The end of the production life of the gold mining industry and the failure of the regulatory environment over the past century to adequately plan for a postmining future, along with a transition to a water-constrained national economy are the key drivers that are contributing to the environmental disaster caused by mining that is unfolding in Johannesburg, trustee of the Water Stewardship Council of Southern Africa Dr Anthony Turton tells Mining Weekly.

He notes that these drivers are simultaneously converging in a predictable pattern, and government’s capacity to respond seems to be the weakest it has been since 1994, adding that Johannesburg is at the epicentre of a slow onset disaster, as, he believes, it is the most uranium-contaminated city in the world.

“What is generally not known to the public is that a staggering 40% of the gold produced on the planet in all of recorded history comes from the Witwatersrand goldfields,” he says.

Turton explains that the discovery of gold in 1886 changed the trajectory of the South African economy forever, triggering the second Anglo Boer War and a scorched-earth policy. He says this process created a civil service and a legal system designed to increase profits from mining by externalising all environmental and social liabilities.

“It is now those environmental and social liabilities, so skillfully externalised for more than a century, removed from the balance sheets of all mining houses, that are about to become constraints to the future social and economic wellbeing of a young nation.”

He cites that many people are not aware that, for every ton of gold that has been mined in the Witwatersrand goldfields, between 10 t and 100 t of uranium are also removed.

“This means that for most of the life of gold mining operations, uranium had no commercial value, so it was simply discarded as waste into the tailings dams,” he says.

Turton stresses that the reason an environmental and social catastrophe is imminent is the presence of uranium.

“There is a staggering 430 000 t of uranium that has been discarded in the combined mine dumps of the Witwatersrand goldfields, all of which will again be mobilised as soon as the few remaining gold mining companies still active become insolvent,” he explains.

He adds that the assumption underpinning the safe management of any tailings disposal facility (TDF) is the constant need to maintain the shape of the structure using mechanical loaders and bulldozers.

Turton notes that if a mine does not have any cash flow because it is insolvent, the first casualty is often the TDF, which succumbs to the natural forces of erosion of wind and water in a matter of days.

“This also means that, as soon as these remaining companies cease to be viable, there is no effective strategy in place to prevent the dumps they manage from collapsing and releasing their hazardous contents into the environment.”

He mentions that, as insufficient capital has been set aside by a mine for rehabilitation post-closure, there will still not be enough money to avert a disaster, even if a third party tries to help.

“This will mean that a government without technical capacity will need to manage a complex problem without the necessary means, forcing a significant taxation on an increasingly unwilling population.”

Turton concludes that this is a significant risk, which is generally not appreciated by environmental nongovernmental organisations active in the mining sector.