A working relationship needs to be established over the new mega mine dump being built in the Fochville area.
A meeting was held on July 11 at Crocodilian Restaurant between farmers and other concerned residents from the area as well as representatives of Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR), which is responsible for building the slimes dam.
The meeting was facilitated by the well-known environmentalist, Mariette Liefferink.
Liefferink indicated that although the project has already received all the necessary government approvals, the community had the right to talk to the developers about their fears and frustrations. She noted that the planned slimes storage facility was actually being built to improve environmental issues in the West Rand as the mine tailings from other older facilities that hold more danger due to being built on dolomite where sinkholes can form, will be reworked and stored at the new dam.
The new dam will also be lined.
A consultant for the project, Greg Ovens, explained that among other essential authorisations from government, the Environmental Authorizations (EA) for the project was already approved on May 11, 2018. The EA was transferred from Sibanye-Stillwater, which started the project, to FWGR in January 2022. The Water Use License (WUL) for the project was, for instance, also already approved on March 5, 2021.
After many of the farmers present indicated that they had not been part of the public participation in the project, Ovens stressed that as he was not involved in the original Sibanye-Stillwater project, he will have to access all the original documentation and bring it along at a follow-up assembly.
“We are really concerned that the dust from the slimes dam will blow to our farms and poison our animals,” one of the farmers complained. Several others expressed the fear that the new dump will make their farms unusable for food production in the future. Others raised concerns that the dump might draw illegal miners to the area.
The farmers agreed that follow-up meetings will have to be held, most probably on a regular basis, to develop a relationship from which both parties could benefit.
