Trans Hex applies to mine 321 km2 of ocean and 80 km of the West Coast.
The public is encouraged to test PTWC’s new public participation portal Ripl by commenting on a double application by Trans Hex. The mining company has applied for a marine diamond mining right offshore of two eco-sensitive areas and a multi-commodity prospecting right in multiple concessions totalling 321km2 along a huge 80 km swath of the West Coast. The giant crawling machines they intend to employ potentially threaten fisheries, marine and coastal ecology and three marine heritage shipwreck sites.
The area of the application to mine and prospect by Trans Hex is 321km2 along 80 km of coast.
The double application by Trans Hex to mine and prospect to mine along a huge area offshore and along 80 kilometres (km) of the West Coast has presented the public with a timeous opportunity to put the new Protect the West Coast (PTWC) public participation portal Ripl to the test.
The recently launched platform provides the public with the chance to register as an Interested & Affected Party (I&AP) and comment and object to mining applications – a key part of how these applications are considered, especially if there are objections about the impact on the environment and communities.
According to our legal team, these two applications by Trans Hex pose significant concerns about a present and future danger to marine archeological heritage, and the marine and coastal ecology and fisheries within a 321km2 offshore area along 80 km of coastline from just south of the provincial border with the Northern Cape, down to Doringbaai.
The first application, by Trans Hex Operations Pty Ltd, is to mine diamonds for 30 years in two marine concessions (11B and 13B) offshore of the Sout and Olifants rivers respectively.
‘B’ concessions refer to the ocean from 1 km to 5 km offshore, where a remote-controlled seabed machine – operating at depths of up to 200 metres – digs up the seafloor, sucking up tons of gravel onto a large vessel overhead, before it is dumped back overboard.
Experienced West Coast artisanal diver and activist Gavin Craythorne puts it into perspective: “Deep water diamond mining is a big problem. These machines are sucking up 600 tons of gravel per hour 24/7. The disturbance to the ocean takes a very long time to rehabilitate. Artisanal mining is much more friendly. It takes place in shallow water using a propellor-driven pressure hose to blow the sand off the bedrock to reach the underlying gravel. The rhythms of the ocean push the sand back.”
As stated by the Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP), SRK Consulting, in the scoping report of the Trans Hex mining application (available for scrutiny, with maps and other documents, at www.ripl.co.za), three shipwrecks lie “within the 1 km buffers around the concessions” which meant that a “Marine Heritage Impact Assessment will be undertaken”.
The first concession, 11B, lies out to sea along a 30 km stretch of beach just south of Lepelsfontein, and represents an area of ocean with an extent of 97 km2. The second, 13B, lies off a 12 km stretch of beach between the Olifants River Mouth and Doringbaai, comprising 39.8 km2. Both concessions cover 137 square kilometres of ocean.
The proposed offshore mining zone is adjacent to two threatened river mouths and estuaries.
This coast from the Olifants to Doringbaai was part of last weekend’s route for the 21km half marathon trail run organised by Run West (www.runwest.co.za) to raise funds for PTWC, along one of the last mostly unspoilt stretches of pristine coast.
Managing Director of PTWC Mike Schlebach said that he was deeply concerned that despite a recent court order where PTWC and others had stopped Trans Hex from mining near and around the biodiversity hotspot of the Olifants River Estuary, the company was now trying to exploit the richly mineralised deposits of alluvial diamonds off the same coastline.
The Olifants River Mouth was the starting line for this year’s Run West event. Image: Jacque Smit.
However, if that was not bad enough, he said, the second application raised larger concerns.
Trans Hex Heavy Minerals Mining (Pty) Ltd is applying for a multi-commodity prospecting right much closer to shore in the same areas of the above 11B and 13B concessions, namely 11A and 13A. ‘A’ concessions refer to a band of shoreline from the surf zone to 1 km out to sea. On top of this application for all of the above (11A, 11B, 13A and 13B), Trans Hex had added concessions 12A and 12B.
Collectively, this means that one mining company probably intends to own the right to mine for diamonds, heavy minerals and metals (including gemstones, rare earth metals, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, heavy minerals and industrial minerals) in an area from the surf line of the coast to 5 km out to sea from just south of the Northern Cape border all the way down to Doringbaai. These minerals are used in, for example, pigment production, ceramics, metallurgy, aerospace and nuclear energy.
“The area we are talking about here amounts to more than a third of the entire western seaboard of the Western Cape,” said Schlebach. “Such a proliferation, and deviation from their traditional target of diamonds, raises a big red flag about monopolistic intentions.”
“On top of that, Trans Hex has a terrible environmental track record of non-compliance rehabilitating their coastal mines all the way up into the Northern Cape,” he added.
Prospecting entailing geophysical surveys, drill sampling and bulk sampling would be conducted over a period of five years. Should targeted minerals be found, Trans Hex would likely apply for a right to mine that could last up to 30 years.
The concessions are all prime locations for rich deposits of ancient alluvial diamonds transported over millions of years from the Kimberley region via glaciers and rivers and dispersed in valleys, streams and rivers that wash into the sea. The Sout River and Olifants River estuary have a “highly aggregated diamond population”, according to a doctoral dissertation by Asriël Van der Westhuizen at the University of Stellenbosch in 2012.
Schlebach added that while the dangers of terrestrial mining were well documented and researched by the scientific community, much of the impact of deepsea mining was inadequately studied and its effects largely unknown.
Apart from the archeological heritage and potential damage to benthic organisms on the seafloor, marine environments could contain significant palaeontological resources, such as fossilised remains of ancient marine organisms, sedimentary formations, and other sensitive geological features.
Schlebach reiterated the urgent need for a moratorium on all current and further prospecting and mining applications until a proper and thorough Strategic Environmental Assessment was commissioned that considered the cumulative impacts of mining along the entire West Coast as the context for the granting of mining rights.
Public participation is also key, which is why PTWC is urging concerned people to sign up as a Ripl user, register an I&AP and voice their concerns against these applications.
The comment window for the two applications expires on October 1.
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.
