Opposition to open cast coal mining in Midvaal

29 Oct 2024

For years residents have been objecting to the Springfield and Vlakfontein mining project.

Activists from the Vaal region protested outside the Department of Mineral Resources in Pretoria against Glubay’s proposed mine. Residents are concerned about water, soil and air pollution from the proposed mine. Photos: Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUp

Residents of communities near a proposed coal mining project in the Vaal region say they fear that their entire way of life could be destroyed if the mining project goes ahead.

The proposed project will be managed by Glubay Coal, an affiliate of Canyon Coal, which is owned by investment firm Menar. The Springfield and Vlakfontein mines will consist of open cast coal pits, with a rail siding for coal handling and transport. The project is expected to span over 2,500 hectares and will be located near Meyerton and Vereeniging in the Midvaal and Emfuleni municipal areas.

The mine is expected to produce about 600,000 tons of coal a month, over a life of around 30 years.

The suburb of Falcon Ridge (right) would be surrounded by the proposed mine which would operate on the nearby farmlands.

Coal mining in the area has taken on different forms since the late 1800s. At one stage, the Springfield colliery was supplying coal to the nearby Klip Power Station, at the time the largest steam power station in the southern hemisphere. The underground coal mine closed in 1953. Unrehabilitated mine dumps can still be seen.

Jennie Labuschagne, a resident of Rothdene who is a member of the Coal-ition Committee formed to oppose mining in Springfield and Vlakfontein, describes public participation meetings with representatives of the mine as “disastrous”. Labuschagne says residents’ questions were not adequately addressed. “They were vague and tried to sidestep questions, which I think made people more apprehensive,” she says.

The public participation meetings were conducted on behalf of the mining company by Zitholele Consulting.

Jennie Labuschagne is a resident of Rothdene, a suburb to the east of the proposed coal mine.

Yusuf Sather, a resident of Roshnee and also a member of Coal-ition, said communities had been fighting the mine since 2019 when it was first proposed. The project was shelved due to community opposition and the Covid pandemic, but was revived when Canyon Coal submitted an application to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in 2022.

Sather says Zitholele refused to hold a public participation meeting in Roshnee to discuss the draft environmental impact assessment report, citing “security issues and a fear of intimidation”.

“We offered to provide them with security and whatever else they needed but they declined our offer and chose not to hold the consultation,” says Sather.

On 6 August, Zitholele Consulting sent a letter to those who registered as Interested and Affected Parties informing them that the Final Environmental Impact Assessment Reports had been submitted to the department on 17 July 2024. The letter states that “In terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014 the DMRE must, within 107 days of receipt of the Final Environmental Impact Assessment Reports, either grant the Mining Right in respect of all, or part of the activities applied for; or refuse the Mining Right.

Sather said the department should seriously consider the fact that the proposed mine will be located in the middle of several decades-old communities.

“I don’t think it’s prudent to have a coal mine amongst built-up areas. There’s going to be massive air pollution, houses cracking with the constant blasting, increased noise pollution, the depletion of water resources and the risk of acid mine drainage. We know there are some economic benefits, but we feel the cons outweigh the pros,” he said.

Mduduzi Tshabalala from the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance uses water from a borehole for his plants.

Another concern is the Redan rock art site, which has hundreds of engravings thought to be hundreds of years old. Mining will take place within about 190m to the north, east and west of the site.

Rock art specialist Jeremy Hollmann noted in a report that, “Redan is the only remaining major rock art site in Gauteng. There were another six engraving sites in the Vereeniging area, but these have all been destroyed by construction and mining activities and the raising of the level of the Vaal River. Redan is therefore an important and exceptional heritage resource.”

Merely fencing it off as the mine intends to do is not enough to mitigate the risk to the site from blasting nearby and dust pollution, the Co-alition activists say.

About 65% of the land the proposed mine will occupy is being used for growing maize, soybeans and various vegetables, and the activists fear the loss of agricultural land will affect the workers employed on the farms. The estimated 500 new jobs at the mine would not make up for this and most mining jobs will probably be given to specialists from outside.

They also fear that mining could also deplete and pollute water sources and make farming unsustainable, and the open cast coal mines will worsen air quality which is already poor.

Mamosweu Tsoabi runs a women-led organisation in Waterdal growing vegetables. She’s concerned that coal mining will drain and pollute the already scarce water reserves in the area.

A report by Rehab Green Monitoring Consultants into the proposed coal mine’s impact says: “Mining of coal within high productive agricultural land is in principle unacceptable and should on that basis not be approved. However, mining of coal for electricity generation is still unavoidable in South Africa and since the majority of coal reserves coincide with highly productive agricultural land, the impact is also unavoidable and can only be minimised as far as possible.”

On 16 October, some residents protested at the department’s offices in Pretoria.

Mduduzi Tshabalala from the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) handed over a memorandum of demands, to Modilati Malapane, the chief director of mineral regulation.

Vaal residents protest outside the offices of the mining department in Pretoria.

Chief operating officer of Canyon Coal/Glubay, Clifford Hallatt responded to GroundUp’s questions: “All members of the community were invited to the public participation meetings. Meetings were conducted through different formats such as community focus groups and open days. The open day format accommodated those who might have been at work or had other pressing commitments. Attendees were able to come at their convenience, read through informative materials like posters, learn about the project, and ask questions to subject matter experts.”

He attached a list of two open days in January and June 2023 and three open days on 6, 13 and 20 April 2024.

He said “extensive studies” had been undertaken to assess and prepare “mitigation measures to protect vital resources such as land and water”. “All the specialists’ studies, which take into account the cumulative impacts of the mine, recommended the projects could proceed based on implementation of the mitigation measures provided.”

He said the local economic development project budget was R4.4m for Sukuma (Springfield Colliery) and R1.7m for Vlakfontein Colliery.

“Social and labour plan initiatives will be developed in consultation with the community and local municipalities once the project has been licensed..

Hallatt said 550 jobs would be created through Sukuma. Employees would be drawn from local municipal areas (25%), the Gauteng region (25%) and South Africa (25%).

He said, “In the absence of adequate service delivery by municipalities, host communities turn to operational mines for assistance. Some mines, like ours, help communities with water provision, road construction and repairs, for example. In situations where there are serious service delivery gaps, communities start to view the mines as their source of immediate assistance.”

“Mines are consistently under pressure to employ more people than they are able to ... We believe that although mining companies have an obligation and moral duty to uplift communities, their role should come in as complementary to systems driven by the government.”

Regarding coal, he said, “In South Africa and other parts of the world coal is an indispensable input in the manufacturing of various materials and chemicals. Vast amounts of coal is needed in the production of essential materials like steel, cement, and aluminium. The best approach would be to include abundant resources like coal as the foundation of our energy mix and invest in renewables as complementary. To achieve just energy transition, we need all affordable resources.”