Jagersfontein Developments was ordered to cease its tailings operations in September 2020 by the Free State Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) – but that call was surprisingly reversed in May 2021.
The tailings dam collapse at Jagersfontein in the Free State on 11 September this yr left one individual lifeless and about 300 homeless.
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The dam sits alongside the previous diamond mine owned after which shuttered by De Beers in the Seventies. It was used to retailer mining waste byproducts, but a breach of the dam wall resulted in the close by valley and residences being overwhelmed with mud and waste.
A 2020 research by SRK Consulting analysed a number of potential dam breach situations, together with the chance {that a} breach of the retaining wall would launch all 20 million cubic metres of tailings quantity saved in the dam.
It was anticipated {that a} breach would consequence in tailings materials flowing south-east alongside the pure drainage course, and “could likely impact parts of Jagersfontein as well as the R706 [road]”.
The directive issued to Jagersfontein Developments by the DWS in 2020 notified the mine that it had exceeded the allowable quantity of water for disposal into the tailings dam by almost 70%, and this was in violation of its water use licence.
Source: Free State Department of Water and Sanitation directive issued to Jagersfontein Developments in 2020
As a part of the mining firm’s water use licence circumstances, it was required to “cease to utilize the existing tailings and other waste disposal facilities, [and] compile a decommission plan before 2020 for approval by the department”.
Source: Free State Department of Water and Sanitation directive issued to Jagersfontein Developments in 2020
It is obvious from the DWS correspondence that Jagersfontein Developments resisted the directive, arguing that it could have adverse financial impacts on the encompassing space.
The division fired again: “In the rejection of your representations, the department has indicated to you that Jagersfontein Developments’ attempt to burden the department with the responsibility for [imminent] job losses is unfair given that it is the lack of adequate planning and blatant non-compliance with the condition of the [licence] that has placed all parties in a precarious situation.”
Despite ordering the mine to cease disposing of waste into the tailings dam and to cease utilizing water from the location for mineral processing, that call seems to have been overturned just some months later, in accordance to environmental class motion legal professional Richard Spoor.
The DWS directive notified the mine that it might attraction its resolution on the Water Tribunal, primarily based in Pretoria.
“But on 31 May 2021 the DWS reversed their decision and allowed the mine to continue using the dump,” says Spoor.
Jagersfontein Developments was required to deal with dam security considerations raised in the SRK Consulting report and compile an emergency preparedness plan. The firm reportedly submitted proof to the DWS that the dam was steady.
Director-general in the Free State Office of the Premier, Kopung Ralikontsane, mentioned the provincial authorities had, two years in the past, issued directions to Jagersfontein to stabilise the partitions of the tailings dam or cease operations – which might have averted the catastrophe.
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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) mentioned the Jagersfontein tragedy evokes recollections of the February 1994 Merriespruit tailings dam disaster, additionally in the Free State, in which 17 folks have been killed and 80 homes destroyed. On that event, extreme rainfall was blamed for the tailings dam failure.
Spoor says he wouldn’t be stunned if class motion lawsuits observe the Jagersfontein tailings catastrophe, given the size of the harm and variety of folks affected.
