Mining threat to South African vineyards

Controversial plans are afoot to reopen mines underneath some of South Africa’s finest vineyard sites.

The plans could result in estates losing a heavy proportion of their vineyards and have provoked widespread anger and suspicion among the local population.

The African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC), part of the government-owned Central Energy Fund (CEF), has submitted an application to reopen mines spread over the Bottelary Hills region near Stellenbosch and the foot of the Tygerberg in the Durbanville Hills district.

The area at risk covers 4,700 hectares and will affect the De Grendel, Jordan, Saxenberg, Mooiplaas and Zevenwacht estates among others.

Zevenwacht stands to lose 250ha of its 500ha estate if the plan goes through and Jordan estates are set to lose 80ha.

The Bottelary Renosterveld Conservancy, home to many endangered flora and fauna, including the Cape dwarf chameleon, and several housing estates are also at risk.

There are obvious concerns over the impact on the environment and the wine-producing future of the region if the prospecting goes ahead.

Today the Western Cape’s member of the executive council for economic development and tourism, Alan Winde, publicly got behind the winemakers and announced his opposition of the scheme, which his department feared would have a “drastic effect” on the region.

Other departments are set to declare their opposition over the coming days.

Gary Jordan of Jordan Wine Estate called the plans “bizarre” in the wake of all the conservation work that has been carried out in the area.

“When you look at everything that’s been spent setting up the Biodiversity in Wine Institute, when you look at everything that’s gone into setting up conservancies to protect nature and the natural heritage of this area, this just makes a mockery of everything we’ve tried to achieve,” he said.

“We and the government have spent millions on conservation in this area.”

Jordan told the drinks business that he is “not at all confident” in any counter action being successful in the face of this proposal and feared that bulldozers could move in at any time.

The goal of the application is to prospect the mines to see whether or not it is worth fully reopening them, to mine for tin, zinc, lead, lithium, copper, manganese and silver.

The Department for Mineral Resources, which mandates the CEF, would appear to have exempted the AEMFC from many of the normal regulations governing these matters, such as prospecting rights, mining rights and mining permits and fast-tracked their application.

These regulations normally require applicants to submit Environmental Management Programmes and to consult with interested and affected parties.

The AEMFC’s Prospecting Right Application (PRA) states: “AEMFC is required (in writing) to notify the landowners or lawful occupiers and other affected parties of the proposed prospecting activities.”

The PRA was filed on 13 January and proof of public knowledge was supposed to be presented by 12 February.

However, several estates were not aware of the plan until they read about it in their morning papers, in some cases as late as 19 February and an EMP is yet to be submitted.

Jordan said that to this day he has not received any kind of notification from the AEMFC that his land is threatened by the prospecting application.

It was also rumoured that the Western Cape Province government was left in the dark until the last moment.

The apparent irregularities in the procedure have provoked anger among residents in the area as well as deep suspicion of the state’s actions, and has led to a belief in possible ulterior motives behind the move.

The producers plan to meet on Saturday 27 February with other landowners and members of the public from the Kuils River to discuss the threat.

Susan Shabangu, minister for minerals and mining, announced her intention of reducing the turnaround time for mining rights applications from one year to six months and prospecting applications from six to three months as recently as 2 February this year.

Her department is known to be one of the most efficient and a source told db that whereas a passport application could take six months, knowing the right people could get you a mining permit in one.

The miners now must present their EMP by 12 March and members of the public have until 9 March to contest the action.

Rupert Millar, 24.02.2010