Xolobeni project to be frozen by Mantashe owing to ‘social climate’

SOUTH African mines minister, Gwede Mantashe, intends to stop the progress of a mining application for the controversial Xolobeni titanium mine situated in the ecologically sensitive peninsula of the country’s ‘Wild Coast’ in the Eastern Cape province.

Citing a government gazette published on August 3, BusinessLive said Mantashe would not only freeze progress on an existing mining application from Transworld Energy & Mineral Resources — an Australian company seeking to mine titanium along the Wild Coast — but will also block any new applications from being lodged.

The moratorium was in response to “… the social and political climate at Xolobeni”, and the “significant social disintegration and highly volatile nature of the current situation in the area,” said BusinessLive citing Mantashe in the gazette. Stakeholders were invited to submit their presentations on the moratorium to the Department of Mineral Resources in writing within 21 days, the newspaper said.