Mantashe said that according to the judgment: “The slime dam belongs to the mine, not the department, and therefore at the time it said De Beers. But we’re here - and we’re going to be part of the teams that work on this disaster.
“Somebody who is mischievous can sue us for contempt of court. Mantashe added that this wouldn’t stop his department from now getting involved. Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe negotiates a puddle of mud during his visit to Charlesville in Jagersfontein on 13 September 2022.
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Mantashe said the Free State was an old gold mining area with many tailings dams, and to allow the jurisdiction of these dams to fall under the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), which happened after the judgment, was “a risk into a mining activity”. He said the DMRE had raised this issue with the Minerals Council South Africa, which he hoped would take it up with his department to change the decision of the judiciary, “because it’s dangerous”. Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe assesses the damage to a house during his visit to Charlesville, Jagersfontein on 13 September 2022. He said that classifying tailings dams as not a mine was a mistake and the judgment reflected judicial overreach. “My own interpretation is that that judgement reflects the lack of understanding of mining as a value chain, because you can’t fragment mining,” Mantashe told the media. Mantashe said this judgment meant all tailings dams in South Africa fall outside the jurisdiction of the DMRE and the MPRDA, and just by being there on Tuesday, the DMRE “is running the risk of being in contempt of court”.
Tailings dumps or mines often contain large amounts of minerals that can be extracted, extending the economic lifespan of a mining operation.ĭe Beers won the 2007 court case, and the court held that tailings dumps are movables and thus ownership belongs to those who removed the minerals as they had occurred naturally in or on the earth, and the MPRDA could not control tailings dumps created before the act was created in 2002. The tailings dam is now classified as a processing facility and is owned by Jagersfontein Developments (JD), a unit of the Dubai-based Stargems Group. The collapsed tailings dam (where byproducts of mining operations are stored) is adjacent to what used to be the Jagersfontein diamond mine, which was shut down in the 1970s by its then owners, De Beers. Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe visited Charlesville in Jagersfontein after the tragedy. The case dealt with the questions of whether the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002 deprived De Beers of the ownership of the minerals in its tailings dumps, and if the DMRE had the authority to grant prospecting or mining rights in tailings dumps created before 2002. Mantashe was referring to the judgment in 2007 by the Free State High Court in the matter of De Beers v Ataqua Mining and the DMRE.
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