-
Shaft 10 exit used by illegal mineworkers to emerge from underground.
Another 10 illegal mine workers have come up from underground at the Buffelsdoorn mine in Stilfontein in the North West.
This brings the number of illegal miners who have come to the surface to close to 1300 since the middle of August.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on Friday said they would continue to assist the illegal mineworkers who want to come back to the surface at Margaret Shaft and Shafts 10 and 11.
Mchunu told the Stilfontein community that mine rescue services are ready to assist with the retrieval process but has warned that there are a number of risks involved such as methane gas underground and armed illegal mineworkers.
Mchunu adds that the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster is expected to meet with the Department of Mineral Resources urgently, to present a new approach to closing and rehabilitating mines that have existing license holders.
Mchunu was speaking during a stakeholder engagement and progress report session in Stilfontein in the North West. The gathering was aimed at mapping out a way forward to retrieve an unknown number of illegal miners who have remained underground since the intensification of Operation Vala Umgodi.
The resurfacing of more than a 1000 illegal miners has brought the extent of illegal mining into sharp focus as well as government’s apparent failure to hold mining companies to account as a community leader Thembile Botman explains, “Our government has a responsibility to hold accountable everyone that has mining rights in the closure because that person must apply for closure and there are rehabilitation funds that will be, you know, banked there to rehabilitate this mine. So, this issue of today, it should not come as if it’s something that just came out of nowhere.”
Dr Ingrid Watson of the Wits Mining Institute says according to her research, no mine closure certificates have been issued for large mines in over a decade.
“The Buffelsfontein Mine was owned by a company called Simmer and Jack and that was until 2013 and then in 2014 ownership changes to Village Main Reef and it looks, according to that, it is still listed as an operating mine owned by Village Main Reef. Obviously, the mine is deemed to be operating until it gets a closure certificate. From the research that I’ve done, I haven’t seen any closure certificate being issued for large mines at least since 2011 but there is a concern that closure certificates aren’t being granted but we also don’t see companies applying for closures.”
In his engagement with various stakeholders in Stilfontein, Minister Mchunu committed to ensure that the government reconfigures its existing strategies.
“It has been agreed that Minister [Gwede] Mantashe, in the next meeting of JCPS, which is regarded as an urgent, must bring in Minerals Council of South Africa. Two, he must come and present artisanal mechanisms that they are advanced in in terms of developing, if not completed. They must present a new approach in terms of closing mines by companies that are license holders currently. Ehen they finish what they are doing, how must they close.”
The Department of Mineral Resources says almost 300 disused and abandoned mine shafts have been closed so far.
