Deadly illegal mining ‘on the rise’
• Municipality in Limpopo is struggling to curtail operations and encourage communities to apply for permits
More than 70 people involved in illegal mining activities have been killed along the Dilokong corridor in the mining town of Burgersfort in Limpopo, according to the Fetakgomo — Greater Tubatse Local Municipality.
While some of those killed were shot during deadly turf wars with other illegal miners, others died during accidents at the unsafe makeshift operations that are prevalent in the mineral-rich area.
For close to 20 years, illegal mining has been a challenge for law enforcement authorities and mining companies operating in the eastern limb of the bushveld complex. Last week, four alleged illegal miners died when a dump truck overturned at an illegal operation in Maandagshoek.
Thabiso Mokoena, the municipality’s communications manager, told Business Day the most they could do to deal with the illegal mining and the fatalities was encourage the communities to apply for small-scale mining permits.
In his 2017 paper on the status of artisanal and small-scale mining in SA, Pontsho Ledwaba of Wits University’s Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry, wrote that illegal mining activities were continuing to escalate despite the government’s intervention through the creation of a mining permit meant to allow small-scale miners to operate within the required regulatory framework.
“In the majority of areas, aspiring and existing miners are aware of the legal requirements and the processes for obtaining legal permission,” the paper says. “However, the costs to obtain the permission remain a challenge for most of them.”
Mokoena admitted that the issues raised by Ledwaba applied to community members who resorted to illegal mining as getting permits was not always a viable option for the thousands of desperate locals who had little education and resources to run legal ventures.
While community members carried out most of the work at the illegal mines, the decision makers were mainly sophisticated syndicates, he said. “It is deep syndicates, but the locals know the syndicates, they know the buyers, the sellers, the people with machinery, they know the trucks. The people who are running it are professionals.”
But the trend has been on the decline in recent months, according to police in Limpopo.
Spokesman Brig Motlafela Mojapelo attributed this to operations conducted with Department of Mineral Resources officials. The initiatives had led to the confiscation of trucks and other machinery as well as large quantities of unprocessed chrome. He said about 70 people had been arrested since the start of operations in the area.