LITHIUM mining for batteries is becoming a pillar of South Africa’s plan to harness the global shift to green energy, but faces resistance from farmers fearing the loss of productive land to open-pit mines.
On the southeast coast, where one lithium mine already operates and more than a dozen prospecting licences have been issued since 2023, a coalition of activists is objecting to further prospecting, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The South Coast Guardians Association says it threatens 30,000 jobs in farming, labour and services across the sugar-exporting, tourism-reliant region.
Mines department data reviewed by Reuters shows lithium prospecting licences covering some 73,000 hectares, slightly larger than Pretoria, mostly farmland spanning 117 farms plus stretches of beach. The existing mine covers 150 hectares of pits and 180 of waste dumps, with plans to expand.
“Should all these prospecting licences be granted mining licences, the impact would be catastrophic,” said SCGA general manager Heather McLoed, noting effects on small-scale farmers, their communities and the local sugar mill, which processes two million tons of cane annually.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has valued South Africa’s critical minerals at R40 trillion, calling them a “sunrise industry.”
SA Lithium director Ian Harebottle said the company had relocated 150 farmers, all willingly, and that operations were more than compliant with environmental rules, having created over a thousand jobs. He disputed claims of water contamination, saying none reaches rivers.
