‘Slimes dam disaster preventable’
A second tailings storage facility at the Jagersfontein diamond mine in the Free State is at risk of collapsing
The collapse of the wall of a slimes dam at the Jagersfontein diamond mine in the Free State on 11 September led to a 1.5kmwide wave of grey mud gushing into the area. It inundated homes, killed one person, injured more than 70 people and displaced hundreds.
“This is not a natural disaster,” said Sputnik Ratau, spokesperson for the water and sanitation department. “That is why, from our point of view, we really are saying to the mine that this is a disaster.”
Another sludge-filled tailings storage facility at the mine is also at risk of failing and intervention is needed “yesterday” to prevent an even more serious disaster from unfolding, the department has warned.
“They need to empty that compartment,” Ratau said. “There is a pit that we are saying we can give them authorisation immediately to use to reduce the content of that compartment.
“Their engineers will just have to make sure this thing happens, like, yesterday. That is the starting point and we can then follow up with all the other things that need to happen, including the issue of rehabilitation and water quality.”
‘Pawpaw has hit the fan’
The Jagersfontein disaster was preventable, said water governance expert Carin Bosman. “Slimes dams, tailings dams, have been used all over the world for more than 100 years. The engineering principle behind slippage and failure is well known … Too much water and the wall will give way.”
She said “kilometres will be written” in the weeks to come about who should have done what to prevent the disaster but that ship had sailed. “The pawpaw has hit the fan. We need to talk about what we can do now to prevent this impact from going further and becoming worse.”
The pollution plume is estimated to have travelled about 8km and is headed towards the Orange River.
“Apart from the immediate humanitarian disaster, those slimes went down the valley and are in the upper dry reaches of the river. As soon as the rainy season starts, that shit is going to flow further downstream and is part of the Orange catchment. So, if we don’t start immediate blocking efforts into that little stream, and start cleaning from the stream backwards, we will see this pollution in the dam very shortly.”
The area’s sewage works seems to have also been taken out by the spillage, Bosman said, “which means that raw sewage has now mixed with the slimes and is following that path down the river and that poses a significant health risk”.
Ratau said the sludge had moved into the Riet River, which supplies water to the Kalkfontein Dam, which is in a nature reserve. The department’s officials are conducting water quality tests “for acidity, alkalinity, nitrates and the works” as well as for the main threat — arsenic. “That will inform us of what is exactly in there.”
Directives
In December 2020, the department issued a directive against the mine’s owner, Jagersfontein Developments, which extracts diamonds from the waste tailings of mining operations, ordering it to cease operations for disposing volumes above authorised limits. Action plans were requested to rectify identified contraventions and the company advised with regard to dam safety requirements of the department, Ratau said.
The directive notes how, on 29 September 2020, the department said the firm had exceeded the volumes authorised for the disposal on the fine tailings storage facility in contravention of the water use licence conditions, describing how inadequate planning and “blatant non-compliance” has “placed all parties in a precarious situation”.
It cited a report by SRK Consulting in November 2020, in which engineers identified a “serious risk” with the fine tailings disposal facility. The directive, too, noted how, since the department’s notice was issued, “wherein you were notified not to dispose of further volumes of waste … your operations have disposed of further volumes of waste”.
Ownership
Jagersfontein Developments said it is “devastated” by the breach at its slimes dam and the effect on the residents. It had made R20-million available immediately for displaced residents, providing food parcels, necessary supplies, and settling medical and hospital bills since the collapse of the dam.
It said the tailings dam remained stable overnight and operations to “pump remaining waste from the treatment facility has commenced as restoration efforts continue at the site. Jagersfontein Developments’ priority remains the safety and health of the community and returning them to their homes and livelihoods. Water has been largely restored to the town, a major step towards readying the company for clean-up operations.
“Although mining operations in the town have been dormant for many years and were not undertaken by Jagersfontein Developments, the treatment facility, which it does own, has been a viable and functioning plant. As such, it has been subjected to regular maintenance, compliance checks, and has been processing the dormant diamond mine waste legally.”
It said it employs 70% of its workforce from the surrounding community. “As such, it is committed to restoring operations and the town to continue providing incomes for these families.” While it is too early to establish any reason for the collapse, the company has appointed an independent investigation team “to understand the facts”.
Jagersfontein is home to the oldest and largest diamond mine hole in the world, and remained in service until the early 1970s when the owner, De Beers, shut it down.
Twelve years ago, De Beers sold the mine’s tailings dumps to the Superkolong Consortium, which included Reinet Investments, a Luxembourg-based business run by luxury tycoon and Richemont chairperson Johann Rupert. He is reported to have sold the assets a few months before the incident.
In April this year, Reinet concluded a transaction to sell its interest in Jagersfontein to Dubai’s Stargems Group, a diamond-sourcing and supply company, which has stated the tailings storage facility was “safe and secure”.
‘Hold De Beers accountable’
The nonprofit groundwork said De Beers and its subsidiaries must be held accountable and pay for the clean-up and rehabilitation, maintenance and closure of the mine, and develop a just transition plan for the residents of Jagersfontein. “This must start with immediate compensation for damages from the spill and the lives lost.”
The Jagersfontein mine was one of the largest De Beers mines during the colonial and apartheid times. “In 2010, De Beers offloaded the legacy of their wealth creation — the toxic waste of past mining — onto the local community through the Superkolong Consortium,” said groundwork.
“De Beers claimed that the deal … met the criteria set by De Beers including technical, economic, community, technical competence, available funding to develop the new processing operation … We need to understand what due diligence was done by De Beers and the government to allow this deal to go through.
“If it is found that the company operating the mine has contravened its water use licence, groundwork calls for the present directors and owners to be held responsible for the disaster and, more importantly, for De Beers … to take responsibility for their historical operations.”
De Beers Group spokesperson Jackie Mapiloko did not respond to groundwork’s statement but referred the Mail & Guardian to the statement it issued on Monday, which noted how the company ceased operations at Jagersfontein in 1971 and, despite having sold the operation along with its associated liabilities in 2010, “we stand ready to provide technical assistance and support to the government should it be requested by the Minerals Council South Africa”.
Pass the parcel
Mariette Liefferink, the chief executive of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, said this was typical of “pass the parcel”; mines are sold close to closure to poorer-resourced companies, which relieves them of the responsibility and liability of dealing with the problems of closure.
She said the departments of water and sanitation and of mineral resources and energy ought to have enforced non-compliances. “It would appear that directives were issued for non-compliances but these must be enforced. You cannot wait for a disaster before you enforce directives.”
Although Jagersfontein Developments said it had confirmation “that the wastewater is not hazardous”, Liefferink disputed this.
“If that claim is made, the public would like to see their water quality results … It is necessary for them to give evidence that that water is not hazardous to health, well-being and the environment. The reason it is stored in a dam is obviously because there are certain risks and hazards inherent to mining waste ... We don’t know what the long-term impact is on human health and the environment.”
She has just completed the curriculum to train mining communities about the risks and hazards of tailings storage facilities and to prepare them for catastrophic events.
“This is part of what the investor community has called upon after the Brumadinho mine dam failure [in Brazil]. In South Africa, our tailings storage facilities are all upstream, which means that it is the lower cost but the higher risk. That is why constant vigilance, monitoring and management must be ensured. And the fact that our communities live so close to these mine dams or tailings storage facilities is also a significant risk.”
Impending disaster
Palesa Chubisi, spokesperson for Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela, said the person confirmed dead was a 70-year-old man while a 50-yearold woman remains unaccounted for. A pregnant woman, who sustained a fracture, is the only person who remains in hospital and is responding well to treatment.
Karabo Khakhau, the Democratic Alliance member of the Free State legislature, said residents had flagged concerns about the mine, including their proximity to the dumps, for years. “If the Free State provincial government had a disaster management centre as mandated by the law, it would have been able to assess the risk and have precautionary measures in place to ensure that residents are protected …
“The disaster here in Jagersfontein is not a mere disaster that happened overnight. It is a question of negligence on the part of local authorities here and the provincial government because all the community members’ cries fell on deaf ears.”