Public Hearings on Acid Mine Drainage

1
Public Hearings on Acid Mine Drainage

• Nikisi Lesufi
• Stephinah Mudau
• Chamber of Mines of SA

2
Chamber of Mines

• Voluntary private sector organization
• Membership based
• Mining still critical to RSAs economy
• Key player in employment creation
• Social license to operate

3
Background to legacy of acid mine drainage

• Over a century of mining different stages of
  development and maturity
• Dynamic environment - role players/policies/legis
  lation keep changing
• Environmental impacts of abandoned, ownerless
  and legacy sites (including acid mine drainage)

4
Legislative framework water management in the
mining sector

• MPRDA primary instrument regulating mining in
  the RSA
• Approved EMP and Mine Closure Plan
• National Water Act
• Authorisation of water use
• NEMA and specific acts
• Biodiversity and environment conservation
• Site specific obligations of authorisation
  holders

5
Responsibilities for Water Management

• Mine Water Management
• Ownerless and derelict mine sites
• - responsible party is the State
• Authorisation holders impacted by extraneous
  water
• - authorisation holder with State assistance
• Authorisation holders
• - sole responsibility
• Explore opportunities for cooperation, i.e PPP

6
CoM Initiatives in water resources management in
the mining sector

• Prevention of future negative legacies
• CoM/DWA formal liaison engagements
• Best Practice Guidelines
• Water Conservation and Demand Management
• Individual companies implementing the regulatory
  requirements i.e NWA, MPRDA etc
• Initiatives in response to IMC report
• Technical input into DWA implementation processes

7
Approaches to Water Management

• Forward looking approaches
• Current active operations
• Funded from working capital
• Reduce future footprint
• (e.g. Emalahleni, and individual company
  initiatives)
• Management of Legacies
• State assistance to mines impacted by extraneous
  water
• State responsibility for derelict and ownerless
  sites

8
Conclusions

• Innovative approaches to legacy sites
• Search for win-win solutions
• e.gWUC proposal,
• Regulatory flexibility
• Improved environmental performance
• Mining companies
• Monitoring and enforcement - State
• Obligations of gov depts to cooperate and align
  regulatory process
• end