Mining in focus
Some of the man-made explosives used by
illegal miners during their activities.
Military Studies, conducted a study
titled New interventions and sustainable
solutions: Reappraising illegal artisanal
mining in South Africa. In his study,
Mkhize highlights the global demand
for gold as another contributing factor to
illegal mining. Although illegal mining
is often mentioned within the context of
South Africa, the problem is not immune
to the country alone. Mkhize makes note
of this in his study, mentioning that other
countries such as Venezuela, Colombia,
and Ecuador also grapple with illegal
mining, where a high percentage of gold
in these countries is produced illegally.
Impact of illegal mining
Illegal mining has the biggest impact
on the economy; however, illegal
mining activities also have social
and environmental impacts. Senior
vice-president and head of protection
services at Sibanye-Stillwater, Nash
Lutchman, gave a media presentation
that contextualised illegal mining.
During the presentation,
Lutchman mentioned that annually,
the mining industry bleeds
approximately R20-billion in lost
sales, taxes, and royalties. Illegal
mining activities include vandalising
current mine infrastructure.
Repairing the damaged infrastructure
can cost millions. During repairs and
maintenance, the mine might have to
stop mining operations in an affected
area. This then affects the overall
production output of the mine, which
then has a knock-on impact on the
costs.
Mining is a dangerous activity;
illegal mining is even more dangerous
because illegal miners often disregard
the health and safety measures required
in mining. As a result, accidents are
inevitable where illegal miners are
involved. When incidents occur at an
operating mine, it becomes the mining
company’s responsibility to commission
Mine Rescue Services to conduct
rescue operations. This again can run
in thousands of rands in costs as rescue
operations can take days.
From a social impact point of view,
illegal mining attracts criminal activities
in already existing mining communities.
Perpetrators involved in the illegal
OCTOBER 2018 MINING MIRROR
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