Western Cape Government joins battle over mining – back to our cities in the roaring 20s

Experts and environmentalists have raised concerns about whether the impact of numerous prospecting, mining and marine surveying operations on South Africa’s coastal waters is being given adequate weight when authorised individually.

In December, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) gave environmental authorisation for local company Belton Park Trading 127 to prospect for diamonds, gemstones, heavy minerals, industrial minerals, precious metals, and ferrous and base metals in three marine blocks just off the coast, about 200km north of Cape Town.

Professor Merle Sowman of the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at UCT has lodged an appeal, submitted jointly with research assistant Michael Lambrecht.

Sowman told GroundUp that ad hoc prospecting and mining applications – as well as other development activities – were being granted without a proper assessment of the cumulative impacts of these many operations on the coastal and marine environment.

In a 2014 strategy document, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) itself refers to assessing cumulative impacts to ensure that the “full range of consequences of actions is considered” in order to avoid “the tyranny of small decisions”.

WESTERN CAPE ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT NOT SATISFIED

Also appealing against the Belton authorisation is the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, which raised the issue of the cumulative impact as well.

“The DMRE has approved multiple and sometimes overlapping survey, prospecting and mining activities on the offshore area along the West Coast without any attempt to assess the cumulative impacts,” the appeal states.

“The reports submitted by Belton Park, as well as the Environmental Authorisation, do not provide any indication that prospecting was considered in terms of cumulative impacts, and if mining activities would be a desired outcome for the area.”

According to the province’s appeal, it is “imperative” that a strategic view be adopted, including the identification of sensitive areas where no prospecting or mining activities will be considered in line with a 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment. The provincial department also raised concerns about whether local fishing communities had been properly involved in the approval process.

One of the questions in DFFE’s Appeal Questionnaire to appellants is: “Would you agree to the activity proceeding if your concerns can be addressed by rectifying the process or mitigating or eliminating the impacts of the activity?”

The province replied: “No. The proposed activities are incompatible with the conservation and ecotourism proposed uses of the areas and in conflict with local communities’ dependence on local ecosystem services.”

While not fundamentally opposed to any development activity on the site, the province believed that prospecting and mining activities were “inappropriate for the area”.

Sowman told GroundUp that her research group has been monitoring and recording the various prospecting, mining, oil and gas applications and their status’ over the past 18 months.

“I wonder whether DMRE and DFFE have this overview? How can they be making informed decisions when they don’t have full information?”