Re: Mining in or Close to Protected Areas
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 1:13 pm
Element Africa: Keeping platinum in the ground, and minors out of mines
by Mongabay.com on 4 November 2022
South Africa approves platinum mine despite community concerns
GA-NGWEPE, South Africa — South Africa’s minister of mineral resources and energy has approved a platinum mine in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, underneath the homes of about 500 rural people in Ga-Ngwepe, Limpopo province. On Oct. 13, Minister Gwede Mantashe rejected an appeal by the farming community of Early Dawn against the granting of a mining licence to Waterberg JV Resources (Pty) Ltd in 2018.
“What is so sad is that the majority of people who will be dispossessed are mainly women and children. We are literally on our own,” community leader Mamedi Ngoepe told Mongabay.
The minister also turned down the community’s appeal on the grounds that they did not adequately demonstrate their right to the land. He referred to a 26% share of the mine allocated to historically disadvantaged South Africans as fair compensation for the loss of their current way of life. However, this share in the platinum mining venture has not been allocated to the community, but to a tiny company owned by the vice president of Waterberg’s majority owner, Canada-based Platinum Group Minerals.
Ngoepe said he found it hard to believe that mining could be permitted anywhere in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, a 460,000-hectare (1.14-million-acre) expanse of forest, grassland and savanna that includes parts of Kruger National Park, the Thathe Vondo sacred forest, and the World Heritage Site at the ancient kingdom of Mapungubwe.
The biosphere holds hundreds of different species of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals. Vhembe and its buffer zones are also home to more than 1.5 million people, many of them farmers like the residents of Early Dawn.
The community, which has lived here since the 1940s, is now looking for lawyers to file a legal challenge to Waterberg’s license, on the basis that underground blasting will damage their homes and force them to leave their land and homes.
Mapungubwe baobab landscape. The Vhembe Biosphere Reserve is an expanse of forest, grassland and savanna that includes parts of Kruger National Park, the Thathe Vondo sacred forest, and the World Heritage Site at Mapungubwe as well as major towns and farming communities like Early Dawn. Image by Martin Heigan via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Waterberg JV Resources’ compliance with environmental regulations at the site so far is poor: soon after it got its exploration license, it was found to be operating without a water use license, according to a government investigation. It was also found to be mining sand and drilling boreholes, which the community says caused their own water supply to run dry.
The mining consortium has still not secured a water use license, and the community plans to oppose its application for that as well.
Neither Platinum Group Metals nor DMRE spokespeople replied to questions sent by Mongabay.
by Mongabay.com on 4 November 2022
- South Africa’s minister of mines has approved a platinum mine in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve despite objections from a farming community of 500 whose homes sit atop the deposits.
- The end of a government-funded program to incentivize parents in the Democratic Republic of Congo to keep their children in school has seen more than 250 return to working in cobalt mines.
- It’s a different story in Kenya’s Makueni county, where strong local regulations are keeping minors, and criminal elements, out of the sand mining industry.
- Element Africa is Mongabay’s bi-weekly bulletin rounding up brief stories from the commodities industry in Africa.
South Africa approves platinum mine despite community concerns
GA-NGWEPE, South Africa — South Africa’s minister of mineral resources and energy has approved a platinum mine in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, underneath the homes of about 500 rural people in Ga-Ngwepe, Limpopo province. On Oct. 13, Minister Gwede Mantashe rejected an appeal by the farming community of Early Dawn against the granting of a mining licence to Waterberg JV Resources (Pty) Ltd in 2018.
“What is so sad is that the majority of people who will be dispossessed are mainly women and children. We are literally on our own,” community leader Mamedi Ngoepe told Mongabay.
The minister also turned down the community’s appeal on the grounds that they did not adequately demonstrate their right to the land. He referred to a 26% share of the mine allocated to historically disadvantaged South Africans as fair compensation for the loss of their current way of life. However, this share in the platinum mining venture has not been allocated to the community, but to a tiny company owned by the vice president of Waterberg’s majority owner, Canada-based Platinum Group Minerals.
Ngoepe said he found it hard to believe that mining could be permitted anywhere in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, a 460,000-hectare (1.14-million-acre) expanse of forest, grassland and savanna that includes parts of Kruger National Park, the Thathe Vondo sacred forest, and the World Heritage Site at the ancient kingdom of Mapungubwe.
The biosphere holds hundreds of different species of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals. Vhembe and its buffer zones are also home to more than 1.5 million people, many of them farmers like the residents of Early Dawn.
The community, which has lived here since the 1940s, is now looking for lawyers to file a legal challenge to Waterberg’s license, on the basis that underground blasting will damage their homes and force them to leave their land and homes.
Mapungubwe baobab landscape. The Vhembe Biosphere Reserve is an expanse of forest, grassland and savanna that includes parts of Kruger National Park, the Thathe Vondo sacred forest, and the World Heritage Site at Mapungubwe as well as major towns and farming communities like Early Dawn. Image by Martin Heigan via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Waterberg JV Resources’ compliance with environmental regulations at the site so far is poor: soon after it got its exploration license, it was found to be operating without a water use license, according to a government investigation. It was also found to be mining sand and drilling boreholes, which the community says caused their own water supply to run dry.
The mining consortium has still not secured a water use license, and the community plans to oppose its application for that as well.
Neither Platinum Group Metals nor DMRE spokespeople replied to questions sent by Mongabay.