MINING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
The battle between mining company Exxaro and some of the inhabitants of the small, KwaZulu Natal north coast town of Mtunzini rumbles on.
The latest to enter the fray is the DA, whose environment spokesman, Radley Keys, says the party will challenge the decision by the KZN department of agriculture & environmental affairs to allow the mineral sand mining project to go ahead. The mining project was approved last month, setting the stage for further protests and objections.
Earlier the department sent a report back to Exxaro (operating through partly owned subsidiary Tronox KZN Sands) requesting more information (see Features April 13).
“There are several steps we must follow now, the first being to appeal to the department,” says Barbara Chedzey, chair of the Mtunzini Conservancy. “We have lodged our intention to appeal and have 30 days to lodge an appeal.”
Tronox Mineral Sands president Trevor Arran says he recognises the right of interested and affected parties to appeal but “Tronox KZN Sands remains confident that due legal and regulatory processes were followed in authorising the Fairbreeze mine”.
He points to a number of benefits he believes Tronox will bring to the region. The planned Fairbreeze mine will replace Exxaro’s Hillendale mining project, which comes to an end soon. The intention is to transfer the work force to the new mine. This move would save a number of jobs (see table).
Tronox says it also intends to make annual financial contributions to a trust to be set up to finance new offset areas and pay for rehabilitation.
“We are committed to the trust and at the end of the project want to return the land in a better condition, get it back to its natural vegetation.”
Arran says the amount to be contributed to the trust still has to be worked out with the department, but that it will be “a significant amount of money”.
The mining industry in SA has traditionally been an important source of employment. Though in recent years production has been under pressure and uneconomical shafts have been closed, it still creates and maintains a substantial number of jobs.
Against this is the ecological damage caused. Much depends on the area where the mining is taking place, and the mines do commit, and are required by law, to pay for rehabilitation. However, it’s a difficult and emotionally sensitive balance to maintain.
Objections from the Mtunzini Conservancy and Mtunzini Residents Association go beyond environmental damage. “We are trying to avoid ruin to our economy, our lives and livelihood,” says the body SOS (Save our Sands) Mtunzini.
It says much of the local economy depends on tourism, especially eco-tourism, with the town close to wetlands and game parks. This will be seriously affected when the mining starts.
One of the major objections, and the one Keys is going to tackle the department on, is why it allowed Tronox to perform a basic assessment report (BAR), “an abbreviated and far less accurate form of an environmental impact assessment. The department cannot be allowed to take this kind of short cut when there is so much at risk.”
The problem with a BAR is that it does not include scoping studies, one of the most accurate ways of determining the full effects of this type of mining.
But Arran says Exxaro and Tronox have been involved in several assessments of the project area, which included extensive scoping studies. “We have done these studies and proved it to the department. The department is not going to leave itself open to a legal challenge,” he says.
However Chedzey says it might come to that, depending on the outcome of the planned appeal by the Mtunzini Conservancy. If that’s not successful the high court will be considered.
