Concern over new mine

LEPHALALE - A public participation meeting held last Wednesday to discuss the planned Grootehoek mine evoked strong emotions from the community.
The meeting was convened by Cabanga, an independent environmental company, who was tasked to conduct the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the mining license and water rights application on behalf of Grootehoek.
According to Ian Trotski from Cabanga, the mine will be an open cast excavation with administration blocks, a sewage treatment plant, a wash plant and slurry dams, an explosives magazine and a hydrocarbon storage area. A railway line will be built for transportation of products and coal.
Trotski says that the first cut will be on the northern side of Grootehoek farm, which will see mining activities reach the area closest to Onverwacht only in about 20 years’ time. The first cut on Eendracht farm will be on the southern side with administration blocks and a slurry dam to be erected on the northern side.
While some residents hope a new mine will provide employment, others fear there are many socio-economic and environmental aspects that need to be taken into consideration. These include:
- House prices are astronomical in Lephalale with a two bedroom flat’s rent being R6000-R10 000 a month. An administrative person earns about R5 000, making it impossible for many people to afford accommodation. The influx of workers will see house prices will increase further.
- The Medupi strike earlier this year was riddled with violent attacks on busses and non-striking members necessitated additional police units to be called in from neighbouring stations. With a mine situated so close to Onverwacht, it is cause for concern.
- The access road from town to Medupi and Exxaro is a concern. Says Tienie Loots, who worked as a manager at the Lephalale municipality for 30 years, the roads leading to Grootehoek mine were not built to deal with heavy vehicles. “Plans to build an access road to divert traffic to Medupi and Exxaro will have to be canceled since the new mine will be built directly on the proposed site for the road.”
- Loots also says that there are about 400 residential and business units built about 4m from the border fence. “Not one of those buildings has foundations that are strong enough to withstand shock waves from blasting. Some of these buildings include the TVET college, Lephalale primary and the provincial state hospital.”
- A new mine would not necessarily mean that more local people will be employed. Specialised skills are needed for mining and with almost a quarter of Lephalale’s residents only having a basic level of education, it would mean that contractors will probably be brought in from other areas.
- It is unclear whether the mine will take responsibility for damage to structures because of blasting outside the mine site itself. Astrid Basson, DA councilor for Lephalale, says: “It is worrying that the mine refers to all the safety precautions that will be taken on site and completely leaves out the radius of nearby areas that will be affected. We want to know if the mine will take responsibility for damage to the other areas?”
- Trotski says they will have to conduct studies to establish where the water supply for the mine will come from. “We might have to rely on underground water,” he says.
However, Loots says that this proposal is ridiculous. “I had to drop my borehole from 30m to 200m because of the reduction in underground water. There is no way the mine will be able to sustain its activities using only underground water.”
Trotski says that legislation was changed in 2004 by the department of mineral resources stating that people with old rights can convert to new rights for a limited period of seven years. The company decided that it has this reserve available and will apply before their time elapses. They don’t have rights to mine in other areas.