New Mining Application: Red Flag over Biodiversity Loss
Protect the West Coast (PTWC) has raised a red flag over a diamond mining application that will destroy 3,184 hectares of critical biodiversity biome in the Northern Cape. We encourage you to sign up to our new public participation platform Ripl to add your voice to our concerns regarding this potentially devastating application.
Locality Map of the area in question. Source: CES.
In the application on www.ripl.co.za – our newly launched Public Participation Portal – mining company Zirco Roode Heuwel (Pty) Ltd has applied for a right to target heavy mineral concentrates in a large area of Namaqualand 35km southwest of Garies.
Heavy mineral sands are listed as a class of mineralised ore deposits containing titanium, zirconium, garnet, tungsten, sapphire, rare-earth elements, industrial diamonds, and sometimes precious metals or gemstones.
According to the PTWC Legal Department, who manage new applications on Ripl, the application is essentially an extension by Zirco to an existing mining right from 2014 (DMRE reference no.: NC 10062 MR) that will add up to a total area of more than 5,000 hectares (ha).
Zirco claims that the extent of the mining destruction of 3,184ha in the new application was 0.04% of the total extent of the approximately 7.58 million hectares (76,000 square kilometres) of Critical Biodiversity Area (CBA) in the Northern Cape.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the application states that the lost biome will be offset by rehabilitation measures and implies that the economic value generated outweighs the environmental impact on the CBA.
Part of this damage, according to PTWC Paralegal Tashreeq Dollie, was that the mining would result in the direct loss of 962 ha of Namaqualand Sand Fynbos, which equates to approximately 0.9% of ALL remaining habitat of this type of fynbos.
“Not only that, but the mining will create negative environmental impacts on the Namaqualand Strandveld and Namaqualand Heuweltjie Strandveld and the loss or displacement of plant, mammal, reptile and bird species listed on the Species of Conservation Concern (SCC),” he said.
“While mitigation and rehabilitation measures are provided, only time will tell if these promises are upheld. Nonetheless, the public must be properly informed of the impact that this mining operation will have on the environment,” added Dollie.
However, as noted by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in their Biodiversity Conservation 10 Years Review, South Africa’s “incredibly rich biodiversity, third only after Brazil and Indonesia” brought a “wide range of products and services for both commercial and subsistence purposes”.
The DFFE concluded that “nature provides water, food, fibre and all that sustains life. The value is inestimable.”
MD of PTWC Mike Schlebach said that it was hard to reconcile that a critically biodiverse biome with “inestimable value” would be so easily erased from existence by a single-use, extractive activity that had no place on a planet suffering catastrophic biodiversity loss.
“It’s unconscionable,” Schlebach said, noting the definition of Critical Biodiversity Areas by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) as “areas required to meet biodiversity targets for ecosystems, species and ecological processes, as identified in a systematic biodiversity plan”.
The application does, according to Dollie, list several mitigation methods. However, notwithstanding these, in the EIA and EMPr Zirco concedes that considerable environmental degradation was expected from the mechanised impacts of laying roads, and digging up the land and processing raw earth to access the minerals.
Other concerns covered in the application arose from the impact on air quality, particularly caused by the generation of dust on farms in the vicinity, and a concern that the proposed mining could potentially fail to comply with relevant laws (National Dunstall Control Regulations).
The mining excavation required the removal of topsoil and bulk earthworks, which could lead to soil erosion, while contaminants including fuel, oil, paints and solvents could pollute the Groen and Bitter Rivers.
Mining could also potentially allow the introduction of alien invasive species due to the removal of vegetation and the disturbance of soil, with the fragmentation of ecosystems within the Langkuil and wider areas. The clearing of vegetation and soil disturbance would lead to the loss of faunal habitats which would impact the wildlife that relies on such habitats.
Dollie, in accordance with the EIA and EMPr, highlighted a potential for increased social tension and crime because mining “may lead to an influx of job seekers which may then lead to an increase in crime in the area, both in their host community and on farms in the areas of the mine”.
Then there was the possible negative tourism impact because the mining would most likely lead to permanent scarring of the aesthetic and beauty of the area.
Comments close on November 14, so act now to ensure your voice is heard!
Add your voice to the call for comments in objection to these mining applications.
In October, West Coast property owners Braam and Therese Nieuwoudt filed a trespassing charge against Richwill Diamonds (Pty) Ltd for allegedly prospecting on their coastal farm Waterval in the Northern Cape without their consent. A deluge of mining applications on the property exemplifies the need for a moratorium on all new mining across the entire region until a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is conducted to assess the cumulative impact of mining.
Despite decades of legal battles to secure land and mining rights, the people of the Richtersveld remain bereft of a share in mining wealth under their ancestral lands. Now the community is angry at a new challenge over the Green Hydrogen and Boegoebaai mega-project that again threatens to run roughshod over their rights.
