ConCourt bars nature reserve mining

Nature conservation and geology are the biggest winners after the Constitutional Court upheld a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal, which dismissed a mining company’s application to prospect for gold in a nature reserve. City Press reports that the hallmark decision effectvely prohibits mining in protected areas and gives a bite to the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 57 of 2003. Barberton Mines, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Pan African Resources, is already producing 150 000 ounces of gold per year in its three mines – Fairview, Sheba and Consort – and operates a gold tailings retreatment plant in Mpumalanga’s gold-rich Barberton area. The mining company wanted to extend its operations into the 27 808.5-hectare Barberton Nature Reserve after the Department of Mineral Resources granted it a prospecting permit in 2006, but the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and Mountainlands Estate Owners’ Association objected by lodging an appeal with the department which dismissed it in 2012. In 2015, the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) granted the mining company an interdict in 2015 to prevent the agency and the association from denying it access to prospect in the area. The SCA ruled against the mining firm in March last year.