The fight against illegal mining continues
Laing said they changed their strategy to curb illegal mining.
The fight against illegal mining was continued again last week when Roodepoort Police used their resources to fill up at least 15 excavation sites around Matholesville and Durban Deep.
Colonel André Laing said the never-ending battle bore fruit during last week’s operation.
“We placed letters at each of the sites to inform the illegal miners when the operations will be taking place. Some of the miners either didn’t get the letter, or chose to ignore it because two men were arrested when we found them inside an excavation site.”
Laing said at that site 350 tons of crushed rock were used to fill up the hole, known as the Apartheid hole. “On Thursday 29 October at least 13 holes were filled at the Marie Louise dumping site. That is Basuto territory.”
An inside look at illegal mining
Six smaller holes between Randfontein Road and Van Wyk Street and between Matumi and Gustav Street were filled as well. “This includes an excavation site behind Cresswell Park. We found the Engidi Hostel site had been opened up again,” Laing said.
He added that one of the holes at the Marie Louise dumping site were so deep they struggled to fill it. “We tipped 320 tons of crushed stone into it but we could hear the rock tumbling down. We then decided to uproot four blue gum trees and dumped it in roots first. A 25-ton truck dumped another 14 truckloads and an additional five 10-ton trucks also helped to fill it up. We then instructed Pikitup to dump garden and household rubble and then closed the hole with cement slabs. I know we were successful in closing that excavation site.”
Laing said they changed their strategy to curb illegal mining. “If we can eliminate phase one in the mining process – when the men collect rock – we will be more successful because then they cannot continue with phase two to four.”
During a cross-border operation in Matholesville, various illegal mining equipment were seized. That included two penduka stands, three 14kg gas cylinders, two cutting torches, seven pendukas, 21 crushing pots, 22 crushing poles, five hammers, two knives, two chisels, 56 iron bars, five spades, four 20-litre buckets of gold concentrate, one 20-litre bucket of crushed stones and one 20-litre bucket of rocks.
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Also read: Police continues fighting illegal mining
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