Rinehart’s Hancock weighs $3.3 billion iron ore mine project
Hancock acquired a 51% interest in the Mt Bevan project from Legacy Iron Ore Ltd. and Hawthorn Resources.
South Africa is planning to charge mining companies about 67% of the cost for cleaning up toxic water pollution caused by their century-long operations in Gauteng, the country’s richest province that includes Johannesburg.
The government will pay for two-thirds of the cost by collecting money from mining companies through a new environmental levy.
The Water Ministry said Wednesday the long-term plan to treat acid mine drainage will cost as much as 12 billion rand ($760 million) and be implemented by February 2020.
The authority added that users would pay for a third of the cost, with the rest coming from the government, which in turn will collect money from mining companies through an environmental levy.
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the outflow of acidic metal rich water formed by the reaction between the water and rock containing sulphur-bearing minerals in mine sites. It especially occurs in metal and coal operations and often the water supplies that are affected end up developing pH levels similar to those of battery acid, rendering the water harmful to humans as well animal and plant life.
“This long-term intervention will therefore turn the AMD problem into a long-term sustainable solution by producing fully treated water,” Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said in the statement.
Roger Baxter, CEO of the country’s Chamber of Mines said levies are not the solution, Bdlive reports. He did comment, however, on the impact the charge would have on the operations of its members, which include AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s No.3 gold producer, and Sibanye Gold, South Africa’s largest producer of the precious metal.
Acid mine water in the country is considered a legacy of 120 years of gold mining in the Witwatersrand Basin, the source of about a third of all the world’s gold.
3 Comments
potevan
Dream on…his is just another cash cow idea from the current ruling pary…
J. D. Baker
Re: “South Africa is planning to charge mining companies about 67% of the cost for cleaning up toxic water pollution caused by their century-long operations in Gauteng”…
Meanwhile, “government” will keep 100% of the monies it already took from mining companies and investors over that same century, plus what it is currently getting. As always, government is your “partner” whenever profits occur but can’t be found when bills come due.
Retroactive assessments, taxes fees, and other legal theft cannot be restricted to the companies which already paid government for the “privilege” of doing business there and providing jobs, infrastructure, taxes, etc., whilst “government” accepts no responsibility and retains 100% of its takings. Where are the retained monies government is supposed to set aside for rainy days and remediation? How does retroactive costs apply to everyone except government?
As we all know, socialism works until other peoples money runs out. Government – the pirate masquerading as a fair weather “partner” – must decide whether miners are the cash cows for the milking barn or the slaughterhouse. One or the other, not both. You can’t milk a butchered cow.
ThaOracle
What if I were to tell you ………. it is now apparent the salvos of BEE and B-BBEE were decidedly “not enough”, and that one should brace for the next generation with the environmental slant?