Mintails operations suspended
Mogale City Local Municipality is pleased with the suspension of Mintails' mining operations.
The Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Koketso Calvin Seerane, is pleased with the swift action taken by Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu to suspend Mintails’ operations summarily after a preliminary investigation had found flaws in the mining company’s business practices.
Seerane says in a media statement that the municipality feels vindicated by the process behind which it had thrown its full weight.
“We always have maintained that the Department of Mineral Resources is the competent authority to delve into the issues that sparked mining-related protests in Kagiso Extension 1. Therefore our own patience and for which we always had appealed, is now paying off.
“The municipality raised the community’s concerns with the Minister of Mineral Resources knowing fully well that there will be decisive action taken should Mintails’ business activities be found wanting.”
The Minister since has appointed an independent team of technical experts to investigate Mintails and they found several infringements, amongst which are the following:
• There were no warning signs around the pit area to prevent unauthorised access.
• Mining operations are taking place despite a major power line being 100 metres of the high wall of the eastern side of the pit.
• The approved Social and Labour Plan, with emphasis on human resource development and local economic development, has not been implemented.
• The environmental impact of opencast mining in close proximity to residential areas, and more particularly the public safety risks associated with tremors, percussion and fly rock resulting from site-specific actions and activities are not provided for in the approved Environmental Management Programme.
The outcomes of this preliminary investigation will be submitted to this independent technical team that also will be conducting an assessment, which the Ministry says will be concluded in due course.
“We will wait for the technical team to finalise their work so that we can bring this matter to finality. We cannot thank Minister Shabangu enough for her swift and decisive action,” says Seerane.
