Mining in focus
Another storm is brewing in the Cape as
continental shelf mining becomes more
attractive, writes Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp.
M
arine mining in South Africa has been limited to the extraction of
diamonds on the west coast and oil-and-gas exploration
work. The issuing of three licences, which allowed for
exploration work off the Western Cape coast, did not attract too much
media attention when it was first granted almost five years ago.
Environmentalists are concerned that the companies involved might
now convert these exploration rights (which are about to expire) into
mining rights. Three mining rights were granted, in 2012 and 2014, by the
Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to South African registered
Green Flash Trading 251, Green Flash Trading 257 and Canadian company
Diamond Fields International to prospect for marine phosphates, on
claims covering more than 150 000km² or 10% of the country’s marine
environment. Green Flash Trading 251 and 257’s prospecting rights includes
area in the ocean off Adam se Baai and Cape Columbine / Infanta.
All three prospecting rights extend from the northern reaches
of the West Coast, down the West Coast to Cape Town, then
around the peninsular and all the way to offshore Mossel Bay. The
prospecting areas are located mostly in-depth contours of between
200m and 2 000m, with the shallowest depth at five metres.
The World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) opposed the granting of the
exploration licences to Green Flash Trading 251 and Green Flash Trading
257 in 2012. In a statement the WWF said that the Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) and the Environmental Management Plan were inadequate.
‘Should prospecting prove the economic viability of the resource a
second full EIA must be conducted to evaluate all the potential impacts
of producing the mineral from the sea floor before consideration could
be given to permit the mining of the resource,’ the WWF states.
Operation Phakisa
The South African government’s Operation Phakisa: Ocean Economy
plans to utilise the economic potential of the country’s marine environment
through the rapid promotion of marine petroleum and minerals extraction.
Ninety eight percent of South Africa’s Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ) is currently being leased for offshore oil and gas exploration. As
part of Phakisa, the government aims to fast-track the drilling of 30
wells in the next 10 years and develop infrastructure such as a phased
gas pipeline network. It also includes offshore mineral sands mining
and unconventional gas exploration and exploration of ferromanganese
crust between South Africa and Madagascar. Operation Phakisa also
relates to the establishment of marine transport and manufacture,
offshore oil and gas, aquaculture and marine protection services.
International water
Worldwide there is an increased interest in marine mining. Globally, a large
number of exploration licences have been awarded by the International Seabed
Authority under the United Nations (UN) Law of the Sea covering large
tracts of the seafloor in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, in areas that
extend well beyond traditional national jurisdictions. The intergovernmental
body, the Inter Ocean Metal Joint Organisation, was established in 1987
with the objective of exploring, prospecting and exploiting poly-metallic
nodules in accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Six contractors from France, Russia, Japan, China, Korea and Germany,
have been allowed to conduct exploration work in the Pacific, while India
FEBRUARY 2018 MINING MIRROR
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