The Agulhas Wine Triangle been rising in prominence as a popular wine tourism destination, featuring several internationally recognised cool-climate wine brands. Now decades of tourism and conservation work is being threatened by a mining application which was quietly announced earlier this year. The potential for invasive open-cast mining has raised the spectre of significant environmental, tourist and social impacts.
The company, Cienth, seeks exclusive rights to explore and create an open-cast mine for gold, silver, and tin ore on 4 200 hectares of farmland. AWT spokesperson André Morgenthal says the impact on the environment will be significant if the application is granted. “This will lay waste to the Overberg. And this section near Napier is only the beginning. Once prospecting goes ahead, where will they end?”
The environmental concerns include noise pollution, dust affecting crops, and acid mine drainage, with potential impacts on water courses and unique ecosystems found in the Nuwejaars Wetlands Special Management Area (NWSMA).
Mining activities will spoil any wine tasting and tourism experiences, and dust from mining and industrial vehicles on the roads could make wine grapes unusable. “Dust stunts growth and photosynthesis in the vineyards,” André says. “We also stand to lose vast tracts of protected fynbos and renosterveld, while runoff from the mines will end up in our fresh water rivers, catchments and estuaries. The Heuningnes River System is home to endangered indigenous redfin.”
Nature of the application
Elsaine Rabie, the environmental lawyer opposing the application on behalf of the region’s stakeholders, explains the application is for a prospecting right to explore gold, tin, and silver over 11 properties covering approximately 4200 hectares.
It’s uncertain if bulk-sampling is part of the application, as no project-specific information has been received from Cienth or its appointed environmental assessment practitioner (EAP), Elsaine says.
“A prospecting right, if granted, is valid for a maximum period of five years, with one renewal period of three years (in total eight years maximum),” she says. “A prospecting right holder has the exclusive right, in terms of Section 19(1)(b) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), to apply for and be granted a mining right in respect of the mineral and prospecting area in question; and the exclusive right to remove and dispose of any mineral to which such right relates, and which is found during the course of prospecting.”
If a prospecting right progresses to a mining right, which happens in most cases, such right can be granted for a period of 30 years at a time, with multiple renewal periods, until such time as the minerals have been depleted.”
Legal procedure
The application follows a basic assessment process under the country’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations. This process stipulates that a final Basic Assessment Report (BAR) must be submitted within 90 days of the application, with a minimum 30-day public commenting period.
The competent authority (in this case, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy or DMRE) then has 107 days to review the BAR and grant or refuse environmental authorisation (EA).
Public participation in such an application is of extreme importance, Elsaine says, as the Department cannot make its decision unless a satisfactory public participation has been conducted. “Furthermore, in terms of the EIA Screening Report, certain sensitivity themes were identified as very high and high, which will require specialist assessments to be conducted.”
A specialist opinion
One specialist who offered his services is a local geologist who has surveyed the area before, and is registered as an interested and affected party (I&AP).
“The area of the prospecting application close to Napier is underlain by rocks of the Bokkeveld Group, a particularly thick sequence of shale dominated rocks that form part of the Cape Fold Belt that created the mountain ranges stretching through most of the Western and Eastern Cape,” he says. “In terms of geological history, these rocks are fairly young at 400 million years old – the oldest rocks in South Africa are over 3.5 billion years old.”
He is puzzled by the company’s interest in this area, since it’s not a likely candidate for prospecting. “Generally speaking, older rocks are better mineralised with metals than younger rocks as the fluid processes essential for metal deposition were far more active in early earth history. For example, the largest gold field ever mined – the Witwatersrand basin – is around 2 billion years old, and while you can still find new metal deposits being created today (for example the ocean floor smokers at the bottom of the Red Sea), this now only occurs on active plate margins and not in tectonically stable areas.”
“In the specific area of the Napier prospecting application and during the tectonics that created the Cape Fold Belt, there were of course fluids passing through these vast Overberg rock sequences, but these fluids do not appear to have carried nor deposited significant quantities of metals,” he says.
“Hence my assertion that it is highly unlikely that any prospecting activity in the Overberg will uncover any new economically minable deposit of gold silver or tin.
“That said, for wine industry, the surface weathering of the shale and sandstone units have created an excellent terroir and apart from some groundwater salinity, there appears little problem of heavy metal contamination – something that you would definitely find if the area was indeed prospective for metal deposits.
“The mining industry has and will always attract an unhealthy interest from speculators who see fortunes to be made from peddling false dreams of untold riches, and yet the true wealth of the Overberg can actually be found in the exceptional wines created from its wonderful terroir.”
Status of the application
Although the application was submitted on August 24, 2023, no public participation or specific project information has yet been conducted and the mandated 90-day period to submit the basic assessment report lapsed in November. So for the moment, it seems like the application is on hold, but there’s not yet cause to rejoice. “Unless an extension has been granted by the competent authority, the application will be deemed as lapsed,” Elsaine says, “but nothing prevents the applicant from resubmitting the application.”
The Overberg is bracing for a long process to resist the application. “We’re not afraid to fight this,” André says. “And we have the resources to do it.”
“This will definitely be a lengthy drawn-out battle,” Elsaine says. “The typical timeframe ranges between 197 days (non-substantive) and 247 days (substantive, with additional 50-day period). In the event that the application is granted, and the decision confirmed after the appeal, the landowners and/or interested and affected parties will be able to refer the matter to the courts for review.”
Intervention and challenge
Stakeholder and the public should register as I&APs and object to the application as soon as possible. These objections have to be considered by the Regional Mining Development & Environmental Committee (RMDEC) and addressed in the final basic assessment report. Stakeholders also have the right to appoint specialists, and their opinions must be considered in the decision-making process.
“Due to the agricultural zoning of the properties, the applicant will have to apply for a temporary departure of the current zoning, which will not be possible without the consent by the landowners. In addition, the applicant will also have to apply for a Water Use License in terms of the National Water Act, which will further burden the existing water resources.”
Members of the public can register as I&APs and request to be added to the project’s database and to receive all project-specific documentation. This can be done by contacting the EAP, McDonald Mdluli from Lwethuma Environmental Consultants, at info@lwethuma.com or 079 242 1312. “Once the documentation has been made available, everyone should object to the application, based on whatever such individual or entity feels passionate about, e.g. biodiversity, conservation, wine production, tourism, agriculture, or job security,” says Elsaine.
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