Plan to legitimise illegal miners
AN AMICABLE resolution to the ongoing clashes between the Kimberley Ekapa Mining Joint Venture (KEM-JV) and illegal miners over mineral and property rights, which could see the legitimisation of hundreds of artisanal miners in the city, could be on the cards.
KEM-JV has also identified 400 hectares of land for mining by the small-scale miners.
This follows a visit by the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Godfrey Oliphant, to the city yesterday, which resulted in the drafting of a plan of action to legitimise the operations of thousands of illegal miners.
While the KEM-JV was not willing to divulge specifics yesterday, government and the illegal miners have welcomed this latest development which, it is hoped, will result in hundreds of illegal miners receiving the necessary documentation to dig for diamonds.
Following the meetings in the city yesterday morning, the spokesperson for the deputy minister, Solomon Phetla, said that the process of issuing permits and assisting miners with their applications to mine legally, was likely to begin in earnest towards the end of next week.
Various proposals and programmes drafted during Oliphant’s visit to the city yesterday are expected to be implemented in the coming two weeks, Phetla added.
“The deputy minister visited the city after receiving an invitation from the Northern Cape Premier’s Office to intervene and assist in resolving the ongoing situation between the illegal miners and the KEM-JV,” Phetla said.
“Our visit was aimed at finding resolutions to the situation and to assist in resolving the matter in a fair and peaceful manner.
“In this regard, the visit was an LISTENING: Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Godfrey Oliphant, yesterday addressed a large group of artisanal miners in the Kimberley City Hall.
Picture: Danie van der Lith absolute success and while this is still a work in progress, the deputy minister is happy with the progress made in Kimberley.”
Phetla explained that a programme had been drafted to streamline the process of issuing the relevant permits, while officials from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) would provide training and advice to the applicants on how to make their operations as efficient as possible.
He further added that the KEM-JV had committed a significant portion of the company’s property to the programme.
“The programme has been drafted and we intend to have it working within the next 10 days,” Phetla said.
“Apart from assisting with the applications, we will also be sending officials to advise the miners on health and safety issues, as well as skills development, as we are hoping to make their operations as successful as possible.
“To this end, the KEM-JV has committed 400 hectares of land, containing dumps where operations were previously halted.”
The spokesperson for the Kimberley Artisanal Mineworkers (KAMW), Lucky Seekoei, said that although nothing was set in stone at this stage, the illegal miners were cautiously optimistic that their operations might be legitimised in the foreseeable future, with the deputy minister having committed government resources to addressing their concerns through the work of a newly appointed task team.
“Following meetings with the Premier’s Office and the DMR in the Province, and other stakeholders, the deputy minister addressed the community at the Kimberley City Hall and gave his assurance that a task team had been formed in order to assist us with our applications and registrations for mining permits,” Seekoei said yesterday afternoon.
“Ekapa has said that there is about 400 hectares of land that has been identified and they have committed to supplying the DMR with the relevant documentation and maps of the area for us to review when registering and applying for permission to mine.
“We are very satisfied with this latest development and the visit of the deputy minister, but will be monitoring the process until it has been completed in order to ensure that we are treated fairly.”
Meanwhile, KEM-JV spokesperson, Gert Klopper, said that while the mining company welcomed the dialogue, it was cautious about issuing a statement.
“As much as we are always willing to keep dialogue going with authorities and other legitimate stakeholders, we are at this point cautious not to make public statements that could compromise the ongoing discussions,” said Klopper.