Article by Sheree Bega One of the three plants designed to treat polluted water from old underground mines in the Witwatersrand’s three mining basins is still not up and running, five months after operations ground to a halt. Read the full article here.
Rate of ‘catastrophic’ mining waste failures rising across the planet | Mail & Guardian
Article by Sheree Bega | 15 June 2022 Police reservist Brian Emmenis was watching Dallas with his wife on the evening of 22 February 1994 when the phone rang. It was his colleague, Captain Ben van Wyk, who told Emmenis to grab his emergency kit because a dam had broken… Read full article here.
Acid mine water continues to rise underground on the East Rand | Mail & Guardian
Article by Sheree Bega “The rising levels of underground acid mine water on the East Rand have breached the environmental critical level (ECL) but there are “no worries” about it discharging on the surface for the moment, according to the state-owned entity in charge of its management and control…” Read the full article here.
Mine waste leaves toxic legacies in South Africa
– And International Launch of Tailings Report Tailings dams in South Africa pose serious risks to communities and ecosystems The Mine Tailings Working Group of South Africa, a partnership of civil society groups including the Bench Marks Foundation, Federation for Sustainable Environment (FSE)and IANRA invite you to a hybrid seminar that will take place at the […]
Certainty over closure needed | Mining Weekly
Environmental organisation the Federation for a Sustainable Environment CEO Mariette Liefferink stresses that the organisation has identified and engaged with government to address loopholes in the current closure requirements of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), which will be affected by the final National Mine Closure Strategy draft… Read the full article here or download it below.
Organisation stresses need for long-term AMD solution | Mining Weekly
FSE CEO Mariette Liefferink says failure to implement such a solution may lead to an increase of the salt load in the Vaal river, which can be mitigated only by releases from the Vaal dam as a means of diluting this load… Read the full article here or download it below.
Deep concern over rising underground tide of toxic acidic mine water on East Rand | Mail & Guardian
Article by Sheree Bega All three deep-level abstraction pumps at the government’s R1 billion Eastern basin acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment plant in Springs on Gauteng’s East Rand are no longer operational, leaving a tide of toxic mine water rising significantly underground… Continue reading the article here.
Carte Blanche: Acid Water Alert
Corruption and fraud sends South Africans down the drain | Mail & Guardian
Article by Angus Begg “Corruption and fraud in the Department of Water and Sanitation, and the collapse of local governance mean taps in many towns and villages have either run dry or have undrinkable water. A month ago we found a frog in the water truck sent to supply us with water,” says Graaff-Reinet farmer Sias Smith, […]
Environment minister in crosshairs over proposed amendment to environmental regulations | Mail & Guardian
Article written by Sheree Bega | 9 February 2022 “Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has gazetted a proposed amendment to environmental regulations that make it mandatory for any person who wants to submit environmental appeals to appoint a registered environmental assessment practitioner (EAP) to conduct the appeal. This proposal, made on New Year’s Eve, has sparked deep […]