The calls made for mine land and mine water to be used for community development through agriculture need to be heeded.

The latest comes from new Exxaro CEO Mxolisi Mgojo, who described as “vast” the tracts of land and water resources held by mining companies. As a result, Exxaro itself is giving consideration to agriculture becoming part of its mandatory social and labour plans.

Gold mining company Sibanye, headed by CEO Neal Froneman, is already rolling out an impressive approach to ensuring that, when mining ceases at its operations on the West Wits in 30 to 40 years’ time, it will leave a vibrant agricultural economy, which is at this incipient stage already employing 640 people.

Mining Weekly was part of a media and analyst contingent that earlier this year witnessed the cultivation of vegetables by the West Wits community, who are already benefiting from the on-sale of verdant greens to the Spar retail group.

The late visionary research commentator, Dr RE (Robbie) Robinson, a chemical engineer with distinguished involvement in mineral beneficiation spanning more than 60 years, had a passion for linking mining and agriculture in a multitude of ways.

His zero-cost mine water plan for the now stricken Grootvlei gold mine would have given gainful agricultural employment to 7 000 informal settlement dwellers on Gauteng’s East Rand had it not been rejected in the mid-1990s by the Department of Water Affairs. The costly alter- native chosen by the department turned out to be a dismal failure.

“Every other day, you get communities toyi-toyiing at your mine gate, demanding things that you can’t give them . . . yet mining companies are sitting with land and water,” Mgojo told Mining Weekly at a media meet last week.

While he did so, major South African companies, including some big mining names, were preparing to announce, in full-page advertisements in the Sunday media, that they had succeeded in raising R1.5-billion for South Africa’s new small and medium-sized enterprise development (SME) fund aimed at generating jobs and building new local economies.

The use of mine-based agriculture and related business could well be incorporated into such development envisaged by the new SA SME Fund, which will hopefully gain traction fast.

Robinson regularly recalled how the now defunct Johannesburg Consolidated Investments (JCI) ran a highly profitable fruit growing, packaging and exporting business on mine land and how JCI also had a chemicals company that used ion-exchange technology to neutralise acid mine drainage (AMD) and recover minerals for sale.

The Tavland fruit-orchard scheme JCI established at its then Western Areas mine, near Carletonville, employed 10 000 people from the surrounding areas.

“They made a fortune,” Robinson recalled in a video interview, which is still available for viewing on Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online.
Robinson estimated the generation of R300 000/ha a year.

Against that background, more steps should be taken to ensure that the vast tracts of mine land and the availability of water from mines are put to good use for the benefit of as many people as possible as soon as possible.