While the Makhado coal project is one step nearer to its objective, the question arises whether the green sector will declare war as they did with the Vele Colliery.

The mining group Coal of Africa (CoAL) this week received the green light from the Department of Mineral Resources to swap farms with Rio Tinto. The approval of the application for the farm swap now allows CoAL to lodge a new-order mining right application for the Makhado coking coal project.

The Makhado coking coal project covers an area of more than 23 000ha and is situated in the Mopane/Soutpansberg coal field, north of the Soutpansberg and 60km from Musina. The farms Mount Stuart, Voorburg and Jutland are some of the farms involved in the project.The Rio Tinto associates, Kwezi Mining, Chapudi Coal and CoAL signed a memorandum of understanding which involved a joint venture and farm swap agreement.

The CEO of CoAL, Mr John Wallington, said this week that the agreement between Rio Tinto and CoAL will give both companies the potential to develop significantly larger-scale economic coal projects.

“It is anticipated that the new-order mining right application will be lodged before the end of the calendar year, followed closely by an application for an integrated water-use license and further relevant approvals as required,” stated CoAL (www.newstime.co.za).

It was in the phase of boasting a new-order mining right and starting construction without the appropriate water-use license that the Vele coking coal project had to retreat before the onslaught of conservation groups. The green groups triumphed, when the Department of Environmental Affairs’ green scorpions issued CoAL with a compliance notice to stop activities at Vele on August 11.

Vele is situated east of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, which has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is near the Limpopo River and the proposed trans-frontier conservation area (TFCA) involving South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The conservation groups said in their appeal against the Environmental Management Plan of Vele that the mining activities “will irreparably change the present … environment for ever”.

In the meantime, another mining group, Universal Coal with an office address in London, (UK) and one in Pretoria, is looking at the Somerville/Tuli area to negotiate mining rights. Somerville/Tulli is west of Mapungubwe and the same concern over the TFCA applies. Universal Coal is referred to as a junior miner heading for a listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in October (www.miningmx.com).They group Universal Coal with the Australians and state the possibility of yet “another confrontation between South African conservationists and Australian coal miners”.

A farmer from the area where the Vele project is situated contacted the Zoutpansberger to ask why nobody ever mentions the mine on the Zimbabwean side which should also be implicated in the TFCA. When he flies over that area, he can clearly see activities at the mining site.

After the green victory at Vele, a farmer of Phalaborwa near the Kruger National Park phoned and asked how to close down a mine, since he was suffering because of the acid from a mine near his farm. “I am sure that this acid is responsible for the deaths of the many crocodiles in the KNP. But it is a problem to close down a mine and I have already spent a million on legal costs,” the farmer said.

As much as the conservationists rejoice in their victory at Vele, so much protest is there among the mine workers that have been laid off at Vele. Close to 600 people have lost their jobs.

“Should the outcome of court favour those who are saying the mine should close down, who is going to compensate the employees who are stranded today? As the community of Musina, we don’t benefit anything from the Mapungubwe heritage site. Only certain groups of individuals are benefiting a lot,” says Mr Eric Ramuthivhedi of the National Union for Mine Workers. Mr Ramuthivhedi referred to the way CoAL had looked after its employees and also to Venetia Mine of De Beers, which developed infrastructure for the community. “We have got Tshikondeni, which is also a coal mine and it is close to the KNP. Why did they allow Tshikondeni to operate?” asks Ramuthivhedi.

The conservationists on their part look at the long-term effect of the acid mine drainage (AMD) on the water and say that the environmental management plan (EMP) of any mine should include the assessment on the impact of the AMD on the quality of the water and the functioning of the ecosystem. Concerning the EMP of the Vele Colliery, the appeal stated that “in light of the fact that the volume of acid mine drainage has not been quantified, it cannot be established whether the proposed capacity of the planned impoundments (dirty water dams) to handle contaminated water pumped out will be adequate.”

In the meantime, CoAL has done the sampling process at the Makhado project , which involves excavating an open pit on the farm Tanga. It remains to be seen whether the conservationists will put up a fight for that region.