[miningmx.com] – It will cost approximately R8 billion to treat water contaminated by acid mine drainage over the long term according to Marius Keet, senior manager at the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).
Keet, who was part of a delegation that briefed parliament on Wednesday on the extent of the state’s liability for environmental damage caused by acid mine drainage, said that emergency measures, whereby water is diluted but not completely purified through desalination, would amount to R2,6 billion.
He said government is considering a number of funding options to deal with the water purification process, including expanding the current mines’ contributions towards pumps, shafts and waste facilities.
To date, mines in the Western basin have funded R50 million towards rehabilitation operations, while the Central and Eastern basins have funded R465 million and R100 million, respectively.
The government is also considering alternative funding vehicles for the future such as increasing water tariffs to make provision for rehabilitation of acidic water; reselling the bulk of reclaimed mine water back to mines and selling mine water treatment by-products, such as gypsum and metal-rich sludge.
Rofhiwa Singo, chief financial officer at the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) told members of the mining oversight committee that the cost to close derelict and ownerless mines was estimated at R45,1bn at the end of March 2015.
The DMR made use of the Matlotlo Group to perform the valuation estimate of rehabilitation. “The minimum would be R50 000 per hectare, and the maximum would amount to R25 million,’ she said.
“The department, with the limited financial resources at our disposal, is currently exploring other avenues to properly manage derelict and ownerless mines, and henceforth the new mining owners will have to take on rehabilitation liabilities,’ Singo said.
During question time ANC MP Mandla Mandela said it was not acceptable that government needed to cough up R45bn for the rehabilitation of derelict mines. “These funds should have come from the mining houses and they should have addressed them on their own. Now we have to clean up companies that haven’t held their end of the bargain. Some of these companies must be traceable.’
DA MP Hendrik Schmidt commented that mines were already paying tax and royalties. “Rehabilitation (of acid mine water) will always be a shared responsibility between mining companies and government.
“At some point – it may be in a hundred years’ – time mining companies will cease to exist. Nothing lasts forever’ he said.
