Unto Dust Spectre of Marikana as ‘war’ erupts at Blyvoor
| Illegal miners clash with guards at a mine that has gone from global success story to humanitarian disaster
A STANDOFF between guards and illegal miners at one of South Africa’s biggest gold mines this week erupted in a mini war, prompting fears of another Marikana.
Security guards patrolling Blyvooruitzicht mine outside Carletonville on the far West Rand came under fire from an army of more than 100 illegal miners — some of whom shot at them from inside the mine’s main staff village.
It is the latest in a string of worrying incidents at the liquidated mine, home to 10 000 people who live among radioactive slime dams, acid mine water and a wasteland of shattered mine buildings.
The Sunday Times visited the once world-famous mine this week, under armed escort, just hours after a massive gun battle there.
Groups of illegal miners were still hard at work, but scattered when guards fired over their heads, abandoning makeshift outdoor gravel pits.
At one site, miners left a pile of hard hats next to a series of Jamison tables — sloping earth tables where gold-bearing gravel is sifted. At another site, guards tipped buckets and sifting pans into a large pool next to the mine’s vandalised sewage treatment plant — now used to sift gravel, particularly late at night.
A fire still burntwhere miners had tried to crack the concrete around a large metal pipe, and one man’s meagre packed lunch of two apples bore testimony to the desperation that has turned Blyvoor from a global success story into a humanitarian disaster.
The government has turned SHOT DOWN: Police inspect the body of a man near the Blyvooruitzicht mine in September last year during violent clashes between Blyvooruitzicht mining community members and illegal miners who scrabble for gold on the mothballed mine its back on the problem, reluctant to intervene and refusing to release information about Mine Closure Trust Funds.
The Merafong municipality can no longer afford to keep the water and electricity going, and the liquidators have appealed for outside help.
A tour of the site established that:
Mine security has resorted to using a drone to monitor illegal miners, who throw rocks at it;
The gaping entrance to a mine shaft more than 1km deep sits at the centre of the property, stripped of all metal protection;
The cost of rehabilitating the mine has rocketed to more than R100-million, but there is only R36-million set aside for this in the mine closure trust fund; and
Acid mine water pollution is affecting livestock. A study found cattle grazing near an affected dam had a uranium concentration in their kidneys 4 000 times higher than normal.
Having produced more than 1 000 tons of gold, silver, uranium and other minerals in almost 80 years, the mine closed when Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Company — largely owned by DRDGold — went into liquidation two years ago.
It now comes with a liability of close to R1-billion, according to court documents.
But while men in suits are running away, illegal miners in threadbare overalls are flooding in.
Louis Nel, a private contractor in charge of mine security, said some miners were armed with assault rifles. He said a shootout on Monday night was the stuff of Hollywood.
“We chased them and they ran into the bushes. Then we had a gunfight. They even started shooting out of some of the mine houses.
“I don’t think this is going to end. The squatter camps here are not going to disappear,” Nel said.
“Blyvoor should be a lesson, but it doesn’t seem anybody wants to learn.”
Sikeme Lekhooana, chairman of the Blyvooruitzicht community committee, said: “We are used to gunshots. My five-yearold boy knows about gunshots.” He also, said Lekhooana, knew about raw sewage in the streets, a daily part of life there.
The Department of Mineral Resources did not respond to queries. The two companies at the centre of the drama, DRD
ON PATROL: A security guard patrols the Blyvoor mine grounds this week Gold and Village Main Reef, distanced themselves from the mine.
DRDGold entered into a sale agreement with Village Main Reef after the mine applied for business rescue in 2011.
However, as Village Main CEO Marius Saaiman told the Sunday Times: “Village is not, and has never been, the owner of Blyvoor. The acquisition of the asset was never concluded and ministerial approval was never granted.”
DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius said government administrative delays in issuing new-order mineral rights had exacerbated the problem. “Blyvoor is certainly an example of how a mine, despite being comprehensively capitalised (R400-million by DRDGold and R160-million by Village Main Reef) can collapse if production is interrupted or compromised.”
Blyvoor should be a lesson, but it doesn’t seem anybody wants to learn