toxic environmental pollution and the rise in crime levels perpetrated by the so-called zama-zamas, as evinced by the alleged rape of eight women in October 2022.

The rape charges against all 14 illegal miners were, however, subsequently dropped by the Krugersdorp Magistrate Court.

This coming week (commencing on Sunday, 21 July) the community will march to the local municipality offices to demand action against the open cast mines and the resulting zama-zama operations.

But the companies at the heart of these mining activities are rogue elements who flout non-compliance regulations and seem to get away with breaking every rule in the book, often aided and abetted by officials who should know better.

A company called Mintails, which has since been liquidated, operated unlawfully in the area from 2012 to 2018, according to a report by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mining.

In its wake, Mintails left the following debris:

• An unfunded environmental liability of R460 million;

• Toxic and radioactive dams, such as Lancaster Dam and Tudor Dam, which were listed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and the National Nuclear Regulator in its 2009 Report, titled “Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area: Remediation Action Plan” as two of the 36 radioactive hotspots within the Wonderfonteinspruit and where rehabilitation was considered to be “most urgent”;

• Partially reclaimed Tailings Storage Facilities without fences and access control; stormwater management measures; dust control measures, erosion control; functioning toe paddocks and berms, which resulted in the collapse of the slopes of two of its Tailings Storage Facilities;

• Clusters of open pits;

• Unrehabilitated footprints of partially reclaimed Tailings Storage facilities with residual radioactive and toxic metals;

• Wetlands contaminated with metals and acid mine drainage as a result of pipeline spillages.

Soon thereafter, two senior managers and directors at Mintails, Eddie Milne, who was Chief Executive Officer and Izak van Zyl, Chief Financial Officer, left to found their own mining company, Amatshe.

Amatshe has continued the rot that festered under Mintails.

Sunday Mabaso, the former Regional Manager of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy under whose management Mintails was allowed to operate illegally, runs his own consultancy company Vahlengwe Mining Advisory and Consulting, which consults with Amatshe Mining.

Mabaso allowed Mintails to operate for six years, despite the fact that the department had never approved the environmental management plans of the mine and had never issued the company with a mining right under the law.

Compliance with the mining law did not improve with Amatshe. The company has been operating without a water use license, among many other violations.

It is only now – in June 2024 – that Mabaso, through his consultancy, had helped Amatshe apply for the requisite compliance licenses.

In a presentation Mabaso made on 4 June, 2024, he said that: “Officials from the Department of Water and Sanitation conducted a site visit to assess ongoing activities and provide guidance regarding the Water Use License application on 8 May 2024.”

He added: “Amatshe Mining (Pty) Ltd has applied for a Waste Management License for reclamation of tailing residues, processing of the waste rock and decommissioning of the waste facilities.”

Tailings are residue that follows the extraction of valuable material from metal ore processing.

Responsible mining companies know well to erect Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs), which are engineered structures designed to contain the residue and to manage associated water.

TSFs are among the largest dams and structures in the world, and will stand in perpetuity, one expert says.

Amatshe owns no such facilities in the areas they mine.

This expert advice includes the following:

• A catastrophic release of a large amount of tailings could lead to long-term environmental damage with huge clean-up costs.

• To manage mining facilities responsibly, the TSF owner must understand the physical and chemical risks associated with the TSF and implement controls to reduce risks relating to potential health, safety, environmental, societal, business, and economic impacts in line with regulations.

• If poorly designed, constructed or managed, tailings storage facilities represent a significant risk to local communities and ecosystems, especially in downstream environments.

These are among the environmental risks the community of Kagiso is facing, while Amatshe and Mabaso are playing games.

Contacted for comment, Mabaso told this reporter: “Responding to these questions would seem to me that you are on a fishing expedition without any bait and depending on my responses I would then become the bait!”

The Mogale City Municipality, in whose jurisdiction the land Amatshe mines falls in, did not bother to respond to questions and pleas for comment.

In the meantime, Amatshe continues to open pits in the area – not bothering to close them, opening paths for illegal miners to operate.

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE), so far are the lone voice against these illegal mining operations, and had notified the regulators for years of Mintails’ environmental non-compliances and had extensively whistle-blown the environmental risks to the national and international news media, the relevant Parliamentary Portfolio Committees, the Office of the Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission.

In addition, the FSE conducted hundreds of site visits of the polluted and ecologically degraded areas with mining affected communities, the regulators, NGOs, academics including the UN Special Rapporteur and other special interest groups.

Thanks to its activism, the FSE had pushed the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee to urge that:

• The DMR must identify clearly and specifically the gaps between mining, insolvency and company law that have led to this ongoing situation, where the polluter does not pay, it is the state that ends up paying.

• DMR should get specific legal opinion on these complex issues.

• The DMR must report to the Committee in Parliament on what it will do (or needs to do) differently in future to ensure that this situation does not continue.

• DMR must report on what efforts they have made to hold directors and shareholders of these companies liable for the environmental debts of these failed ventures.

• The DMR must actively ensure that the licensing of mines goes with responsibility and accountability.

But to no avail.

“None of the above-mentioned recommendations, according to the FSE’s understanding, have been implemented.”

The DMR did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

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